re: Credit Card Question

I thought capital one venture card was best for rewards for travel ???

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I thought capital one venture card was best for rewards for travel ???

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"Best" is a relative term when it comes to cards. It comes down to what you are trying to do. Capital One is a fixed value card so 1 point = 1 cent no matter what. Therefore, 10,000 Capital One "Miles" (which aren't miles but points) are worth $100.00.

Now this is all well and good when you want to book a $300 flight for 30,000 points, but it isn't as good a "value" (however you define that) when tickets get expensive. For example, a roundtrip ticket to Europe is 65,000 points through United and its Star Alliance partners at the Saver Economy level. NO MATTER WHAT(some fuel surcharges may apply, but lets keep it simple), that ticket is going to cost you the 65,000 UR points that you can convert into 65,000 United Miles to fly. Even if the ticket costs $2,000 dollars. That SAME ticket purchased using Capital One "Miles" would cost you 200,000 points.

Now, that doesn't mean fixed value cards don't have a place. They can be very good for buying one off hotels or if you are budget traveler buying cheap airfare only. But Capital One is no longer the best card in its market segment in my opinion, and has recently been surpassed by Barclays. This card does what Cap One does with 2X points on every purchase. BUT, when you redeem those points you get 10% back, so its really 2.2X points on every purchase. Not only that, but that signup bonus is currently 40,000 points as c0mpared to 10,000 to Cap One. Further, Barclays allows for partial redemption in 20,000/25k point blocks (not sure right now). Capital One does not have partial redemption. If you don't have enough points to cover the full cost of your expense, you can't use your miles. However, this card is more difficult to get than the Cap One and carries a fee that is $89 compared to Cap One's $59.

Hope that helped a little.

No problem, mate.

Having great credit and being financially responsible can open up some truly great experiences. You can find more information on sites such as flyertalk, or blogs found on boarding area or thepointsguy.com, stuff like that.

It isn't all bad! Once you kick in 2x points on every purchase, it catches up a bit. That's only 5k in purchases. The points are hard to compare, but you'd have to purchase more than that to get ten thousand UR points unless all your purchases are bonus categories.
At lower point levels you could argue it's competitive. Of course, to build up those points you aren't using your other card so it's a trade off.

I think the Barclay's card is worth it to have at least to get the bonus and it's clearly better than capital one.

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I went with this one. Thanks for your help.

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$400 right off the bat isn't bad. Where ya heading?

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Next April is my 10 year anniversary.

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Nice.

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I want to go to an island and my wife wants to go to Disneyworld with no kids.

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You might not make 10.

I vote island. That should help your case. "Random dude on internet agrees with me, discussion over."

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Teddy, I just went with this one. Did I mess up and not choose wisely? I do that a lot!

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I'm not going to tell you that you messed up, especially since my experience with Amex Membership Rewards is lacking. I have the Amex SPG, but those accrue Starpoints instead.


In any event, here's a quote about the card from The Points Guy blog (Highly recommend) where he talks about the Top 10 Credit cards he uses. If any of this sounds good to you and applies, feel better about yourself.

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4. Amex Premier Rewards Gold: Although this card currently only comes with a sign-up bonus of 25,000 points when you spend $2,000 in 3 months, it has a few other valuable benefits that make it one of the cards I use the most. First, it has some lucrative category spending bonuses including 3X points per $1 on airfare (4X if you book through Amex travel), and 2X on gas and groceries – those are three major spending categories in any household (and airfare is especially a big one for me for obvious reasons) so racking up bonus points happens fast. Not only that, but when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year, Amex gives you a 15,000-point bonus, essentially giving you a 50% bonus on your spending. One other benefit I enjoy? Cardholders receive a $75 hotel credit and room upgrade at check-in when you book a minimum 2-night consecutive stay with the Gold Hotel Collection.

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Top 10 cards in his wallet

However, there was a targeted 50,000 bonus offer two weeks ago: LINK

See if Amex will let you earn that bonus. Give them a call and see.

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This is my first AMEX card and I was surprised at how helpful and nice the customer service was.

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I haven't had to talk to them much, if ever, but they always get awards/plenty of forum posts about their quality there. Its nice they are like that if you need it.

I don't understand why one would choose an airline/hotel card over something like amex blue cash/chase sapphire/capital one venture. seems like most airline cards only give you 1% back whereas I get at least 3-6% with the blue cash rewards. I can use the cash back on airline tickets, hotels, cash towards my bill, or whatever I want.

I say go with the card that gives you the most points per dollar. just my 2 cents

eta: also look for a card that gives you the most points up front.