Only when booked via the Capital One Travel Portal; otherwise earn 1.25X miles per dollar.
Only when booked via the Capital One Travel Portal; otherwise earn 1.25X miles per dollar.
Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.
The no-annual-fee VentureOne Rewards Card is almost identical to the $95 per year Capital One Venture card with two major differences: It earns 1.25x miles per dollar on most purchases (while the Venture earns 2x), and it has less of a generous sign up bonus.
With the ability to transfer miles to travel partners or use miles to cover the cost of whatever travel charges you wish — along with a simple rewards structure — the VentureOne card is a decent no-annual-fee option. On the earnings front, Capital One miles are pretty much as easy as it gets. You’ll earn rewards at a rate of 1.25X miles per dollar spent on pretty much everything, with 5X miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. That’s a bit lower than many other cards on the market, but on the flip side, many of those cards don’t offer the ability to outright transfer rewards to airlines and hotels, either.
Capital One’s redemption process is similar to other programs, such as Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, with transferable points often providing a higher value for your travel rewards. Some high-value ways to use Capital One miles include redeeming with Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, and Virgin Red (redeem miles for Virgin Voyages and Virgin Atlantic). For simplicity’s sake, you can also book travel however you want, then redeem miles for a statement credit for some or all of the cost. Miles are worth a flat 1 cent apiece when redeemed this way — and there’s no minimum redemption amount.
On top of all of that, there’s a respectable array of travel and purchase protections (similar to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card but not nearly as robust as the $395-per-year Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card).
This card is really best suited for those that are adamant about not paying an annual fee, want the flexibility to redeem their rewards for cash back, airline miles, or hotel points, and have no desire to be charged pesky foreign transaction fees when they travel abroad.
One “trick” worth knowing is that Capital One allows you to combine from a cash back card to another cash back card or from a cash back card to a miles card. So you could, for example, have both this card and a SavorOne card (with multipliers for dining and entertainment) and then combine your cash from the SavorOne to your VentureOne miles. They would convert at one point per cent.
Lastly, how might you decide between the Venture and the VentureOne when the Venture has an annual fee of $95, but earns 2X miles per dollar vs. 1.25 miles per dollar on the VentureOne?
The calculation is that at roughly $12,500 in annual spend, you would be better off, even with the $95 annual fee, with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card as the additional rewards earned become more than the annual fee.
Earn this multiplier when you purchase via the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. If you purchase any other way, you will earn 1X points.
Earn this multiplier when you purchase via the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. If you purchase any other way, you will earn 1X points.
Earn this multiplier when you purchase via the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. If you purchase any other way, you will earn 1X points.
Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.
This is a primary card in the Chase Trifecta, which includes a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, a Chase Freedom Unlimited, and this card, the Chase Freedom Flex. You’ll earn 3% on dining and drugstore purchases with the Freedom Flex. But whereas the Freedom Unlimited gives you 1.5% cash back on other spend categories, The Flex earns only 1%. That is because it has the rotating 5% bonus categories.
The rotating bonus categories each quarter can be fantastic. Amazon is a popular choice, meaning you’d earn 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points ($75) if you spent $1,500 during that quarter.
Since the Chase Freedom Flex is a pure cash back credit card unless you also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® with which to combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s ideally used as part of a combo.
When you hold one of these premium Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards, you can transfer points earned on the Freedom Flex to the premium card. Once you’ve moved the Ultimate Rewards over to the premium credit card, you can take advantage of points transfers to 12 Chase airline and hotel partners or book travel through the travel portal.
Best of all, you can accrue cash back on this card and decide to add a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® later on – if you suddenly decide that you’d like to delve into the world of credit card rewards that transfer to frequent flyer and hotel programs to book free award flights and hotel nights.
If you book through the travel portal and have a Sapphire Reserve, your points redeem for 1.5 cents each, meaning that you earn 1.5X points or cash back per dollar and redeem them for 1.5X, giving you an effective 2.25% return on your spend.
If you book through the travel portal and have a Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred, your points redeem for 1.25 cents each, meaning that you earn 1.5X per dollar and redeem for 1.5X, giving you an effective 1.875% return on your spend.
But our absolute favorite way to redeem is always via airline and hotel transfer partners. The easiest high-value redemption is usually Hyatt. We often get better than 2 cents per World of Hyatt point. Keep in mind that Hyatt doesn’t charge any resort fees when you stay on a free night award. So let’s say you are looking at a hotel with a cash price of $259 and a $25 a night resort fee and 8% tax. That would come to $307 a night. But if that same room costs 8,000 or 12,000 Hyatt points, you could be using your points (which transfer at an even 1:1 ratio to all airline and hotel partners) with a rate of return of 3 – 4 cents.
To be clear, if you don’t also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred®, the rewards earned with the Chase Freedom Flex are purely cash back rewards.
That said, even without a card combo, it’s still a solid card to earn cash back, including 3% on dining , including takeout and eligible delivery services, and drugstores) since it has no annual fee.
The Chase Freedom Flex credit card comes with a solid range of benefits for a card with no annual fee. You’ll get Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty on the shopping side and you’ll be taken care of on canceled or shortened pre-paid trips if a covered reason arises. with the included Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance.