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.
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 Citi Double Cash® Card isn’t a card loaded with features and benefits.
But it has one killer feature that makes the card a must-have for nearly everyone and that’s the simple fact that it earns 2% cash back on all of your everyday purchases. Technically, you earn 1% when you spend and 1% when you pay, but semantics aside, you’re earning 2% cash back on absolutely all eligible purchases.
And before we forget, it also comes with a pretty amazing intro offer for balance transfers, as outlined in the Key Facts at the top of the page.
You don’t have to think about bonus categories with this credit card. The answer to “what will I earn here” is always 2%.
Just one caveat: the Double Cash does not come with many expected benefits, like extended warranty or purchase protection. For those reasons, you may want to use another card for high value merchandise purchases.
That said, why is it a must have credit card for nearly everyone? Three reasons:
1) There is no consumer credit card issued by a major bank that earns a higher % of cash back with no annual fee. None.
2) You can use this as your one credit card if you are completely averse to using multiple credit cards (although you’ll need to be aware of the foreign transaction fees charged if you travel internationally). But even better is to use this as your “default” card. What I mean by that is you may have a card that earns 4X on dining and groceries and another that earns 3% on drugstores, but that’s it. What about an insurance payment? What about daycare?
On most other credit cards, if you aren’t spending in a bonus category, you only earn 1X or 1% back. For example, the Citi Premier Card pays 3X in certain categories (Air/Hotel, Gas, Restaurants and Supermarkets) and 1X in everything else. So you can “Double Up” by having both cards.
The Citi Double Cash card earns 2X Thank You® points on everything. If your purchase is in a Citi Premier card bonus category, go ahead and make the purchase with your Citi Premier card. If it’s in any other category, make the purchase with your Double Cash card. That way, you’ll get one percent when you make the purchase and another percent when you pay it. With a Double Cash card in your pocket, you can always take it out when you have no bonus category available, ensuring that you never, ever earn less than 2% back on any purchases.
3) While you’ll earn cash back rewards with this card, it earns it as ThankYou® points. If you only have the Double Cash alone, that keeps things simple. It’s cash! You can cash out as a statement credit, via direct deposit to your bank account, or by check.
In that case, once again, you simply pair this card with a Citi Premier credit card. That would allow you to pool all of your ThankYou® points together and, because of the Premier, you’ll unlock access to all of the transfer options listed below, the best kind of credit card rewards:
Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners | Transfer Ratio | Approximate Transfer Time * |
---|---|---|
AeroMexico | 1:1 | Generally instant |
Air France Flying Blue | 1:1 | Instant |
Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 | Instant. |
Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles | 1:1 | Instant |
Etihad Guest | 1:1 | Instant |
Emirates | 1:! | Instant |
Eva Air | 1:1 | ~1-3 days |
Jet Airways InterMiles | 1:1 | Instant |
JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 | Instant |
Malaysia Airlines Enrich | 1:1 | ~1-7 days |
Qantas | 1:1 | Instant to 1 day |
Qatar Privilege Club | 1:1 | ~2 days |
Singapore Airlines | 1:1 | ~1-2 days |
Thai Orchid Plus | 1:1 | ~3-7 days |
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | 1-2 days |
Virgin Atlantic | 1:1 | Instant to 2 days |
Hotels | ||
Choice Hotels | 1:2 (Citi Prestige / Premier / Chairman cards) 1:1.5 (No fee Citi ThankYou cards) | Instant |
Wyndham Rewards | 1:1 (Citi Prestige / Premier / Chairman cards) 1:0.8 (No fee Citi ThankYou cards) | TBD |
Leaders Club | 5:1 | TBD |
Preferred Hotels and Resorts "I Prefer" | 1:4 | TBD |
Accor Live Limitless | 1:0.5 | TBD |
What are some of the ways you can use Citi ThankYou® points for outsized value with a Citi Premier?
We outline all of that on the Citi Premier card page, since that is the card that unlocks these features. Please take a look at the Citi Premier review for everything you need to know about using Citi ThankYou® points.
The Citi Trifecta: Add the Citi Premier and then a Citi Rewards+ Card for a 10% Points Rebate
You can make your Citi Premier and Citi Double Cash rewards combo even more rewarding if you add in a no-annual fee Citi Rewards+ card.
Each calendar year, Citi will rebate back 10% of the first 100,000 ThankYou® Points that you spend, so you can get back up to 10,000 points per year Best of all, it isn’t tied in any way to your spending on the card. Just having it in your profile and linked to the same ThankYou account will ensure that you get the rebate.
Citi won’t approve more than 2 cards in a 60-day period, although we recommend 65 days, just to be safe. This means that if you decide to apply for the Double Cash and combo with a Citi Premier and Citi Rewards+ card, you’ll have to pick one to wait and apply for on Day 66. We’d recommend getting the Rewards+ last, since the benefits are when you redeem.
The Citi Double Cash is quite simply a card that should be in 99% of wallets. The 2% cash back on everything (1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bill), with no annual fee, is too good to pass up, even if you are using it in conjunction with other credit cards to maximize your bonus categories – as you should be!