Capital One Venture X vs. Bilt Rewards Mastercard: Which is Better?

The Capital One Venture X and the Bilt Rewards Mastercard

Which of these cards is right for you?

If you're in the market for a new credit card and enjoy earning rewards on your everyday spending, two options that may have caught your eye are the Capital One Venture X and the Bilt Rewards Mastercard. These cards are some of the most hyped on the credit card market, with all the blogs and Youtubers shouting them out—and frankly, for understandable reasons.

Both cards offer enticing perks and benefits, but there are key differences between them that can dramatically affect which card is the right one to hold. Therefore, to help you understand what makes these cards so exciting, we’ll discuss the benefits and drawbacks to help you decide which one is the best fit for your lifestyle and financial goals.

First, let’s start by going over the basics of each of the cards:

Capital One Venture X

The Capital One Venture X VISA card

Background

The Capital One Venture X VISA card is one of the premier travel cards on the market—and also one of the best looking! While it’s a relatively new entrant to the credit card scene, only arriving in 2022, it has been Capital One’s most successful travel card yet, breaking away from some of the skepticism that came with the older Venture and VentureOne (which never competed with the top travel cards).

The aim of the Venture X (and its key value proposition) is to provide a simple travel card that you can put all your expenses on, and in return, get easy-to-use point rewards and travel benefits. While the annual fee for the Venture X is a steep $395, there are many benefits and credits that allow you to make up a lot of that spending, and if you use the card correctly, you can make the annual fee essentially $0!

Spending Rewards & Sign-Up Bonus

Unlike most of the travel cards out there that give varying reward miles/points based on the category of item you’re buying, the Venture X card gives a flat 2x miles on ALL spending. Plus, if you’re a fan of booking through travel portals, you can get 10x miles on hotels and rental cars and 5x miles on travel when you use Capital One Travel.

Recommended Article: Capital One Credit Card Tier List

As well, the Venture X has a great sign-on bonus, giving you 75,000 Capital One Miles after you spend $4,000 on the card within the first 3 months of opening the account; this is worth a minimum of ~$750 for travel through the Capital One portal, and can be worth even more when transferred to travel partners.

Additionally, you get a free 10,000-point bonus every year of holding the card, starting on the day of your first card anniversary. While Capital One Miles aren’t the most valuable credit card points you can earn, this is still a great perk and help offset more of the card’s annual fee.

Other Benefits

The biggest benefit of the Venture X card is its annual travel credit: all cardholders get $300 of travel covered every year when booked through the Capital One travel portal, making the effective annual fee of this card only $95 from the credit alone! As well, the card gives a $100 credit towards a TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry application once every four years.

If you enjoy going to travel lounges at airports, you’re in luck! The Venture X card gives you unlimited complimentary access to all Capital One lounges (located largely in Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, and Washington DC) as well as a Priority Pass membership.

Now that we’ve covered the Venture X, let’s look at the BILT card.

Wells Fargo BILT Rewards Card

The BILT Rewards Mastercard from Wells Fargo

Background

The BILT Rewards Credit Card has been making waves in the credit card scene over the past few years, and for good reason: this card lets you earn points on all rent payments, without any of the normal fees!

With almost every other card out there, you either are unable to earn points on your rent payments or you have to fork over massive fees in order to use a credit card; however, the BILT Mastercard has a special system that allows you to enter your payments towards rent into BILT’s portal. Instead of you sending money to your landlord, Bilt/Wells Fargo makes the payment directly to your landlord on your behalf, all with no fees!

In addition to using the BILT card for rent, some cardholders have managed to use the BILT payment system for a wide variety of things, including utilities and utility bills! While your mileage may vary with these additional items, the possibility of using the fee-less payments for other spending areas is a major bonus.

To top it off, you get all of these benefits for no annual fee, making it one of the most unique cards you can get.

Spending Rewards & Sign-Up Bonus

The BILT Mastercard gives you 1x points on your rent, plus anything else you can find a way to use the BILT system for (e.g., utilities, HOA fees, etc.).

However, in addition to those point earnings, you also get 3x points on dining, 2x points on all forms of travel, and 1x Bilt points for spending on everything else. Between rent payments, travel, dining, and miscellaneous spending, it is super easy to rack up BILT points quickly! Unfortunately, Bilt does not currently offer a sign-up bonus of any sort, so you’ll need to spend to get all your points. If BILT ever does add a sign-up bonus, it would likely be at the expense of adding an annual fee.

Other Benefits

The BILT Mastercard also provides a few additional benefits that make the card even more valuable. Firstly, all the BILT points you earn can be transferred to an exceptional variety of hotel and airline partners. Some of the more notable ones on this transfer partner list include some of the following:

Hyatt Hotels: Arguably the best hotel transfer partner out there, with easy redemptions at luxury all-inclusive resorts for shockingly few points. We’ve used Hyatt points to stay at some of the best hotels in the world, including Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, Park Hyatt Kyoto (which is hard to book even with points), Carmel Valley Ranch, and Hyatt Centric Ginza!

American Airlines: Great for the USA, but also has a partnership with British Airways which means you can travel worldwide with your AA points! Shockingly, Bilt is the only credit card point transfer partner of American Airlines, which boosts the value of the card for any frequent fliers of American Airlines.

Turkish Airlines: Is part of the Star Alliance (which includes United Airlines), and has some of the best flights to certain destinations in Europe.

However, in addition to transferring your BILT points to partners, BILT lets you use your points to save on your rent or even contribute to a down payment on a house! We can guarantee that no other credit card out there gives you that level of flexibility with your points, and both renters and non-renters alike can therefore benefit from the BILT Rewards Mastercard.

Suggested Article: Combine Chase UR Points and BILT Points

Venture X or Bilt Rewards?

So, now that we’ve gone over the basics of each card, which is going to be the right travel card for you?

To start, if rent and similar payments are your biggest source of spending, then the Bilt Rewards card will likely make more sense for you. Not only does the BILT card allow you to earn points for all your rent spending (unlike the Venture X), but it also offers bonus spending rewards on travel and dining, which tend to be where people spend the most money. Since Capital One Miles and BILT Reward points are valued somewhat similarly (with BILT points worth just slightly more on average), if you’re paying rent, the BILT Rewards Mastercard can easily be a valuable addition for you.

On the other hand, if you own your housing, the BILT card is going to provide far less initial value, even if you are able to use it for things like HOA payments or utilities. In this case, the Capital One Venture X is likely going to return more value, with its easy spending category (2x on everything) and reward redemptions, massive travel credit, and lounge access! If the travel benefits are important to you, the Venture X is the clear winner and is almost guarenteed going to give you more value in the long-run.

However, there is absolutely room for both of these cards in your wallet—these cards can work synergetically, allowing you to maximize your rewards. As well, if you’re wondering where the Chase Sapphire Preferred ranks compared to these cards, make sure to check out our guide comparing the Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. the Bilt Rewards Mastercard!

We hope this article was helpful! If you’re interested in other credit card guides, make sure to explore our write-ups of the American Express Tier list, the Chase Bank Tier list, and the Capital One Venture X vs. the AmEx Gold.

Suggested Articles