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 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 for you. To help you understand what makes these cards so exciting and who should get which, 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

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 comes with the older Venture and VentureOne (which never competed with the top travel cards).

The whole aim of the Venture X and 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 $395, there are many benefits and credits that allow you to make up a lot of that spending, and if you use it correctly, can actually make the annual fee essentially $0!

Spending Rewards & Sign-Up Bonus

Unlike most of the travel cards out there that give varying reward miles (Capital One points) based on the category of spending, the Venture X card gives a flat 2x miles on ALL spending. 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.

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 (worth ~$750 at minimum for travel through the Capital One portal). Additionally, you get a 10,000-point bonus every year of holding the card for free, 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 fairly decent sign-on bonus.

Other Benefits

The biggest benefit of the Venture X card is its annual travel credit: with this card, you get $300 of travel covered every year when you book it through the Capital One travel portal, making the effective annual fee of this card only $95! As well, this card gives you 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 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

Background

The BILT Rewards Credit Card has been making waves in the credit card scene over the past year, and for good reason: this card lets you earn points on all your payments toward your rent 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 works by allowing 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 towards utilities, you can actually use the special portal payments on a wide variety of things including utilities and utility bills! You get all of this 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, utilities, HOA fees, and everything else you can use the special Bilt system for. However, in addition to those point earnings, you also get 3x Bilt points on dining, 2x Bilt points on all forms of travel, and 1x Bilt points for your 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-on bonus of any sort, so you’ll need to spend to get all your points. If Bilt ever does add an annual fee, it would likely be at the expense of adding an annual fee.

Other Benefits

The Bilt Mastercard also provides many benefits that make the card 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 on this transfer partner list include some of the following:

Hyatt: Arguably the best hotel transfer partner out there, with easy redemptions at luxury all-inclusive resorts for shockingly few points

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 no other credit card out there gives you benefits like that, and both renters and non-renters alike can benefit from the Bilt Rewards card.

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 if you can only have one of these cards. 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), if you’re paying rent and don’t spend a lot on non-category spending (e.g., clothes), the Bilt Rewards Mastercard is the one for you.

On the other hand, if you own your housing, the Bilt card is never going to make much sense for you, even though you can use it for things like HOA payments or utilities. In this case, the Capital One Venture X is definitely 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 always 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!