If you have a Capital One Rewards card in 2015, that is not a cash back credit card, then chances are you are earning points with each thing you buy. Capital One No Hassle Miles are earned on numerous Capital One rewards cards. The program follows the basics that all other miles based credit card rewards programs use. For each dollar you spend on the credit card, you earn a certain number of miles or points. Different cards have different earning rates. Some cards earn 1.25 miles per dollar, or 2 miles per dollar for purchases at certain places like gas stations or grocery stores. Miles can be redeemed for free airline tickets, free hotel rooms and other free travel services.
2015 Capital One Rewards Catalog
Capital One saves money by not mailing a printed rewards catalog to every cardholder. Some customers report that they get catalogs because they have a high point balance, while others say that they only get the miles redemption catalogs when they have high credit card usage. Either way, there is no way to order a Capital One Rewards catalog in the mail. You either got one or your didn’t.
Like all rewards programs, the merchandise you can redeem miles for is not offered at a consistent bargain price. The reward “prices” are good for months at a time, so unless the card company is willing to hold inventory of merchandise (expensive), it is necessary to charge an amount of points that results in paying full retail or more for an item. You are much better off redeeming your rewards points and miles for free travel online anyway.
Capital One Rewards Chart
Fortunately, you don’t even need a complicated Capital One rewards chart to figure out how many miles you need to redeem for a free flight, depending upon whether you have Capital One No Hassle Miles, or Capital One Venture Miles.
For the Capital One Venture Card, and its no-fee cousin, the Capital One Venture One Card, you redeem your miles at a rate of 100 miles per dollar for any travel expense. (Only certain categories of travel expenses are allowed under the Venture One rewards program, but they include airfare, hotel and car rental.)
You don’t have to order your reward or redeem miles in advance. Rather, when your travel expenses show up on your credit card statement, you can redeem your miles against the existing charges. For example, if you spent $650 on a free plan ticket as your credit card reward, you would buy the ticket using the Venture card just like you would if you were not redeeming miles for free trips. When you see the $650 show up on your monthly bill, or online, login to to redeem your miles. Use 65,000 miles to cover the $650 charge and your balance is now $650 lower. Just pay the rest of your credit card bill like normal.
If you have a Capital One No Hassle Miles card, the deal may require a free ticket rewards redemption chart.
- A ticket that costs less than $150.00 takes 15,000 miles to redeem.
- $150.01 to $350.00 takes 35,000 miles to redeem.
- $350.01 to $600. 00 takes 60,000 miles to redeem.
- Tickets over $600.01 are the price times 100 miles to redeem.
Capital One Purchase Eraser
However, most Capital One rewards cards now offer the company’s Purchase Eraser. For cards that earn miles, travel purchases, such as airline tickets can be erased for 100 miles per dollar. A $200 airplane ticket would require 20,000 miles to erase, giving the equivalent of a free airline ticket on any airline. The Purchase Eraser also works on non-travel charges, but it costs more miles, or points, to erase non-travel expenses.
A relatively wide range of charges are considered travel expenses by Capital One and thus subject to the best redemption rate. For example, I’ve noticed Car2Go rental expenses show up as travel, as well as hotel stays, many hotel charges, restaurants that are in hotels (even if you didn’t stay at the hotel) and so on. Just log into your Capital One Rewards redeem website to see which items show up under “travel”.
Redeem Miles for Cash or Gift Cards
You can also redeem No Hassle Miles for cash or gift cards.
Cash rewards are the same cost as statement credits. The only difference is that you don’t get a check in the mail. Each reward is redeemed at a rate of half the redemption points for travel. In other words, while 10,000 miles should get you $100 worth of travel, it only gets you $50 worth of cash, or $50 as a statement credit.
Gift card rewards are dependent upon both the retailer and amount. Some retailer’s gift cards cost the same amount as cash. In that case, you are better off buying the cards, collecting the points for spending the money and then redeeming for a statement credit. Other retailers redeem at the same rate as travel. There are also special deals that come and go for certain cards that come out as a better deal compared to cards. At the time of this writing, a $100 Bed Bath and Beyond Gift Card was 8,000 miles, while a $100 Bass Pro Shops Gift Card was 9,000 miles, and a $100 Lowes Gift Card was a full 10,000 miles.
Watch out for changing redemption rates based upon the size of the card. Some retailers will charge a higher rate on cards with smaller values. Often, the better rate begins at $100 gift cards, so check this price point first, and compare to the lower price amounts.
Capital One Rewards Catalog 2015 originally published at Personal Financial Advice Blog FinanceGourmet.com
