Whether it is Batman and Robin, Captain America and Bucky Jones, or even a good ole Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, many things go together best with two working together. That is the same with the Capital One Venture X. It is an amazing card with Travel benefits that work to compete with Chase, American Express, and Citi travel cards. 

The Capital One Venture X and The Capital One Savor cards can go hand in hand to create the Capital One Dynamic Duo or Capital One Duo. You may have heard of the Chase Trifecta, but instead of having three cards, the Duo uses two cards to maximize on spend and everything else. 

The Capital One Venture X is great with premium travel, giving benefits such as lost luggage insurance, primary car insurance, lounge access, and transfer partners. With 2x miles on every cost, this one card alone can be the only card you may need. With many setups, having a bit extra allows more points to be accumulated. 

The Capital One Savor cards allow unlimited cash back on dining, gasoline, and groceries. A much higher percentage can allow you to accumulate more miles quicker, which can help you book that next trip. 

Two Workhorse Cash Back Cards: Savor vs SavorOne

With the Savor and SavorOne cards, you will have two workhorse cashback cards that can be your go-to card for many of your common expenses. They have heightened category bonuses that can help you boost those rewards more often. 

The SavorOne Benefits

• No Annual Fee with 0% Foreign Transaction Fees
• 8% Back on Capital One Entertainment
• 5% back on hotels and car rentals from the Capital One Travel Portal
• 3% on Dining
• 3% on Grocery Stores
• 3% on Entertaining
• 3% on Popular Streaming
• 1% on everything else

The Savor Benefits

• $95 Annual Fee
• 8% Back on Capital One Entertainment
• 5% back on hotels and car rentals from the Capital One Travel Portal
• 4% on Dining
• 4% on Entertaining
• 4% on Popular Streaming
• 3% on Grocery Stores
• 1% on everything else

Which card should you pick overall? It is a math problem to solve. Since both cards create great value for cashback, you must see if you spend more on dining, entertainment, and popular streaming to make that 1% more worth the $95 fee. 

After doing some math, if you spend over $9,500 a year on dining, entertainment, and popular streaming, then you will be better off with the Savor over the SavorOne card. If not, it is best to stick with the no-annual-fee SavorOne card. 

If you use the cashback to transfer to a premium travel card like the Capital One Venture X or Venture Card, the cashback can be converted into miles. Most people value those miles at around 2 cents per mile. 

Doing some more math, if you spend over $4750 a year on dining, entertainment, and popular streaming, you would be better off with the Savor Card if you use the cashback to transfer into miles. 

Capital One SaviorOne Cash

Sign-up today to take advantage of the welcome offer and start earning cash-back today!

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The Capital One Venture X: The Catch-All Card

With this dynamic duo step-up, you need a catch-all card that can give you a good number of points on everything. Fortunately, Capital One Venture X’s premium travel card can be that catch-all card.

Benefits:

• $395 Annual Fee
• $300 Travel Credit used through the Travel Portal
• 10,000 ($100 value) mile bonus at Anniversary Year 
• 2x Miles on everything
• 5x Miles on Flights through the travel portal
• 10x Miles on Hotels and Car rentals through the portal
• $100 Global Entry/ TSA precheck credit
• Lounge Access to Priority Pass, Premium Plaza Lounges, and Capital One Lounges

With Capital One Venture X getting 2% on everything that is not travel-related in the portal, you will have your catch-all card to help you maximize your points. When you use it on the portal, which Hopper powers, you will get 5x miles on flights and 10x miles on hotels and car rentals. 

One of the best benefits is getting up to 4 free authorized users onto the card. That means you can add your parents, spouse, or children to get lounge access. That is a great gift for people. 

Capital One Venture X

75,000 Capital One Miles after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months. Great Premium Card!

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How The Capital One Duo Works

If you have a Venture card, all of the cashback you may get from the Savior or SaviorOne card can be converted into miles, which you can later use to book flights or hotels. 

When compared to other setups ( like the Chase Trifecta), the two cards do not overlap. If you go out to eat, use Uber, or go to concerts, then you use the Savior Card. Everything else can be put onto the Venture card. 

The miles on the Venture Card do not have a greater value than you will find with the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve, but the key with these miles is transferring them to some of the travel partners. 

A Couple Weaknesses:

One of the biggest weaknesses is that this setup has no dedicated gas card. The most you would get would be 2% back on gas purchases using the Venture Card. It is not that big of a deal if you do not drive much, but if you drive quite a bit, look at the Citi Custom Cash card. It allows you to have 5% on your highest spend category. You can make it your dedicated gas credit card. 

Another weakness could be that it might be hard to be approved if you are in the credit card late game. Capital One is a great mid-game Crest card system. However, they can be stingy with their cards for those who may like travel hacking or have tons of cards. So, you may not always be approved, even with a great credit score. 

The Transfer Partners

To get the most value for your points, use them for travel. You can transfer miles to around 18 travel partners. 

Some of the best programs that you can use would be:

• Air Canada
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Qantas
• Singapore Airlines
• Turkish Airlines
• Virgin Red

Ideally, when transferring your miles to these travel partners, you want to get more value than 1 cent per point, like 2 cents per point. So $1,000 could be worth up to $2,000. 

What you want to look for is sweet spot travel, international business, and first-class travel. Sweet spot travel is when you get to a place with an inflated price (like during holidays) or go to a place where an airline has a monopoly, and you can get value. 

Business and first-class international tickets work best when booked three days, fourteen days, or three hundred days in advance. Last-minute reward deals are open to folks. If you can get a value of two cents per point, then it is worth it. 

Final Thoughts:

If you are looking into getting some credit cards or trying out a system, then the Capital One Duo is a great two-card system to maximize your spending. There are trifectas, like the Chase Trifecta and the Citi Trifecta. The Capital One Venture X is a trendy card that helps you gain lots of points and travel to many places, and it is good for families. 

Originally Published on https://thefrugalexpat.com/

Steve Cummings Journalist, Traveler, and Personal Finance Enthusiast

Steve Cummings is a traveler, writer, and personal finance enthusiasts that has taken an adventure to leave his home country to travel and live around the world with his family. Through many years of learning he seeks to help those to save more and travel better. He has been featured in MSN, The Associate Press Wire, and various other content outlets with his writing and publications through his website The Frugal Expat. In the last six years, He has traveled to all seven continents, over 30 different countries, and has lived abroad learning and teaching others about good financial habits and travel hacks.

As an ex-English Teacher, he hopes to provide good tips and education on money and travel to help people think outside the box and achieve the impossible.