Finance Gourmet Blog

In an effort to help people make good comparisons of credit card reward programs I am building the definitive rewards catalog matrix. If you have a rewards credit card that you think is particularly good or particularly bad please let me know so I can look into it.

The main Capital One Rewards program is called No Hassle Rewards. This is to indicate that unlike other programs theirs is easy. Is it? Yes, depending on who you compare it to of course. Compared to airline rewards credit cards and their programs it is night and day easier. The best part about the program is the ability to actually book your travel using your rewards miles (points) by yourself online. If you login to the No Hassle Rewards site, one of the options is book my travel online. This is wonderful if you are booking only rewards tickets. It has some hang ups if not. For example, on my last trip, I cashed in enough miles to get my ticket, but I had to buy my wife’s ticket. By calling an using a live human being, they were able to buy both tickets for me at the same time ensuring that we get to set together on the plane. With the online system, you need to buy your (or your spouse’s) ticket first, and then go back and buy the other ticket. This makes it harder to get seats together particularly if you happen to be booking one of the increasing number of flights that does not allow you to choose your own seat (see agent at gate for seat assignment). Airlines know that people who bought their tickets together want to sit together. If you buy your ticket on one transaction and your companion’s on another even if they are just minutes apart, you can end up in seat 12A while they end up in seat 22E. So, keep that in mind when using the program.

With no further ado, here is the relevant Capital One No Hassle Rewards reward structure:

Travel

Instead of points per miles, the Capital One program works via points per dollar. This is great if you are hunting down a cheap fare (probably because you are paying out of pocket for companion tickets). Another card that uses miles instead of dollars might be more advantageous when you are flying short but expensive routes like New York to Washington, D.C.

As you can see there is some analysis to be done here. If your ticket is barely in the next tier ($373.00 for example) you can be wasting a lot of points, so make sure and do your homework first.

Gift Cards

This program is TERRIBLE for gift cards. The going rate is 200 miles per dollar instead of the common 100 miles per dollar at better programs. So a $50 gift card will cost you 10,000 miles! Yikes. This is not the program for you if you like to use gift cards. They do have plenty of good cards availible, it is just that the conversion rate is so bad.

Retailers of note available:

• Amazon
• Best Buy
• Home Depot
• Lowe’s
• Toys R Us / Babies R Us
• Pier 1
• Lands’ End
• Eddie Bauer
• Macy’s
• Barnes & Noble
• Bath & Body Works
• Gap
• Sears
• Linens & Things
• JCPenny
• Pottery Barn
• L.L. Bean
• Foot Locker

Cash / Statement Credit

The Capital One No Hassle Miles program does have the option to get cash either in the form of a check or a statement credit. Either way, the going rate is 200 miles per dollar, so a $100 check or statement credit will cost you 20,000 miles.

Summary

* See tiers above for actual cost below $600.

Other Information:

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