7 types of purchases you should make with your Capital One Venture Rewards card

By DFB Guy On May 20, 2024

It’s easy to earn bonus rewards on most purchases. After all, most of my purchases fall into the travel, gas, dining and grocery bonus categories offered by many of the best rewards credit cards.

However, you may occasionally need to make a purchase that doesn’t fall into a bonus category on any of your cards. You don’t have to accept earning 1 point per dollar on these purchases, though. Instead, you can use one of the best credit cards for everyday spending.

One of our favorite everyday spending cards here at The Points Guy is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. I decided to see just how many types of purchases I could come up with that wouldn’t earn bonus rewards on most of the best rewards credit cards.

But, of course, all of these purchases would earn 2 miles per dollar with the Capital One Venture Rewards. Here’s what I found.

How to earn more value with the Capital One Venture Rewards

Whether a purchase earns bonus rewards for a bonus category depends on the code assigned to the merchant. In particular, merchants are given a code depending on the types of products and services they sell.

So, even if you understand how credit card issuers classify travel and dining purchases, you still may not earn bonus rewards if a merchant is coded differently than expected. For example, a shop selling bagels and coffee may be classified as a bakery instead of a coffee shop.

If you think you might earn bonus rewards on a large purchase, you may want to make a smaller purchase with your card to see how the purchase codes. But, if you use one of the best everyday spending cards, you don’t have to worry about how the purchase will code.

There’s a reason we focus on the Capital One Venture Rewards in this guide instead of all everyday spending cards: it’s the best stand-alone consumer everyday spending card. In particular, earning Capital One miles is straightforward. And, redeeming Capital One miles is extremely simple whether you choose to redeem at a fixed rate or transfer your miles to airport or hotel partners.

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Purchases to make with the Capital One Venture REwards

Now, let’s consider some purchases that will usually earn 1 point, mile or reward per dollar with most of the best travel rewards cards and cash-back cards. Of course, all of these purchases would still earn 2 miles per dollar with the Capital One Venture Rewards.

Automotive expenses

You can earn bonus rewards using one of the best cards for gas purchases when you fuel up.

And you’ll usually snag bonus rewards when you use one of the best cards for travel purchases to pay for tolls, parking and rental cars. But, you generally won’t earn bonus rewards on other automotive expenses, including:

Automotive repairs
Motor vehicle supplies, tires and parts
Auto service shops, including body repair shops, tire repair shops and paint shops
Car washes
Towing services
Vehicle purchases, including cars, trucks, boats, campers, trailers, motorcycles, motorhomes and snowmobiles

Childcare and education

Childcare and education are considerable expenses for many consumers. Sure, you can maximize points and miles on back-to-school shopping and use the best credit cards for school supplies. But, in many cases, you may be unable to pay for many of the most substantial childcare and education expenses using a credit card.

And, even if you can use a credit card, you generally won’t earn bonus rewards on the following types of purchases:

Elementary and secondary school tuition
College tuition
Professional and trade school tuition
Testing fees
Childcare services, including daycare expenses and preschool

Home care and furnishings

Since I’m a digital nomad, I don’t have any home improvement or furnishing expenses. But I know many people who have moved in the last couple of months, and they surely have been racking up costs on home repairs and furniture.

But, unfortunately, the following types of purchases usually don’t earn bonus rewards:

Landscaping and horticultural services
Purchases from nurseries and lawn or garden supply stores
Home repairs, including general contractor services
Glassware and crystal stores
Furniture and carpet stores
Drapery and fabric stores
Furniture reupholstering shops
Carpet and upholstery cleaning services
Swimming pool sales and services

Granted, a card like the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card can earn 3% cash back with select online shopping merchants or home improvement and furnishings if you choose either of these as your 3% category (on up to $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter; then 1%).

However, 3% isn’t much higher than the 2.8% return you can get from the Capital One Venture Rewards on all purchases. So, I’d stick with the Venture Rewards unless you prefer cash-back rewards.

Specialty stores

It can be challenging to determine how specialty stores will code.

So, I generally assume I won’t earn bonus rewards and instead use an everyday spending card when shopping at the following types of stores:

Pet stores
Shops that primarily sell precious stones, metals or jewelry
Cosmetic stores
Cigar stores
Newsstands
Sporting goods stores
Hobby, toy and game shops
Camera and photo supply stores
Art and craft shops
Art dealers and galleries
Stamp and coin stores
Bicycle shops
Bookstores
Stationery stores
Music stores, including stores that mainly sell pianos or records
Commercial equipment stores
Duty-free stores
Specialty food stores, including meat lockers, nut and confectionery stores, candy stores, bakeries and dairy stores
Tent and awning shops
Wig and toupee stores
Specialty clothing stores, including stores specializing in shoes and fur
Used merchandise stores, including antique shops, pawn shops and antique reproduction services
Salvage yards

Of course, this is another broad category where you may want to use the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card if you’ve selected online shopping merchants as your 3% category. However, only some online merchants are eligible. So, there’s no guarantee that online shopping purchases made with your Cash Rewards card will earn 3%. However, if you use the Capital One Venture, you know you’ll earn 2 miles per dollar spent.

Healthcare

Thankfully, my out of pocket healthcare costs are generally relatively low. But, for some people, healthcare is one of their largest expenses.

Luckily, most healthcare providers accept credit cards. However, you usually won’t earn any bonus rewards on the following types of charges:

Ambulance service
Nursing and personal care services
Medical services from doctors, physicians, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists and other healthcare professionals
Counseling services
Hospital care
Medical and dental lab services
Hearing aid sales and service

As such, if you incur a lot of health care costs regularly, you should use an everyday spending card such as the Capital One Venture Rewards. By doing so, you can earn more rewards on these unavoidable expenses.

Miscellaneous services

Many support services aren’t generally classified as bonus category purchases on most rewards cards.

In particular, I generally don’t expect the following services to earn bonus rewards:

Catering services
Laundry, cleaning, garment and dry cleaning services
Legal and attorney services
Florist services
Veterinary services
Marina services
Tailor, seamstress and alteration services
Photography services
Public warehousing
Clothing, costume and uniform rental services
Hair salons and barbers
Shoe repair, shoeshine and hat cleaning services
Funeral services and crematoriums
Massage parlors
Health and beauty spas
Dating and escort services
Tax preparation service
Shopping services
Exterminating and disinfecting services
Cleaning services
Technology services, including computer maintenance and information retrieval
Small appliance repair services
Detective and protective services
Management, consulting and public relations services
Publishing and printing services
Specialty cleaning and polishing services
Courier services

Of course, these services may earn bonus rewards in some situations. For example, photography services offered at a hotel may earn bonus rewards as travel. And catering services done by a restaurant may earn bonus rewards as dining.

Other purchases

Finally, there are a few other types of charges that you may want to put on a credit card that generally won’t earn bonus rewards.

However, you should be able to earn 2 miles per dollar with the Capital One Venture Rewards on the following purchases:

Charity donations
Membership fees for political, religious, auto, civic, social, fraternal and other organizations
Court costs
Payment of fines
Bail and bond payments
Payment of insurance premiums
Payment for utility services
Tax payments
Payment for government services
Registration for sporting and recreational camps (although this might code as entertainment or travel in some cases)

Bottom line

Like my guide on expenses you should not put on your credit card, there are no hard rules here. Specifically, depending on the other cards you already have in your wallet and your earning preferences, a different everyday spending card may be better for you. And, especially if you have reoccurring purchases with the same merchant, determining how your purchases are coding can help you choose the best card to use.

But, if you’re looking for a straightforward card that earns valuable rewards on all your purchases, the Capital One Venture Rewards is a good choice. You don’t have to worry about how purchases will code. And, you can redeem Capital One Venture miles at a fixed rate or by transferring to airline and hotel partners.

To learn more, read our full review of the Capital One Venture Rewards card.

Apply here: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with a bonus of 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.

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