Venture Miles to Gift Card "Devaluation"?

[simplynoir]

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@Credit-hoarder wrote:

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@Shooting-For-800 wrote:

You dont have to travel much to use your rewards.  

How many points do you have?

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About 60,000. They'll get used at some point--probably with the purchase eraser feature. But like I was saying before gc's at 1cpp are always good to fall back on if you don't travel much. But like I was saying before--the devaluation just gives me even less incentive now to use the card to collect the miles when I have others that give 2x or 2% or more in rewards and still have gc's at 1cpp.

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If you're purchasing gift cards with rewards aren't you incentivized to purchase the gift card(s) with your 2% card whatever that may be and paying for the balance with the rewards so you earn additional points? Maybe I'm missing something obvious here and that's a legitimate question with no snark at all.

[kdm31091]

Or just make a purchase at the merchant and take a statement credit. No advantage in getting a gift card in most cases.

[zerofire]

I am fairly certain that card issuers absolutely hate gift cards. In fact the only redemption type that they hate more is the redemption for actual items(why there is a redemption premium). Over time the value on the cards will erode as they are technically stuff and there needs to be  increasing profit margin. The issuer prefers to deal with travel companies or even cold hard cash because the pricing is negotiable. Ultimately Capitol One thought it was a good idea to slice the rewards to 0.8.

[Credit-hoarder]

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@zerofire wrote:

I am fairly certain that card issuers absolutely hate gift cards. In fact the only redemption type that they hate more is the redemption for actual items(why there is a redemption premium). Over time the value on the cards will erode as they are technically stuff and there needs to be  increasing profit margin. The issuer prefers to deal with travel companies or even cold hard cash because the pricing is negotiable. Ultimately Capitol One thought it was a good idea to slice the rewards to 0.8.

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Which doesn't make sense to me on their part b/c their rewards system on Venture isn't really all that great for a card that charges an AF. Cash redemptions are only 50% (most 2% and > cards are 1cpp cash redemption) and even in the travel area there are better systems out there. Although it's not a popular form of redemption--1 cpp on gc's was one of the only positve redemption factors of having the card IMO. Taking that away when I have other 2% and > rewards cards that redeem at full 1cpp value just makes me even less likely to swipe it going forward.

[Anonymous]

I think venture brand is broadly failing.

earning 2x points at 1cpp is just plain basic, double cash do that without a fee.

then transfer at 2:1 to 2:1.5 is just bad.

It may be targetting that "one-card" crowd, but that subset is very small, most people has no problem carrying 1 or 2 more cards. Even with "one-card" crowd, it needs to be at least at 2.5x to beat back double cash.

[kdm31091]

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@Credit-hoarder wrote:

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@zerofire wrote:

I am fairly certain that card issuers absolutely hate gift cards. In fact the only redemption type that they hate more is the redemption for actual items(why there is a redemption premium). Over time the value on the cards will erode as they are technically stuff and there needs to be  increasing profit margin. The issuer prefers to deal with travel companies or even cold hard cash because the pricing is negotiable. Ultimately Capitol One thought it was a good idea to slice the rewards to 0.8.

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Which doesn't make sense to me on their part b/c their rewards system on Venture isn't really all that great for a card that charges an AF. Cash redemptions are only 50% (most 2% and > cards are 1cpp cash redemption) and even in the travel area there are better systems out there. Although it's not a popular form of redemption--1 cpp on gc's was one of the only positve redemption factors of having the card IMO. Taking that away when I have other 2% and > rewards cards that redeem at full 1cpp value just makes me even less likely to swipe it going forward.

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Venture has always been pretty overrated IMO, people were applying years ago because Capital One was approving like candy and giving out huge limits. These days I don't see much appeal unless you're interested in their transfer partners and will get large value. With the AF it just seems like a tough sell.

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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Venture has always been pretty overrated IMO, people were applying years ago because Capital One was approving like candy and giving out huge limits. These days I don't see much appeal unless you're interested in their transfer partners and will get large value. With the AF it just seems like a tough sell.

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Yes, with the exception of the first year, when there is a large SUB and no AF.   Until they added transfer partners, I've always advocated closing/downgrading after the first year.    Even if you get the annual fee waived, it's still more cumbersome than a general free 2% card.

But lots of people love it for some reason.