Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Capital One Venture: Which Is Better for Travelers Over 55?
Two of the best travel cards in the country, one clear winner for your life — if you know what to look for.
The Question Everyone Asks
If you've spent any time researching travel credit cards — even fifteen minutes — you've run into these two names. The Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Capital One Venture Rewards card. They cost the same annual fee. They both earn travel rewards. They both show up on every "best travel card" list on the internet.
So which one should you actually get?
I've helped hundreds of people over 55 answer this exact question, and here's what I've learned: the right answer depends less on which card is "better" in some abstract sense, and more on how you actually live your life. Your spending habits, your travel style, and — honestly — how much mental energy you want to devote to this whole thing.
Let me walk you through both cards in detail, compare them side by side, and show you a framework for deciding that takes about thirty seconds. No jargon. No spreadsheets. Just a clear-eyed look at two excellent cards.
A note on honesty: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you apply through one, WanderWise earns a small commission at no cost to you. The terms and bonuses are identical whether you use our link or go directly to the bank. I will never recommend a card because it pays us well. Every recommendation here is one I'd make to a close friend. That's our policy, and it's non-negotiable.
The Quick Answer (for People Who Don't Want to Read 2,500 Words)
Choose the Chase Sapphire Preferred if you spend meaningfully on dining and groceries, you want the flexibility to transfer points to airline and hotel partners, and you don't mind paying attention to which purchases earn the most.
Choose the Capital One Venture if you want to earn rewards on everything at the same rate with zero thought, you prefer the simplest possible redemption system, and you value not having to think about bonus categories.
Now, for those who want the full picture — and you should — let's dig in.
How We Scored These Cards
We didn't just compare sign-up bonuses and pick the bigger number. We evaluated both cards across seven categories that matter specifically to travelers over 55, weighted by importance:
| Category | Weight | What We're Measuring |
|---|---|---|
| Rewards on typical 55+ spending | 25% | Points earned on groceries, dining, gas, healthcare, travel — the things you actually buy |
| Redemption flexibility | 20% | How many ways you can use your rewards, and how much they're worth |
| Simplicity | 15% | How easy the card is to understand, earn with, and redeem |
| Travel protections | 15% | Trip cancellation, trip delay, lost luggage, rental car insurance |
| Customer service | 10% | Can you reach a human? Will they actually help? |
| Sign-up bonus value | 10% | First-year bonus, adjusted for spend requirements |
| Annual fee justification | 5% | Does the math work even without the bonus? |
The Side-by-Side Comparison
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | Capital One Venture | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $95 | $95 |
| Sign-up bonus | 80,000 points (after $4,000 in 3 months) | 75,000 miles (after $4,000 in 3 months) |
| Sign-up bonus value | ~$1,000 (portal) to $1,600+ (transfers) | ~$750 (statement credit) to $1,125+ (transfers) |
| Earning: Dining | 3x | 2x |
| Earning: Groceries | 3x (online groceries) | 2x |
| Earning: Travel | 2x | 2x |
| Earning: Gas | 1x | 2x |
| Earning: Everything else | 1x | 2x |
| Transfer partners | 14 airlines + 3 hotels | 15+ airlines + hotels |
| Portal redemption value | 1.25 cents per point | 1 cent per mile |
| Statement credit option | 1 cent per point against travel | 1 cent per mile against any travel |
| Foreign transaction fees | None | None |
| Trip cancellation insurance | Up to $10,000 per person | None |
| Trip delay coverage | $500 per ticket (6+ hour delay) | None |
| Primary rental car insurance | Yes | No (secondary only) |
| Lost luggage coverage | Up to $3,000 per passenger | None |
| $50 hotel credit | Yes (through Chase Travel) | No |
| Phone customer service | Excellent (dedicated Sapphire line) | Good |
Category-by-Category Breakdown
1. Rewards on Typical 55+ Spending (25% weight)
This is where the comparison gets interesting — and where your personal spending patterns make all the difference.
Let's take a realistic monthly budget for a couple in their early sixties. Not a hypothetical from a textbook — actual numbers I see when talking to WanderWise members:
| Monthly Expense | Amount | Chase CSP Points | Capital One Venture Miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | $900 | 900 (1x) or 2,700 (3x online) | 1,800 (2x) |
| Dining out | $600 | 1,800 (3x) | 1,200 (2x) |
| Travel (averaged) | $500 | 1,000 (2x) | 1,000 (2x) |
| Gas | $250 | 250 (1x) | 500 (2x) |
| Utilities & other | $1,200 | 1,200 (1x) | 2,400 (2x) |
| Monthly total | $3,450 | 5,250–7,050 | 6,900 |
| Annual total | $41,400 | 63,000–84,600 | 82,800 |
Here's the subtlety: if you do most of your grocery shopping in physical stores (which most people our age do), the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns just 1x on those purchases. The 3x on groceries applies only to online grocery orders — think Instacart, Walmart delivery, or Amazon Fresh. If you shop in person at your local supermarket, Capital One's flat 2x on everything actually earns you more on groceries.
On the other hand, if you dine out frequently — and couples over 55 tend to spend more on dining than younger households — Chase's 3x on dining pulls ahead meaningfully. Six hundred dollars a month at restaurants earns 21,600 points per year on the Chase card versus 14,400 on the Venture. That's a 7,200-point gap from dining alone.
The verdict on earning: If your biggest spending categories are dining and online groceries, Chase wins. If your spending is spread evenly across many categories — gas, utilities, insurance, household expenses — Capital One's flat 2x rate earns more without any effort.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 8/10 | Capital One Venture: 8.5/10
2. Redemption Flexibility (20% weight)
This is where Chase pulls meaningfully ahead.
Chase Ultimate Rewards gives you three ways to use your points:
- Chase Travel portal — book flights and hotels at 1.25 cents per point. It works like Expedia, but you pay with points. Simple and good value.
- Transfer to partners — move your points to 14 airline partners and 3 hotel programs at a 1:1 ratio. This is where sophisticated travelers get 1.5 to 3+ cents per point by booking through airline programs directly.
- Statement credit — use points at 1 cent each against travel charges. The least valuable option, but it exists.
Capital One miles also offer three paths:
- Statement credit ("Purchase Eraser") — erase any travel purchase at 1 cent per mile. Book anywhere you want, then use miles to wipe out the charge. Beautifully simple.
- Transfer to partners — Capital One has expanded their transfer network significantly, now including Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles, British Airways Avios, and others. These are genuinely good partners.
- Capital One Travel portal — book through their portal, though the experience is less polished than Chase's.
The key difference: Chase's travel portal gives you a 25% bonus (1.25 cents per point instead of 1 cent), which means your points are automatically worth more even if you never learn about transfers. Capital One's Purchase Eraser pays a flat 1 cent per mile, with no bonus.
For someone who wants simplicity, Capital One's Purchase Eraser is more flexible — you can book on any website and just erase the charge. Chase's portal requires you to book through their system. But for someone willing to use the Chase portal or explore transfer partners, the value ceiling is significantly higher.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 9/10 | Capital One Venture: 7.5/10
3. Simplicity (15% weight)
This one is straightforward, and Capital One wins decisively.
The Capital One Venture has one earning rate: 2x on everything. You never have to think about which card to pull out of your wallet, whether you're at the grocery store or the gas station or a restaurant or paying your internet bill. It's always 2x.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred requires you to remember: 3x on dining and online groceries, 2x on travel, 1x on everything else. That's not terribly complicated, but it does mean you need to be aware of what counts as "dining" and what counts as "online groceries" — and Chase's category definitions don't always match your intuition.
For redemption, Capital One's Purchase Eraser is as simple as it gets: book travel anywhere, then erase the charge. Chase's portal is good, but it's an extra step — and the transfer partner system, while powerful, introduces a learning curve.
If you value not thinking about your credit card at all, Capital One is the clear winner here.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 7/10 | Capital One Venture: 9.5/10
4. Travel Protections (15% weight)
This is where the Chase Sapphire Preferred doesn't just win — it wins in a way that genuinely matters for travelers our age.
Chase Sapphire Preferred travel protections:
- Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: Up to $10,000 per person, $20,000 per trip. If you or your travel companion gets sick, has a family emergency, or runs into a covered reason for canceling, Chase reimburses you.
- Trip delay coverage: $500 per ticket for delays over 6 hours. Covers hotels, meals, and essentials while you wait.
- Lost luggage reimbursement: Up to $3,000 per passenger for checked or carry-on bags.
- Primary rental car coverage: Chase pays first if the rental car is damaged — you don't have to file through your personal auto insurance. This alone saves you $15–25 per day at the rental counter.
- No foreign transaction fees.
Capital One Venture travel protections:
- No foreign transaction fees.
- That's essentially it for meaningful travel insurance. Capital One does not offer trip cancellation insurance, trip delay coverage, lost luggage reimbursement, or primary rental car coverage with the Venture card.
Let me be direct: when you're 62 and booking a $6,000 European river cruise six months in advance, trip cancellation insurance isn't a nice-to-have. It's essential. Health situations become less predictable with age — that's not pessimism, it's actuarial reality. Having up to $10,000 in trip cancellation coverage baked into your credit card, at no extra cost, is enormously valuable.
The rental car coverage alone saves most travelers $200–500 per year. If you rent a car even twice a year on vacation, Chase has already paid for its annual fee.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 10/10 | Capital One Venture: 4/10
5. Customer Service (10% weight)
Both cards offer good customer service, but Chase has a slight edge.
Chase Sapphire cardholders get a dedicated phone line with Sapphire-trained representatives. Wait times are generally under five minutes. The agents are knowledgeable about Ultimate Rewards and can walk you through portal bookings or transfer questions.
Capital One's customer service is solid and improving. Their agents are friendly and accessible, though the experience is less specialized than Chase's dedicated Sapphire line.
Both offer U.S.-based phone support, which matters to our audience. Both have clear, navigable websites — though neither would win a design award.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 9/10 | Capital One Venture: 8/10
6. Sign-Up Bonus (10% weight)
Chase offers 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in 3 months. At the portal rate of 1.25 cents per point, that's worth $1,000. Through transfer partners, the value can reach $1,200–$1,600 depending on how you use them.
Capital One offers 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 in 3 months. At the statement credit rate of 1 cent per mile, that's worth $750. Through transfer partners, you might get $900–$1,125.
The spend requirement is identical ($4,000 in 3 months), which is very achievable for most households just through normal grocery, dining, and bill spending. No unusual purchases necessary.
Chase wins on raw bonus value by a clear margin.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 9/10 | Capital One Venture: 7.5/10
7. Annual Fee Justification (5% weight)
Both cards charge $95 per year, and both pay for themselves easily. But Chase's travel protections, $50 hotel credit, and higher portal redemption rate make the fee slightly easier to justify on math alone.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 9/10 | Capital One Venture: 8.5/10
The Final Scorecard
| Category | Weight | Chase CSP | Capital One Venture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rewards on 55+ spending | 25% | 8.0 | 8.5 |
| Redemption flexibility | 20% | 9.0 | 7.5 |
| Simplicity | 15% | 7.0 | 9.5 |
| Travel protections | 15% | 10.0 | 4.0 |
| Customer service | 10% | 9.0 | 8.0 |
| Sign-up bonus | 10% | 9.0 | 7.5 |
| Annual fee justification | 5% | 9.0 | 8.5 |
| Weighted total | 100% | 8.6 | 7.5 |
Overall winner: Chase Sapphire Preferred
But — and this is important — the Capital One Venture is the better card for specific people. Let me show you exactly who.
Who Should Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred
You should choose the Chase Sapphire Preferred if:
- You spend meaningfully on dining. If you eat out three or more times a week — whether that's dinner with your spouse, lunch with friends, or coffee at the café — Chase's 3x on dining adds up fast.
- Travel protections matter to you. If you're booking trips months in advance, if you're renting cars on vacation, or if the peace of mind from trip cancellation insurance would let you sleep better — Chase is the only choice between these two.
- You're open to learning about transfer partners. Even if you start by using the Chase Travel portal (perfectly fine), the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel partners gives your rewards a dramatically higher ceiling. When you're ready to book that business class flight to Europe, those transfer partners are how you'll do it.
- You want the stronger sign-up bonus. An extra $250+ in first-year value isn't trivial.
See the current Chase Sapphire Preferred offer →
Who Should Get the Capital One Venture
You should choose the Capital One Venture if:
- Simplicity is your top priority. If you want one card, one earning rate, and one redemption method — with zero mental overhead — the Venture is unmatched. You'll earn 2x on every single purchase without ever wondering "does this count as dining?"
- Your spending is broadly distributed. If you don't have one dominant spending category like dining or groceries, the flat 2x rate earns more total points across your whole spending pattern.
- You prefer booking travel your own way. The Purchase Eraser lets you book on any website — Airbnb, a cruise line's direct site, your favorite travel agent — and then use miles to erase the charge. You're not locked into a portal.
- Travel protections aren't a deciding factor. Perhaps you already have good travel insurance through another source, or you tend to buy trip insurance separately when booking expensive trips. If the protections gap doesn't concern you, it shouldn't drive your decision.
See the current Capital One Venture offer →
Can You Have Both?
Yes. And some people should.
If you want to maximize your earning across all categories, you could use the Chase Sapphire Preferred for dining and travel (where it earns 3x and 2x), and the Capital One Venture for everything else (where its flat 2x beats Chase's 1x). This two-card setup covers all your spending at 2x or better.
The combined annual fees are $190 per year, and the combined first-year bonuses are worth $1,750 or more. The math works — but only if you're comfortable managing two cards. If the idea of tracking which card to use where sounds exhausting rather than exciting, pick one and be done with it. One good card used consistently beats two great cards used inconsistently.
The Bottom Line
Both of these cards earn you real, valuable travel rewards on the money you're already spending. Neither one is a bad choice. But they serve different people.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the more powerful card — stronger travel protections, higher bonus value, more valuable redemption options, and better earning rates on dining. It rewards a little bit of engagement with a lot of extra value.
The Capital One Venture is the more effortless card — one earning rate, one redemption method, zero thinking required. It rewards simplicity with surprisingly strong results.
If you're choosing between them and you're still genuinely torn, go with Chase. The travel protections alone tip the scales, and you can always use the portal if you never want to learn about transfer partners.
But if you know in your heart that you'd rather not think about bonus categories — if the very concept of "which card should I pull out right now" makes you want to close this tab — the Venture will serve you beautifully. And you'll never once regret it.
Your next step: pick one and apply. It takes five minutes, and the sign-up bonus starts the clock on thousands of dollars in travel you've already been earning.
Apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred →
Apply for the Capital One Venture →
Related Reading
- How to Maximize Credit Card Sign-Up Bonuses →
- What Is a Transfer Partner? The Key to Free Travel →
- Capital One Miles: A Simple Guide →
- Best Destinations on Points →
Last updated: February 2026. Card terms and bonuses are accurate as of publication. We update this comparison monthly — bookmark it and check back before applying. Affiliate disclosure: WanderWise earns a commission when you apply through our links. This doesn't affect our rankings or recommendations. Read our full editorial policy →