Can You Downgrade the Capital One Venture X? [List of Options]

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is one of the few game-changing credit cards to have been released in the past few years. Between the ability to earn up to 10x Capital One miles on purchases, notable premium travel benefits, and plenty of benefits afforded to authorized users, there’s almost no chance you haven’t heard of this card if you’re a rewards enthusiast.

But what if you initially open this new card and your circumstances change? Maybe you’ve changed your travel habits or cut back on spending but want to keep your line of credit, maintain your relationship with Capital One, and preserve your credit.

Look no further — in this guide, we’ll show you the ins and outs surrounding the downgrade process of the Capital One Venture X card. Let’s cut right to the chase!

Why You Should Downgrade Instead of Close Your Card

One of the strongest reasons you should try to downgrade your Capital One Venture X card (rates & fees) is to maintain your available credit limit and keep your account on your credit report. Doing so will preserve your credit history and optimize your credit utilization ratio.

For example, if your Capital One Venture X card is your oldest card and you close it, your credit age will drop dramatically, reducing your credit score.

Also, if your Capital One Venture X card has a credit limit of $30,000, closing your card will result in losing that available credit, which can also cause your credit score to decrease. Here’s how that works.

Your credit utilization ratio is a major factor determining your credit score. This simple percentage is calculated by adding up your total balances and dividing that number by the total amount of credit you have available to you across all credit cards.

For example, let’s say you have these cards open:

• Capital One Venture X card with a $30,000 credit limit and a $1,000 balance
• Another credit card with a $5,000 credit limit and a $1,500 balance
• Another credit card with a $2,000 credit limit and a $1,000 balance

Your credit utilization ratio will be calculated as $3,500 divided by $37,000, which is around 9.5%. However, if you pay off your Capital One Venture X card and close it, your credit utilization ratio will be calculated as $2,500 divided by $7,000, which is 36%. This increase can cause your credit score to drop drastically.

Bottom Line:

Downgrading your card is preferable to closing it because it allows you to preserve your credit utilization ratio and maintain your credit history on your credit report.

How To Downgrade Your Capital One Venture X Card

Capital One is unique in 2 ways:

1. Downgrade offers are tailored to each cardholder
2. You can downgrade (or upgrade) your card 100% online if eligible

In other words, not everyone can downgrade their Capital One Venture X card. Also, the allowable cards you can downgrade to may vary.

In order to be eligible to downgrade your Capital One Venture X card, your card needs to have been open for at least 1 year.

The traditional way to downgrade your credit card is to call the number on the back of your card, speak to an agent, and have the downgrade processed over the phone. Capital One makes the downgrade process easy by allowing you to access any downgrade or upgrade offers online. The offers you see online should match exactly what any agent can see when you call over the phone.

Here’s the process to access downgrade offers online:

1. Visit Capital One’s website and log into your online account
2. After logging in, you’ll be directed to your account summary. Select your card.
3. On your credit card account page, you’ll see a ribbon menu at the top with buttons like Add Account User, View Statements, and More Account Services.
4. Click the button that says More Account Services.
5. You’ll see a box pop up with many buttons. Go to the area that says Offers and Upgrades. Click View Offers and Upgrades.
6. This is where you will see any current downgrade offers available to you.
7. Complete any forms needed and select your preferred credit card product to downgrade to.

Alternatively, you can click I Want To… in the top right corner of your account screen, then View Offers and Upgrades.:

On the next screen, click Swap your card.

You will then see any offers available to you for your current card. In the example below, the downgrades are technically being called upgrades.

Hot Tip:

Check your downgrade offers online before picking up the phone to call Capital One customer service. This can save you a bunch of time since any downgrade offers online should match exactly what Capital One’s customer service agents can see.

Who Should Downgrade Their Card

Downgrading your card is a big decision. And Capital One generally makes it difficult to upgrade your card again after it was downgraded, so you’ll need to think long and hard if you’re considering downgrading your card.

Here are the types of people who should downgrade their Capital One Venture X card:

You Don’t Need Travel Perks

The Capital One Venture X card is a card that benefits people who need travel benefits and rewards the most. For example, you are eligible for an annual travel credit of up to $300 for bookings made through Capital One Travel and a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application credit.

The other major selling point of this card is the ability to enjoy unlimited complimentary lounge access to Capital One Lounges, select Plaza Premium Lounges, and Priority Pass lounges for yourself and 2 guests.

If you can utilize these perks a couple of times yearly, it should pay for the annual fee in spades.

But the value proposition is reduced if you can’t use these travel benefits.

You Don’t Spend Much on Your Credit Card

The Capital One Venture X card is one of the best cards for travel rewards and everyday spending rewards, thanks to this rewards structure:

• 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
• 5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel
• 2x miles on other purchases

To start off, earning 10x miles on travel-related purchases is amazing — that’s an 18% return on spending based on our valuations of 1.8 cents per mile. And Capital One Travel does a fantastic job at matching the best available prices online, so booking travel through Capital One is often a no-brainer.

In addition, earning a 3.6% return on spending on other purchases is a huge perk — it outperforms almost any other card out there on non-bonused purchases.

But if you’re spending less than that, you might consider downgrading your card.

You Can’t Justify an Annual Fee

If finances are generally tight, adding a $395 annual fee doesn’t make the situation any better (rates & fees). The Capital One Venture X card is an ultra-premium card that appeals mostly to luxury travelers.

As a result, getting this card is not a good idea if you’re a penny-pinching consumer that counts every dollar meticulously.

If you can’t justify a large annual fee, the Capital One Venture X card might not be the best fit for you, and it might be worth downgrading the card.

Downgrading to a Venture Family Card

The Capital One Venture X card is one of Capital One’s only ultra-premium cards. The other is the Capital One Venture X Business Rewards Card.

So if you’re downgrading your card, it’ll most likely be to a mid-tier premium or no-annual-fee card.

If you want to downgrade your Capital One Venture X card but maintain the ability to earn those valuable Capital One miles, you’ll need to downgrade to a card within the Venture family.

In this section, we’ll review the benefits of the Capital One Venture X card and walk you through your 2 best downgrade options.

Capital One Venture X Card

The Capital One Venture X card earns up to 10x Capital One miles:

• 10x miles on hotels and car rentals purchased through Capital One Travel
• 5x miles on flights purchased through Capital One Travel
• 2x miles on other purchases

Because we value Capital One miles at 1.8 cents each, you can effectively earn up to 18% back on your purchases, which is enormous.

In addition, you’ll enjoy some awesome travel perks:

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

When you downgrade your card to the Capital One Venture card, you’ll earn up to 5x Capital One miles:

• 5x miles on hotels and car rentals purchased through Capital One Travel
• 2x miles on other purchases

Again, as we value Capital One miles at 1.8 cents each, you can still earn a return on spending of up to 9% with the Capital One Venture card. However, you won’t be earning a maximum of 10x miles with this card.

However, you should note that this card still earns 2x miles on other purchases, meaning a minimum return on spending of 3.6% based on our valuations.

Also, this card still earns the same type of miles as the Capital One Venture X card: Capital One miles.

Even with a much lower annual fee of $95, you’ll still get these perks (rates & fees):

• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit
• Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Five Star status
• No foreign transaction fees (rates & fees)

Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card

The biggest disadvantage of the Capital One Venture card in the context of downgrades is that it still has an annual fee of $0. However, when you downgrade to the Capital One VentureOne card, you’ll eliminate the annual fee entirely.

This card earns a reduced rewards structure on everyday purchases, though:

• 5x miles on hotels and car rentals purchased through Capital One Travel
• 1.25x miles on other purchases

This translates to a minimum return on spending of 2.25% based on our estimations at 1.8 cents per Capital One mile, which is still decent.

The miles you earn on this card can still be transferred to the full list of Capital One’s travel partners, which is a meaningful perk on a card with a $0 annual fee (rates & fees).

Here are the major perks that remain on this card:

• No foreign transaction fees (rates & fees)
• Travel accident insurance and extended warranty

Benefits Comparison

Now that we’ve laid out all of the rewards, features, and benefits of the Venture family of cards, let’s compile our findings in a table to compare them:

Benefit	Capital One Venture X Card	Capital One Venture Card	Capital One VentureOne Card
Hotels and Car Rentals Booked Through Capital One Travel	10x miles	5x miles	5x miles
Flights Booked Through Capital One Travel	5x miles	2x miles	2x miles
Rewards on Other Purchases	2x miles	2x miles	1.25x miles
Capital One Travel Credit	Up to $300	None	None
Access to Capital One Lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, and Priority Pass Lounges	Unlimited for yourself and 2 guests	None	None
Hertz Benefits	Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle status	Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Five Star status	None
Hotel Benefits	Access to the Premier Collection	None	None
$100 TSA PreCheck or Global Entry Application Fee Credit	Yes	Yes	No
Cell Phone Protection	Yes	No	No
Travel Insurance	Primary auto rental collision damage waiver Trip cancellation and interruption insurance Trip delay reimbursement Lost luggage reimbursement Travel accident insurance Travel and emergency assistance services Visa Infinite concierge	Auto rental collision damage waiver Travel accident insurance Travel assistance services	Auto rental collision damage waiver Travel accident insurance Travel and emergency assistance services
Shopping Protections and Benefits	Purchase security Extended warranty Return protection No foreign transaction fees	Purchase Assurance Extended warranty No foreign transaction fees	Extended warranty No foreign transaction fees
Annual Fee	$395 (rates & fees)	$95 (rates & fees)	$0 (rates & fees)
Authorized Users	Add up to 4 authorized users for no additional annual fees (rates & fees)	No-fee authorized users (rates & fees)	No additional fee for authorized users (rates & fees)

When you downgrade your Capital One Venture X card to the Capital One Venture card, you’ll lose the ability to earn up to 10x miles, unlimited access to Capital One Lounges, top-tier Hertz status, a slew of travel insurance protections, and purchase security.

The biggest difference between the Capital One Venture card and the Capital One VentureOne card is the rewards on everyday purchases drop from 2x miles to 1.25x miles. You’ll also lose Hertz Five Star status, and the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee reimbursement.

Downgrading to a Different Family of Cards

Another twist with Capital One’s downgrade policy is that you can downgrade your Capital One Venture X card to 1 other card in a different family — specifically, the Quicksilver family.

Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card

The Quicksilver card is generally the only card outside of the Venture family that you can downgrade to if you hold the Capital One Venture X card.

You might want to downgrade from the Venture family to the Quicksilver family of cards if you need a card focusing on cash-back and low fees.

Right now, it earns 5% cash-back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and an unlimited 1.5% cash-back on other purchases.

Even with a $0 annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, you can even enjoy extended warranty protection with this card (rates & fees).

Hot Tip:

If you downgrade to the Quicksilver card, you will lose all of your Capital One miles, so only downgrade to this card if you’ve used up all of your rewards and want to focus on cash-back moving forward.

Final Thoughts

Overall, downgrading your Capital One Venture X card is pretty straightforward. Not all cardholders are eligible to downgrade their Capital One Venture X card — if you can’t downgrade, you’ll have no choice but to close your card.

You can find out if you’re eligible by either calling the Capital One customer service hotline or viewing your downgrade offers online.

The current downgrade options for the Capital One Venture X card are:

• Capital One Venture card
• Capital One VentureOne card
• Quicksilver card

All in all, you should carefully consider the reduction in benefits you’d encounter when downgrading to determine if your situation warrants this change to your wallet.

---

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa^® or Mastercard^® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

Enrollment required through Capital One website or mobile app. Upon enrollment, eligible cardholders will remain at upgraded status level through December 31, 2024.  Please note, enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g. at Hertz.com) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier.  Additional terms apply.