Capital One is partnering with Turo to offer extra rewards for car sharing.
In this post:
Capital One Venture offering 5-10x miles with Turo
Capital One and Turo have just launched a new partnership:
- The Capital One Venture X Credit Card (review) now offers 10x Venture miles for Turo spending
- The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) now offers 5x Venture miles for Turo spending
This is a limited time partnership that’s valid for one year, between May 17, 2022, and May 16, 2023. Presumably this has the potential to be extended.
Personally I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each, so to me that’s like an 8.5-17% return on Turo spending, which is excellent. There aren’t any other credit cards that offer bonus points specifically with a car sharing platform like Turo, though Turo purchases do often code under the generic “travel” category. That means that cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) earn 3x points on these purchases (which is still a far cry from 5-10x points).
We’re increasingly seeing credit cards offer limited time partnerships. In many situations this can be a win-win — credit card issuers can offer more points to cardmembers, while other brands get access to a lucrative customer base.
What is Turo, anyway?
For those not familiar with Turo, it’s a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, so it’s a popular alternative to rental cars. To put it differently, Turo is to rental cars as Uber is to taxis.
On the surface Turo is a great concept, since the rental car industry has historically been quite frustrating (though frankly National Emerald Aisle and Hertz President’s Circle have made me dislike renting cars a lot less).
I’ve never used Turo, though back in 2017 Ford wrote about his terrible experience with Turo. Turo seems to be great when things go well, but when things don’t go well, you may find an unhelpful car owner and terrible customer service from Turo, with little recourse.
Bottom line
Capital One has a new partnership with Turo, offering 5-10x Venture miles on spending with Turo through May 2023. For those who rent from Turo frequently, this could be a pretty significant source of earning rewards, since no other credit card has a partnership with Turo.
Will you benefit from this Capital One & Turo partnership?
@thebigjuan hit the nail on the head. Turo seems like a good deal until you factor in insurance, the only way to be protected is to buy their expensive insurance. Credit card CDW won't cover it, my personal car insurance won't cover it.
Turo includes insurance in its rentals. It's meant for people who don't own a car and therefore wouldn't have their own insurance.
Turo includes liability insurance, not CDW. They charge you extra for "full coverage" (at least they did a year or so ago when I last considered booking a Turo car). On top of that, I find that there's almost always a hefty fee to deliver the car to the airport, so together with the extra insurance, any savings vs renting a car the old-fashioned way is usually wiped out. Of course one could take an...
Turo includes liability insurance, not CDW. They charge you extra for "full coverage" (at least they did a year or so ago when I last considered booking a Turo car). On top of that, I find that there's almost always a hefty fee to deliver the car to the airport, so together with the extra insurance, any savings vs renting a car the old-fashioned way is usually wiped out. Of course one could take an Uber to wherever the car is, but that also costs money and it's a hassle.
But sometimes paying the full insurance on Turo is still significantly cheaper than using a rental car company.
You've enjoyed your experience with Hertz despite your guy Leff writing about people being jailed every other day for renting from them? Interesting. That scares the heck out of me. I've avoided Hertz like the plague. Maybe I'll give Emerald a run.
AJ while the arrests were unfounded, keep in mind this was typically for people who kept the car well past the original return date.
Typically is not close to always. For example, people are typically Asian women.
"This is a limited time partnership that’s valid for two years, between May 17, 2022, and May 16, 2023." That's one year, right?
What about the rental car primary insurance protections usually associated with the use of a credit card? I specifically contacted Chase about this. Chase will not extend their insurance protections to a Turo rental that is not issued through a certified car rental agency. I'd guess that the extended Am Ex primary coverage would have the same stance.
If Capital One enacts primary coverage and it extends to all Turo rentals then this becomes...
What about the rental car primary insurance protections usually associated with the use of a credit card? I specifically contacted Chase about this. Chase will not extend their insurance protections to a Turo rental that is not issued through a certified car rental agency. I'd guess that the extended Am Ex primary coverage would have the same stance.
If Capital One enacts primary coverage and it extends to all Turo rentals then this becomes an interesting proposition. Until then, hard pass.
My personal auto insurance won't cover Turo, either. I suspect that is true of most if not all ordinary auto insurance policies.
Note that rental car coverage obtained through your credit card does not cover turo rentals
I was thinking this the whole time....