Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business (Review) – Unlimited 2x Miles
Learn more about this card and find out how you can apply here.
The Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business is a business credit card with a $95 annual fee (waived the first year) and a straightforward travel rewards program that earns an unlimited 2 miles per $1 spent on every purchase. Once accumulated, miles can be redeemed for airfare, hotel stays, car rentals, and other types of travel purchases. Whereas many brand-specific business travel cards, such as the American Express Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card, assign variable values to their miles, Spark Miles’ miles are worth $0.01 apiece when redeemed for travel expenses.
Spark Miles for Business competes with a number of other business travel cards. It’s most closely tied to its stablemate, Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business, which has a less generous rewards program (1.5 miles per $1 spent) and no annual fee. Non-Capital One competitors include CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select and Starwood Preferred Guest Business.
Spark Miles is also quite similar to Capital One Spark Cash for Business. Since miles are always worth $0.01 apiece when redeemed for travel, this card effectively earns a 2% cash back rate – same as Spark Cash. However, there’s a key difference: Miles are generally redeemed for travel, whereas Spark Cash’s cash back earnings are redeemed for cash – a more versatile medium than travel.
Learn more about this card and find out how to apply here.
Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business has a two-part early spend bonus.
First, you get 50,000 miles as a one-time bonus, worth $500 when redeemed for travel expenses, when you spend at least $5,000 in eligible purchases within 3 months of opening your account.
Second, you get 150,000 bonus miles, worth $1,500 when redeemed for travel expenses, when you spend at least $50,000 in eligible purchases within the first 6 months of opening your account.
All told, that’s an early spend bonus of 200,000 bonus miles, worth up to $2,000 against eligible travel expenses, in the first 6 months.
Every purchase made with this card earns an unlimited 2 miles per $1 spent, with no caps or restrictions. That’s equivalent to a 2% cash back earning rate when you redeem for travel.
Once accumulated, miles can be redeemed for travel in one of two ways.
First, Capital One’s Purchase Eraser tool allows you to offset travel purchases you’ve already made by using an online interface or by calling Capital One directly. Purchase Eraser statement credits must be requested within 90 days of the applicable purchase. If you lack the requisite miles to offset an entire purchase, you can use a minimum of 2,500 miles to partially offset it.
Second, you can use your miles to directly book airfare, hotels, car rentals, and other travel purchases through Capital One’s travel portal. There’s no set redemption minimum for this redemption method. Importantly, neither redemption method involves blackout dates, seat restrictions, or other limitations.
While Capital One also allows you to redeem miles for non-travel items (such as gift cards, cash, and general merchandise), the values for such redemptions vary widely, often amount to less than $0.01 per mile, and are subject to change without warning, so they’re not ideal.
The $95 annual fee is waived during the first year. There is no foreign transaction fee or balance transfer fee, and the cash advance fee is the greater of $10 or 3% of the advanced amount. The penalty fee is $39, but there is no fee for additional employee cards.
Spark Miles cardholders receive quarterly and annual spending summaries. The summaries include a detailed, itemized, and categorized look at your spending during the covered period, as well as detailed reports of employee spending, if applicable.
Capital One lets you download purchase records in formats that are exportable to Quicken, Excel, and QuickBooks. These are useful for accounting and tax preparation purposes.
This card’s additional benefits include complimentary loss and damage coverage for car rentals charged in full, 24/7 emergency service (including ticket replacement and card replacement), and up to $3,000 in lost luggage reimbursement per trip for travel tickets (plane, train, and so on) charged in full.
This card requires good to excellent credit. A few minor dings won’t disqualify your application, but more serious blemishes probably will.
The Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business has a lot in common with Capital One Venture Rewards, a popular travel rewards card for consumers. Like Spark Miles for Business, Venture Rewards earns 2 miles on every purchase, with no limitations or restrictions. If you’ve dreamed of starting your own business but haven’t yet found the time or resources, you don’t qualify for Spark Miles – yet. However, you may qualify for Venture Rewards. And, if you like what you see here, it might just suit you well.
Learn more about this card and find out how to apply here.
Learn more about this card and find out how you can apply here.
Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business is a great credit card for business owners who make purchases in a wide range of spending categories, use their cards enough to out-earn the annual fee, and travel enough to make the rewards system valuable to them. Thanks to its lack of balance transfer fees, it’s also useful for business owners who need to trim existing high-interest balances. On the other hand, this isn’t ideal for business owners who don’t spend much, don’t travel frequently, value fringe benefits, or want to redeem for non-travel items.
Key benefits include an excellent early spend bonus, solid balance transfer terms, great baseline earning rate, limited fees, flexible rewards redemption, reasonable credit requirements, and a lack of blackout dates.
Drawbacks include the annual fee, minimal travel and business benefits, poor non-travel redemption choices, and a lack of a promotional introductory APR. And remember that while this card has the same effective cash back rate (2%) as Spark Cash for Business, it essentially forces you to redeem for travel. You could call it, perhaps uncharitably, a cash back card that’s only pretending to be a travel card.
Still, Spark Miles for Business is a good card for travelers who aren’t loyal to a particular airline or hotel brand.
Editorial Note: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Categories: Capital One, Credit and Debt, Credit Cards, Reviews, Small Business
Brian Martucci writes about frugal living, entrepreneurship, and innovative ideas. When he’s not interviewing small business owners or investigating time- and money-saving strategies for Money Crashers readers, he’s probably out exploring a new trail or sampling a novel cuisine. Find him on Twitter @Brian_Martucci.
Comments Disclosure: The below responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
33 Best New Bank Account Promotions & Offers – Dec 2018
20 Best Small Business Credit Cards – Reviews & Comparison
15 Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards – Reviews & Comparison
13 Best Cash Back Credit Cards – Reviews & Comparison
11 Best Ways to Make Money from Home (Legitimate)
Extreme Couponing 101: How to Extreme Coupon and Save 84%+ on Groceries
Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business (Review) – Unlimited 2x Miles
Research & References of Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business (Review) – Unlimited 2x Miles|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks