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Capital One Spark Cash Select review: Earn a $200 cash bonus with no annual fee

  • Jason Stauffer

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    (Photo by Atstock Productions/Shutterstock)

    Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

    The Capital One® Spark® Cash Select for Business is a business cash back credit card that also just happens to have no annual fee. And, after opening the card and the meeting the minimum spending requirements you’ll earn a $200 bonus.

    Apply for the Capital One Spark Cash Select card here.

    This card also earns a straight-forward 1.5% back on every purchase, so it’s simple to use. But it doesn’t come with many benefits, so it’s not a great business credit card for everyone.

    Nothing is more simple than cash back. (Photo by Atstock Productions/Shutterstock)

    Who is the Capital One Spark Cash Select for?

    At the end of the day, you’ll earn 1.5% cash back on all of the business expenses you pay with the card. If you want free money with no hassle, it’s a good option. But depending on your business, you might be able to earn more cash back with very little extra effort.

    You might be in love with the idea of earning a solid 1.5% cash back on every purchase because it gives you less to think about. But could you earn more by having a card that had a bonus of 5% cash back for certain purchases? How much more would you need to earn to make it worth your while? Here’s an example the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card earns 5% cash back on the first $25,000 of combined purchases in each account anniversary year (1% after that) from office supply stores and on internet, cable, and phone services. If your business spends a lot on those kinds of purchases, you’d do very well with this card. From the extra 3.5% back you’d earn in these category bonuses, you’d be banking up to a whopping $875 more per year if you spent a full $25,000.

    Also, you need to be able to qualify for a business card, which might not be as difficult as you think. You don’t need to own a large retail store or be the founder of a popular iPhone app to be eligible for a business card. Lots of side hustles, freelance gigs, and independent contractor jobs will qualify you, as well. And if you are a sole proprietor (own and operate the business by yourself), you aren’t required to have a business EIN (Employer Identification Number) to apply for a business card. You can just use your social security number on the application and in most circumstances, sole proprietors can use their own name as their legal business name on the application.

    Current bonus

    You can earn a $200 cash bonus after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

    Benefits and perks

    The main benefit to having the Capital One Spark Cash Select card is that it earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases. That’s a solid rate of return for a credit card with no annual fee. Other than the card is light on perks, but it does comes with no foreign transaction fees, rental car insurance and extended warranty coverage.

    How to redeem rewards

    This is a cash back credit card, so it doesn’t get any easier to redeem the rewards you earn. You can redeem your cash back for a statement credit, toward a purchase on your account or you can get a check mailed to you.

    Is the annual fee worth it?

    This card has no annual fee, so whether or not it’s worth it has nothing to do with what you’ll pay to keep the card. But there is still a cost to having it because business Capital One credit cards will appear on your personal credit report. That means that this card will add to your Chase 5/24 count and could restrict you from being eligible for the Chase credit cards, which are some of the best travel credit cards out there.

    Alternatives to the Capital One Spark Cash Select

    The Capital One Spark Cash for Business comes with a bigger bonus of $500 cash after spending $4,500 in the first three months of account opening and it earns 2% back on all purchases. It does have a $95 annual fee, but the fee is waived for the first year. So, as long as you can meet the increased spending requirement the Capital One Spark Cash card is a better option.

    You could also apply for the Capital One Spark Miles for Business, which has a bonus offer of 50,000 miles after spending $4,500 in the first three months from opening the account. It earns 2x miles on all purchases and its $95 annual fee is waived for the first year. Plus, the card comes with a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit.

    Earning Capital One miles is a bit more restrictive than earning cash back because you can only redeem the miles for one cent each toward eligible travel purchases. But you can also transfer Capital One miles to 17 travel partners, which can greatly increase the value of your Capital One miles. So while the rewards you earn with the Capital One Spark Miles card can only be redeemed for travel, they can be much more valuable than what you earn with the Spark cash cards.

    Bottom line

    The Capital One Spark Cash for Business is a decent cash-back card with no annual fee, but there are definitely options with more rewarding bonus and better earning rates. So it’s not the right card for everyone. The main appeal of it is how simple the rewards are to earn and redeem and the fact that you don’t have to manage an annual fee.

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    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)