Capital One Spark Miles Select Review

What Is Capital One Spark Miles Select?

Capital One Spark Miles Select is a travel business credit card. With a flat rate of 1.5 miles per $1 spent (plus five miles per $1 spent on hotels and car rentals booked via Capital One Travel) with no cap, miles are easy to earn and redeem. Miles can be used for most travel purchases, such as flights, hotels, and car rentals.

Read on to see if Spark Miles Select deserves a place among the best business credit cards.

Capital One Spark Miles Select: Quick Facts

Rewards & Perks

Spark Miles Select is an all-around strong card when it comes to rewards. With unlimited 1.5x miles on all purchases, extra rewards for travel bookings made through Capital One’s travel portal, and a generous early spend bonus, we’re giving Spark Miles Select perfect ratings in this category.

An Early Spend Bonus Of 50,000 Miles

If you spend $4,500 on purchases within three months of opening your account, you’ll collect 50,000 bonus miles. Capital One claims this early spend bonus is equivalent to $500 in cash, although your exact value may vary, depending on how you redeem your miles.

Unlimited 1.5x Miles On All Purchases

The Spark Miles Select base rewards scheme isn’t flashy, but it gets the job done: You’ll nab 1.5 miles per dollar spent on all purchases. There’s no cap on what you can earn, plus no restrictions on purchase categories.

5x Miles On Hotels & Rental Cars

You’ll earn miles at a 5x rate when booking hotels and rental cars through Capital One Travel. It’s a great perk, but remember that all other charges made outside of Capital One Travel (such as room charges or upgrades) will collect miles at the card’s standard 1.5x rate.

Additionally, booking hotels and rental cars outside of Capital One Travel won’t trigger the 5x rate.

Redeeming Rewards

The easiest redemption option is to use your miles through Capital One’s travel portal. When booking travel through Capital One, you’ll be able to use your miles on airfare, hotels, packages, car rentals, and more. According to Capital One, there are no blackout dates or seat restrictions, and there is no required minimum redemption amount.

Besides travel, Capital One allows you to redeem miles for cash as a check or account credit, gift cards from an array of merchants, and more. Note that if you choose one of these redemption methods, the cash value of your miles may vary from the standard $0.01 per mile rate.

What’s more, you can transfer your miles to select air travel loyalty programs. Capital One currently offers the ability to transfer miles to 15 partners, including JetBlue, Emirates Skywards, Air Canada, and Air France.

As with all Capital One business credit cards, miles earned with Spark Miles Select won’t expire for the duration your account is active. You may be able to transfer miles between select Capital One accounts, but if you close your account, unredeemed rewards will be lost.

Rates & Fees

Though Spark Miles Select no longer offers an introductory 0% APR, the card’s ongoing APR is quite competitive, plus there is no annual fee. All told, we’ve given the card strong marks in this category.

A Competitive APR

Spark Miles Select carries an APR that ranges from 18.49%-24.49% (variable). While this rate is competitive against other credit cards, you won’t have to worry about it as long as you pay off your bill every month.

No Annual Fee

A plus for frugal businesses, this card carries no annual fee. This is especially impressive when you consider that the Spark Miles Select offers an enticing rewards rate of 1.5x miles per dollar.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Like other Capital One business credit cards, the Spark Miles Select has no foreign transaction fees. Because this card is marketed as a travel card, its lack of foreign transaction fees is important for frequent overseas travelers.

Other Fees

Despite lacking annual and foreign transaction fees, there are a couple of standard credit card fees to watch out for. These include a cash advance fee of either $5 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance (whichever number is higher) and a late payment fee of up to $39.

Card Features

Capital One offers a full range of business benefits with all its business credit cards, and Spark Miles Select is no exception. With a solid slate of business perks, this card gets a perfect score in the Features category.

Eligibility Requirements

Capital One designed the Spark Miles Select card to be used by those aged 18 or above and with excellent credit. Per its website, Capital One recommends excellent credit users to have:

• Never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan
• Been no more than 60 days late for a payment in the past year on credit cards, medical bills, or loan repayments
• A loan or credit card for at least three years with a credit limit of $5,000 or higher

If we distill “excellent credit” into a single score, those with a credit score of at least 740 are often considered to have excellent credit. Note that this number is just a guideline — Capital One does not market a minimum credit score for this card.

Customer Service

Capital One offers a full range of customer support options for all Spark business cardholders.

Spark Miles Select earns a good score for this category. With 24/7 live support, FAQs, and (mostly) decent reviews from users, there’s nothing here that raises any red flags.

Capital One Spark Miles Select Reviews

Capital One Spark Miles gets good reviews from both professional reviewers and cardholders. The card gets an average user score of 3.9/5 at WalletHub (out of 311 reviews), and on Capital One’s own Spark Miles Select page, the card gets an average score of 4.5/5 (717 reviews).

Here’s a summary of what we’ve found in the user reviews.

How Does Capital One Spark Miles Select Compare To The Alternatives?

Spark Miles Select is a strong business travel card, but let’s explore when it might make sense to go with another option.

Final Verdict: Is Capital One Spark Miles Select Right For You?

Capital One’s Spark Miles Select is one of the stronger business credit card options for frequent travelers. It’s no mistake that we’ve given it an excellent 4.6/5 overall score. Uncapped rewards, no annual fee, and enhanced points-earning on travel booked through Capital One’s travel portal — it all adds up to a card that will fit a wide range of businesses.

Keep in mind that if you run a large business/corporation with expense management needs — and you want to avoid personal liability for any debts incurred — you might want to go with one of the best corporate credit cards instead.

You might want to apply if…

• You are unlikely to spend more than $19,000 per year on purchases besides hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel
• You or your employees do a lot of travel, and you want a card with flexible travel rewards
• You want a simple way to earn travel reward miles

You might want to look for a different card if…

• You are likely to put more than $19,000 on your card per year on purchases besides hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel
• You want to use rewards points for reasons other than travel
• You don’t have excellent credit

Credit Card Review Methodology

We spend hours researching and evaluating each credit card that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our ratings.

When rating credit cards and credit card issuers, we use an 18-point rubric that looks at rewards and perks, rates and fees, features, eligibility requirements, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating.

• Rewards & Perks: 40% of the total star rating
• Rates & Fees: 30% of the total star rating
• Features: 15% of the total star rating
• Eligibility Requirements: 5% of the total star rating
• Customer Service: 5% of the total star rating
• User Reviews: 5% of the total star rating

Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we examine specific attributes like APR, introductory offers, cash back and travel rewards, credit score requirements and disclosures, foreign transaction fees, and the availability of employee cards.

Read more about how we rate business credit cards.