Link: Apply now for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus
I recently applied for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus (review) and was instantly approved, even though I just got approved for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) within the past several months. I wanted to share my experience applying, given what a great welcome bonus this card is offering.
In this post:
Why I applied for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus
The Capital One Spark Cash Plus is offering a big welcome bonus that can earn you up to $1,000 cash back (admittedly with a significant spending requirement):
- Earn $500 cash back when you spend $5,000 within the first three months
- Earn an additional $500 cash back when you spend a total of $50,000 within the first six months
It’s not just the welcome bonus that’s great, but this is also just a generally very lucrative card. The card offers a flat 2% cash back with no limits, making this one of the best cards for everyday spending, and one of my favorite business cards.
That means that if you spend $50,000 on the card during the bonus period, you’d get a total of $2,000 cash back, which is the equivalent of a 4% return. But it gets even better than that. In conjunction with the Capital One Venture X, rewards on the card can be converted into Capital One miles at the rate of one mile per cent.
I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each (thanks to all the ways to redeem them), so to me this is a truly unrivaled return on spending. If you’re able to swing the minimum spending requirement, taking advantage of this bonus is a no-brainer.
My experience applying for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus
I found the process of applying for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus to be pretty straightforward, though of course an instant approval always helps with my perception of application processes. 😉
The application consisted of four parts. The first part just asked for personal contact details.
The second part asked for more personal information, including my date of birth, social security number, income, monthly rent or mortgage, etc.
The third part asked for my basic business information, including the business address, business revenue, anticipated spending, etc.
Then the fourth part asked for more information about my business structure, and my role in the company.
Then there were a couple of pages of disclosures, and a summary of my application. I then hit submit, and received an instant approval, which you can’t beat!
Since the Capital One Spark Cash Plus is a charge card, there’s no pre-set spending limit, and as a result there was no credit limit listed on the page. I could then immediately link my new card to my existing Capital One online account, so that I could start managing my account.
What are Capital One’s application restrictions?
Anecdotally Capital One has very few consistent application restrictions. There have been some rumored guidelines, but I think my application disproves both of them:
- Some suggest that you can only be approved for one Capital One card every six months; I was just approved for the Capital One Spark Cash Plus after being approved for the Capital One Venture X just over two months ago
- Some suggest that you can only have two Capital One cards at a time; in this case, this is my third Capital One card
Perhaps one noteworthy distinction here is that the Capital One Spark Cash Plus is a charge card and not a credit card, so it’s possible that may impact this. Regardless, my experience so far suggests that the Capital One Spark Cash Plus might not be so hard to be approved for, even if you recently got the Capital One Venture X.
Bottom line
The Capital One Spark Cash Plus has a generous welcome bonus of up to $1,000 cash back, which can be converted into Capital One miles as well, in conjunction with another card. While the spending requirement is significant, picking up this card could be well worth it for anyone who is looking for a business card and can pull off the spending.
Hopefully this is a useful data point for anyone who is interested in this card, but also recently picked up the Capital One Venture X.
Got the Venture X card in January and was approved for the Spark card this evening. No issues applying.
Just to clarify my previous post.
I have two personal cards including Venture Rewards and Venture X.
And one business, Spark Business.
All prior to applying and being approved for this new card today.
Applied this afternoon and was approved.
I have two Venture Rewards (10 months ago) and the Venture X (2 months ago).
I also have the Spark Business (10 months ago).
Thanks Lucky for taking the plunge and reporting on this.
Applied a week ago and was approved instantly. Just got card yesterday.
Devoting 50k in spend to this card just isn’t worth the opportunity cost. I could see 20k but 50k just isn’t worth it.
At least it's better than throwing $50K at Hyatt Biz, get 25 nights, and 20K Hyatt rebate in return, ha!
@ John -- Admittedly this card isn't for everyone, as it all comes down to how much one would otherwise spend. For those who can pull off the $50K spending, I think it's safe to say that earning 8x transferable points per dollar spent on everything for the first $50K is awesome.
Does Capital One allow you to combine across family accounts? I already have the Venture X, so if my P2 got this could they transfer the $4000 cashback to me as 400,000 miles? Or does that only work if the same person has both cards?
@ Ted G -- I don't have firsthand experience with this yet (though will soon), so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I think you can only combine cash back and Capital One miles if one person has both currencies, so you can't transfer your cash back to someone else's Capital One mileage account.
Is this a visa or mastercard? I can't find any info about this.
@ JC from NYC -- Always funny how hard it can be to figure that out. I believe Spark cards are Visas nowadays.
Wow good luck getting approved. Was tempted to move into the CapitalOne sphere but rejected -- 820 FICO, $450K annual income with $400K from the business which is a single member LLC with an EIN that was submitted. I mainly use biz cards for estimated taxes (at I believe 2/5 slots currently)...Still no luck. Thanks for the hard inquiry for nothing CapitalOne. At least I know not to bother with the Venture X!
Can you call reconsideration line like Chase and ask why you were rejected? There's no reason you shouldn't be approved.
They said they would send a letter explaining the decision. That's it.
What's the practical spending limit on one of these? i.e. is there any chance I could spend the 50k at once?
@ Frank -- Can't speak to Capital One, but on Amex charge cards those amounts are usually possible. So I'd guess yes, but it also probably depends on what you put as your business revenue, spending patterns, etc.
I've done >50K on Amex charge cards in a single purchase but I also had a long relationship with Amex at the time I did that. I think trying to drop a 50K charge on a new card, regardless of issuer, with no payment history might be a stretch. I'd at least call and give them a heads up before you make the charge and get it pre-cleared.
I am enjoying seeing how Capital One Venture miles started off as kinda being just a cash back card to being a legitimate threat to the Chase and AMEX’s UR and MR ecosystem.
If they release a card that focuses on spend categories they’re gonna be fighting for that frontrunner spot.
That said I’ve no desire to sign up for this card at the moment, seeing as it’s a business card.
How many will you get once you convert cash back to venture ?
@ Canadian Churner -- They convert at the rate of one cent per Capital One mile, so $3,000 cash back would get you 300,000 Capital One miles.
"And this is one of my favorite business cards..." Seriously Lucky? Come on...you've had the card for all of 5 minutes. Perhaps this would be more convincing if you go through the motions of being a capital one business customer with this particular card for a few months and see how high you rank it. I've had spark for 3 years now and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. There is zero...
"And this is one of my favorite business cards..." Seriously Lucky? Come on...you've had the card for all of 5 minutes. Perhaps this would be more convincing if you go through the motions of being a capital one business customer with this particular card for a few months and see how high you rank it. I've had spark for 3 years now and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. There is zero support unless you call in and even then its abysmal. Maybe a little less bias in your statements would make these reviews a little more palatable and seemingly less about the referral fees you generate...
@ Jay -- As you can see, the sentence you quote me on links to my rankings of the top business credit cards, which are what I consider to be the nine best business cards out there. Admittedly I don't have all of them, and I wasn't suggesting it's the best business card based on the five minutes I have the card. ;-)
For what it's worth, I've had the Spark Miles for years, and...
@ Jay -- As you can see, the sentence you quote me on links to my rankings of the top business credit cards, which are what I consider to be the nine best business cards out there. Admittedly I don't have all of them, and I wasn't suggesting it's the best business card based on the five minutes I have the card. ;-)
For what it's worth, I've had the Spark Miles for years, and I've found it to be rewarding, and haven't had any bad experiences with it. Admittedly I don't think I've ever had to contact customer service, so I'd say that's a good thing.