Comparison: Capital One Spark Miles Vs. Spark Cash Plus

Link: Apply now for the Capital One Spark Miles for Business or Capital One Spark Cash Plus

Capital One has a solid selection of business cards. In addition to the Capital One Venture X Business (review), there’s also the Capital One Spark Miles for Business (review) and Capital One Spark Cash Plus (review).

In this post, I wanted to compare Capital One’s two popular Spark products, and talk about which represents a better value.

Basics of the Spark Miles vs. Spark Cash Plus

On the surface, the Capital One Spark Miles for Business and Capital One Spark Cash Plus seem like they have totally different value propositions, but they’re more similar than you might think. Taking the excellent welcome bonuses out of the equation, let’s take a look at the basics of each of these cards.

There are lots of great reasons to get the Capital One Spark Miles for Business, so here are the card details:

• The card has $0 intro for first year; $95 after that annual fee
• The card offers 2x miles per dollar spent with no foreign transaction fees; those rewards can be transferred to Capital One’s airline and hotels partners, or can be redeemed for one cent each toward travel purchases
• The card offers a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit once every four years
• The card is a credit card, meaning it has a pre-set spending limit

Meanwhile there are also good reasons to get the Capital One Spark Cash Plus, so here are the card details:

• The card has a $150 annual fee
• The card offers 2% cash back on all purchases with no foreign transaction fees
• The card offers a $150 cash bonus when you spend $150,000 or more on the card in an anniversary year; in other words, if you’re a big spender, this recoups the annual fee
• The card is a charge card, meaning it has no pre-set spending limit, and is potentially ideal for big purchases

These cards aren’t as different as they seem

Logically many people are probably thinking that these two cards are similar in name only, as one card earns cash back you can spend toward anything, while one card earns travel rewards.

What’s great is that while the Capital One Spark Cash Plus is a cash back card on the surface, in reality rewards can be converted into Capital One miles, assuming you have the card in conjunction with a card earning those miles. This can be done directly on Capital One’s website, and is an easy process.

Assuming you have a card like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review), then you can convert these rewards into Capital One miles at the rate of one cent per mile.

Since I value Capital One miles at significantly more than one cent, this is how I would choose to use my rewards. In other words, for my purposes the two cards have virtually identical rewards structures — both earn me 2x Capital One miles, it’s just a function of whether I’m earning them directly or indirectly.

How to decide between the two Spark cards

If you’re trying to decide between the Capital One Spark Miles for Business and Capital One Spark Cash Plus, how should you go about approaching this? The first thing to understand is that you’re potentially eligible for both of these cards, including the excellent welcome bonuses, as they’re not mutually exclusive.

With that in mind, here’s my take on the advantages of the Capital One Spark Miles for Business:

• The card consistently has a smaller welcome bonus, but also with a more reasonable spending requirement, in case you spend that much on business cards
• On an ongoing basis, the card’s annual fee is $55 lower, so it has that going for it
• In theory there’s value to the card’s Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit, but in reality it’s hard to value that since it’s only offered several years, and many of us have multiple cards offering this perk
• The card directly earns Capital One miles; this isn’t a big deal if you have other cards earning Capital One miles, but if this is your only card in the Capital One ecosystem, then that’s valuable

Meanwhile here’s what I consider the advantages to be of the Capital One Spark Cash Plus:

• The card consistently has a much larger welcome bonus, but with a significant spending requirement
• If you can spend $150K on the card in an anniversary year, getting a statement credit equivalent to the $150 annual fee is awesome, and essentially makes this a no annual fee card for mental accounting purposes
• Many will appreciate the lack of a pre-set spending limit on this card, for situations where you want to make a big business purchase that another card doesn’t have a big enough credit limit for
• Some might appreciate the flexibility of earning cash back rather than travel rewards, in the event we see significant devaluations at some point in the future

Despite the different branding, I’d argue that perhaps the biggest competitors to these products is the Capital One Venture X Business (review), as the card represents a fantastic value. The card has a $395 annual fee, but offers lots of perks:

• The Venture X Business offers a huge welcome bonus
• The Venture X Business offers unlimited 2x miles on every purchase; you can book through Capital One Travel to earn 5x miles on flights and 10x miles on hotels and rental cars, all with no foreign transaction fees and no preset spending limit
• The Venture X Business offers a $300 Capital One Travel credit plus 10,000 anniversary bonus miles every year, which in my opinion justifies the annual fee on an ongoing basis
• The Venture X Business offers a Priority Pass membership and Capital One Lounge access for the primary cardmember

Bottom line

The Capital One Spark Miles for Business and Capital One Spark Cash Plus are both excellent business cards. The Spark Miles for Business earns 2x miles per dollar spent, while the Spark Cash Plus offers 2% cash back, but that can potentially be converted into miles.

If you ask me, the Spark Cash Plus is the better option if you value earning “pure” cash back (rather than money to spend toward travel), and if you’re a big spender, given the ability to get a statement credit, and the lack of a pre-set spending limit. Meanwhile if you want to earn travel rewards, the Spark Miles for Business is a great option.

What’s your take on the value of the Spark Miles vs. Spark Cash Plus?