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Learn MoreWith unlimited cash back and no annual fee, Spark Cash Select, offered by Capital One, sounds like a great credit card for small businesses. But are there any downsides?
Total Rating | 4.6 |
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Rewards & Perks5.0 | |
Rates & Fees4.6 | |
Features5.0 | |
Eligibility Requirements2.6 | |
Customer Service4.0 | |
User Reviews3.8 |
Annual Fee
$0Minimum Credit Score Requirements
ExcellentRewards Rate Range
1.5% - 5%Table of Contents
Capital One Spark Cash Select offers an unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases. This is Capital One’s middle-rate cash back business credit card, falling between Spark Cash Plus and Spark Classic.
Cards with flat rates like Spark Cash Select are a simple way to save money and manage your expenses without dealing with tiered rewards systems or point values.
Does Spark 1.5% Cash Select deserve to be counted among the best business credit cards? Keep reading to see if this card is right for you.
Annual Fee | $0 |
Purchase APR | 17.49% - 23.49% (variable) |
Welcome Offer | $500 if you spend $4,500 within the first 3 months |
Intro Purchase APR | N/A |
Intro Balance Transfer APR | N/A |
Foreign Transaction Fee | $0 |
Rewards | Unlimited 1.5% on all purchases, 5% on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One’s travel site |
Featured Benefit | Zero fraud liability if your card is lost or stolen. Plus, get automatic fraud alerts via text, email, or phone call. |
Rewards & Perks5.0 |
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Earning Rewards 5.0 |
Rewards Redemption 5.0 |
Spark Cash Select promises an easy-to-understand rewards scheme that won’t require a Ph.D. in math to understand. An early spend bonus is just icing on the cake.
Spark Cash Select offers a bonus of $500 if you spend $4,500 within the first 3 months. It’s a fairly generous early spend bonus, so if you were going to spend close to that amount anyway during the three months in question, it’s a compelling offer.
Once you’ve hit the requirements, you’ll receive the bonus within two billing cycles. As is the case with most credit cards, current or previous Spark cardholders aren’t eligible for the bonus.
Spark Cash Select features an easy 1.5% cash back for every purchase you make on the card. You can also earn unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One’s travel site.
When coupled with the card’s lack of an annual fee (see the Rates & Fees section), you’ll be earning a tidy sum whenever you make a purchase. Plus, the 1.5% rate is for all purchases; some cards only hand out rates above 1% when spending within specific categories. This might make the Spark Cash Select appealing if you spend across numerous categories.
Note that cash advances, balance transfers, and checks used to access your account won’t receive cash back, as Capital One does not consider these transactions to be purchases.
You can receive rewards at your convenience as a statement credit, check, or set your account to redeem rewards automatically on a periodic basis.
Capital One also enables the option for an automatic redemption trigger, which can be set through the company’s online portal or by contacting the rewards center. Automatic redemption options include a specific time each calendar year or when a spending threshold (such as $25, $100, or $500) has been met.
Besides cash back, you can choose several other redemption methods. Available options include credits for previous purchases, gift cards, and more. Note that different types of rewards might be worth less than (or possibly more than) straight cash back.
Your rewards will not expire for the duration that your account is active, and you can transfer them between certain Capital One accounts. According to Capital One, not all reward products can be shifted between accounts. Be aware that if you shutter your account, any unredeemed rewards will be lost.
Rates & Fees4.6 |
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Rates 4.1 |
Fees 5.0 |
We love that Spark Cash Select carries no annual fee. It’s a big part of why we gave the card high marks in this category.
Apart from that, with Spark Cash Select, your APR will be within the range of 17.49% - 23.49% (variable). This APR ranges from good to somewhat above the industry average. As such, double-check the APR included in your account agreement before you start carrying a balance.
One of the big highlights of the Spark Cash Select card is that you won’t need to worry about paying an annual fee. That makes Spark Cash Select an appetizing entrée, especially when coupled with its 1.5% cash back rate.
Because this card has no annual fee, you’ll be able to earn more from it than Capital One’s 2% cash back business card, Spark Cash, if you spend less than $19,000 per year*. After breaking the $19,000 spending barrier, the other card will be more profitable.
* How we got this number: for Spark Cash Select: $18,999 × 1.5% cash back rate = $284.985 cash back; for Spark Cash: $18,999 × 2% cash back rate – $95 annual fee = $284.98 cash back.
Similar to the other Capital One business cards, this bit of plastic does not incur foreign transaction fees.
Spark Cash Select carries no balance transfer fees. However, there is a fee for cash advances of $5 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is higher.
There’s also a late payment fee that runs up to $39.
Features5.0 |
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Business Perks 5.0 |
Extra Benefits 5.0 |
With the Spark Cash Select card, you’ll have access to Capital One’s suite of business benefits. These benefits programs offer solid coverage along with travel and shopping features.
Eligibility Requirements2.6 |
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Credit Score 2.0 |
Requirement Disclosure 5.0 |
Spark Cash Select requires excellent credit to qualify.
Per its website, Capital One considers you to have excellent credit if you’ve met these standards:
If we want to base credit strength on a single number, a score of 740+ is generally considered excellent. Note that Capital One does not market a specific qualifying minimum credit score for the Spark Cash Select card.
Maverick Tip: Not sure what your credit score is? Check out one of these free credit score websites to find out.
Customer Service4.0 |
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Support Options 5.0 |
Support Quality 3.0 |
Capital One offers a full range of support avenues for all Spark business credit card customers.
Spark Cash Select From Capital One Customer Service | Availability |
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Phone Support | |
Email Support | |
Support Tickets | |
Live Chat | |
Dedicated Support Representative | |
Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
Videos & Tutorials | |
Company Blog | |
Social Media |
With 24/7 direct support, FAQs, and (mostly) satisfactory reviews from users, we’re giving Spark Cash Select decent ratings in this category, though there is room for improvement.
User Reviews3.8 |
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User Feedback 3.0 |
Review Sites 4.2 |
Spark Cash Select gets a good reception among reviewers and cardholders. At last count, 600+ reviews have given the card an average score of 3.9/5 at WalletHub, making it one of the site’s higher-rated business credit cards.
Capital One’s website for Spark Cash Select hosts user reviews as well, and the card gets an average score of 4.4/5 there (based on 1,000+ reviews).
Here’s a summary of consumer sentiment regarding this credit card as found on these two sites.
Spark Cash Select is a solid business credit card with broad appeal, but let’s explore instances that may call for the use of another option.
Any business credit card that offers unlimited cash back with no annual fee is worth your consideration, and Capital One Spark Cash Select offers this and more.
However, if you run a large business or corporation with strong business fundamentals (and if you don’t want to assume personal liability for your credit card debt!), consider one of the best corporate credit cards instead. Most of these cards don’t even check your personal credit.
You might want to apply if:
You might want to look for a different card if:
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.
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.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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