Capital One Spark Cash Select Review

Pros

• Unlimited cash back rewards program
• No annual fee
• Employee cards at no extra cost
• No foreign transaction fees

Cons

• Requires excellent credit

What Is Capital One Spark Cash Select?

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.

Capital One Spark Cash Select: Quick Facts

Rewards & Perks

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.

Cash Bonus

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.

Unlimited Cash Back On All Purchases

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.

Redeeming Rewards

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 & Fees

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.

A Decent APR

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.

No Annual Fee

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.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Similar to the other Capital One business cards, this bit of plastic does not incur foreign transaction fees.

Other 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.

Card Features

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 Requirements

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:

• Never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan
• Have not been more than 60 days late on any credit card, medical bill, or loan in the past year
• Maintained a loan or credit card for three-plus years with a credit limit above $5,000

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.

Customer Service

Capital One offers a full range of support avenues for all Spark business credit card customers.

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.

Capital One Spark Cash Select Reviews

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.

How Does Spark 1.5% Cash Select Compare To The Alternatives?

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.

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

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 make purchases in multiple categories
• You want a cash back card without an annual fee
• You can take advantage of the card’s perks, such as free employee cards, no foreign transaction fees, and extended warranty

You might want to look for a different card if:

• You have one or two specific spending categories that match better with a card that offers higher reward rates
• You spend enough to offset an annual fee on a card with a better reward rate
• 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.

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