Capital One® Spark® Miles For Business: Great For Business Travelers

Capital One® Spark® Miles For Business: Great For Business Travelers

Capital One is the premier credit card company and the Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business card is the premier business credit card. If you are a frequent flier for business, Spark Miles is the card for you.

If you sign up with the Spark Miles card, you can get 50,000 sign-up bonus miles after you spend $5,000 in the first three months. But here’s where it really gets good. If you spend $50,000 over the first six months, you get an additional 150,000 miles.

Enjoy Huge Bonuses

Getting 200,000 sign-up bonus miles is insane! 200,000 is by far the highest sign-up bonus miles I've seen after reviewing dozens of business credit cards every month here on Financial Samurai. Like everything, all good things don't last forever. This is a current limited offer, so take advantage.

But it gets better! If you successfully spend $50,000 within the first six months of signing up, you also earn an unlimited 2 miles per dollar. In other words, you’re actually earning 300,000 miles worth $3,000!

Capital One® Spark® Miles For Business Review

Capital One Spark Miles For Business Miles Credit Card

Besides the incredible rewards of 2 miles on all purchases and 200,000 introductory miles offer, here are some other great features of the Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business card:

  • Great ongoing rewards: Earn 5 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One travel. 5X miles per dollar is one of the highest rewards multipliers today. The usual rewards multiplier is only 2X – 3X miles per dollar based on our research of over 100 credit cards.
  • Great rewards value: Each Capital One mile is valued at around 1.3 cents to 1.4 cents each. Therefore, if you earn 5X on hotel and rental car spending, you’re really getting 6.5 – 7 cents per dollar, which is even better.
  • Quarterly and year-end summaries: Itemized reports are provided quarterly and yearly for your business, allowing you to stress less in regard to planning, budgeting and taxes.
  • Visa SavingsEdge: You can save up to 15% at select merchants.
  • Downloadable purchase records: Don’t worry about figuring out how to transfer purchase records to your given accounting program — they can easily be downloaded to Quicken, QuickBooks and Excel.
  • Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection: With over 900 hotels, the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection allows you to access exclusive benefits and bookings.
  • Roadside dispatch: Don’t worry if your car is stuck; you’ll receive 24/7 towing and locksmith referral services in the U.S. and Canada.
  • Auto rental collision damage waiver: You may be covered for theft or collision when you rent an eligible car with your card.
  • Travel and emergency assistance: Access 24/7 emergency service when traveling. Services include ticket replacement, legal or medical referrals and more.
  • Visa Signature Concierge service: Receive 24/7 access to representatives that will assist you in booking travel, events, reservations and more.
  • Lost luggage reimbursement: Your checked or carry-on luggage is covered up to $3,000 if lost or stolen, as long as you charge your entire ticket to your card.
  • Travel accident insurance: Charge your travel fare to your card and receive coverage for accidental death or dismemberment, at no extra cost.
  • Fine Wine & Food: Great for a business excursion or client meeting; receive access to special dining and wine experiences.
  • Various discounts: When making purchases on your card, you can receive discounts at retailers, and special access to popular sporting events, premiere golf benefits and more.

With all these card benefits, business owners would be nuts not to own a business rewards credit card. However, the Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business does come with a waived annual fee of $0 for the first year, then $95 a year after that. But a $95 annual fee is next to nothing given you're getting huge sign-up bonuses in the first six months and 2 miles on everything.

Is Your Business Large Enough To Justify Getting Sparks Miles?

Let's be frank. Not all businesses will spend $50,000 within six months. If not, you should consider signing up for the Chase Ink Business Unlimited card instead. It has no annual fee and you get 1.5% cash back on all purchases.

You also get a healthy $500 sign-up bonus if you spend just $3,000 within three months of signing up. I own this card and it is my favorite no annual fee business credit card.

But if you do have a business that spends and earns a decent amount each year, the Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business is great. Below is an example of an online business's income statement mirrored after my own business.

The sample business generates $100,800 in online revenue per month and spends $5,150 a month in business expenses which are put all on the Sparks Miles card. Talk about an awesome 95% operating profit margin! No wonder why I recommend everyone to start their own website.

Over the course of a year, this business will spend $61,800 on the Sparks Miles card, and therefore, generate 200,000 bonus signup miles PLUS another 123,600 miles since you get 2 miles for ever dollar spent. That's 323,600 bonus miles equal to about $3,236 for travel. You can redeem miles for 5-6 round-trip flights to Hawaii from the mainland if you want. Or, you can treat yourself to a first class round-trip ticket to Asia.

Capital One® Spark® Miles For Business Card

Maximize Your Capital One® Spark® Miles For Business Card

The best way to maximize the use of your Spark Miles card is to focus all your business transactions on your card. Not only will focusing your business spending on the card help you keep track of all your business expenses when it's time to do your monthly or quarterly income statement, you also get 2 miles per dollar spent on everything.

When traveling abroad, use this card since there is no foreign transaction fee. This allows you to save on the 3 – 5 percent fee most other cards have.

Finally, make sure to meet the requirements for the miles bonus. At the very least, earn 50,000 sign-up bonus miles when you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months. This should be easy to do for your small business. Then earn 150,000 bonuses when you spend $50,000 in the first 6 months of your account opening so you earn extra rewards.

Miles Redemption Is Easy

If you travel 2X or more times a year and spend at least $20,000 a year on your business, the Spark Miles card will rack up rewards miles for you in a hurry! The Spark Miles also offers a TSA PreCheck/Global Entry application fee credit (up to $100) that isn’t available on the Spark Cash.

Standing in the long check-in lines at the airport have become a real epidemic. Just look at the nightmare picture below where I had to stand in line for 35 minutes just to check in! I then had to stand in line for another 45 minutes to go through security. It is totally worth it for me and especially those traveling with young children to use the TSA PreCheck/Global Entry program.

Capital One Sparks Miles For Business

Capital One is partners with 15 airlines where you can transfer your miles at a 2-to-1.5 ratio. Here are the 15 airlines:

  • Aeromexico Club Premier
  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Alitalia MilleMiglia
  • Air France-KLM Flying Blue
  • Avianca LifeMiles
  • Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
  • Emirates Skywards (2:1)
  • Etihad Guest
  • EVA Infinity MileageLands
  • Finnair Plus
  • Hainan Fortune Wings Club
  • JetBlue TrueBlue (2:1)
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer
  • Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (2:1)

Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business Is Great

Every year, we use our Spark Miles card to pay for our family vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii, our favorite place on Earth. My dad is from Hawaii and my parents have lived there since 1920.

Nothing feels better than growing your business and then getting rewarded for your hard work with a trip home to paradise. In Hawaii, we of course do some business meetings to legitimize the trip as a business expense as well. After all, a good business has good team-building and morale-boosting activities!

Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business Is A Good Card

The Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business owners who travel a lot for work or who enjoy traveling for leisure. The limited time bonus offer is the best I've seen on the entire market.

As a business owner since 2009, it's a no-brainer to have one or two cash rewards business credit cards as well as one or two personal rewards credit cards. Learn more and sign up for the Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business card here to take advantage of all its benefits.

About the Author: Sam worked in investment banking for 13 years at GS and CS. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics from The College of William & Mary and got his MBA from UC Berkeley. In 2012, Sam was able to retire at the age of 34 largely due to his investments that now generate roughly $250,000 a year in passive income. He spends most of his time playing tennis, racking up cash back rewards, and taking care of his family.

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