Earn 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Otherwise, your travel purchase will earn 2X miles.
Earn 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Otherwise, your travel purchase will earn 2X miles.
Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.
The Spark Miles is a uniquely simple small business credit card.
With 2X Capital One Miles earned per dollar spent on all eligible purchases (plus the option to earn 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel), you can really rack up the miles fast.
And while Capital One Miles used to simply be worth a penny each towards travel, that’s changed entirely since Capital One made their miles transferable.
Many small business owners don’t worry about bonus categories, but they do want as many rewards points for their business spend as possible. And they want, on top of that simplicity, to know they are getting a top end rate of return on spend.
The Spark Miles accomplishes both goals. 2X miles on everything with no limit is among the best options among all small business credit cards. While the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express also earns 2X points on purchases, it is capped at $50,000 in spend per year whereas the Capital One Spark Miles has no limit.
And then for redeeming your points, you can simply spend them for travel at a penny a point, or you can use the airline and hotel transfer partners.
As for card benefits, the card comes with Primary Car Rental CDW coverage, as long as you are renting for business purposes and also carries extended warranty and purchase protection benefits, provided by Visa Business Signature. Some of these benefits don’t even display on the Capital One marketing pages, but they are on the guide to benefits.
Overall, it’s a super simple card that is an excellent choice for small business owners that love to travel on their time off.
Need to Know: Capital One generally will make an credit inquiry with all three credit bureaus. Your card and revolving balance will also be reported to your personal credit file. That likely doesn’t bother you unless you’re maxing out the card, but if it does, you can browse other credit cards that do not report the credit line to your personal credit profile.
Applies only to United purchases. Otherwise, earn 1X
Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.
The United Gateway card does a solid job of providing enough benefits to make you wonder if it will be sufficient, vs investing $95 or more on one of the other Chase United credit cards since this is the only one with no annual fee.
The answer will depend on you.
If you fly several times a year and check a bag each time, then you’ll come out ahead paying the $95 annual fee on the United℠ Explorer Card since you’ll get free checked bags (one for you and a companion on the same itinerary) every time you pay with your card on a domestic flight. You also won’t get priority boarding with the Gateway card.
However, if you are on “Team Carry-On Only,” then this card provides many of the same benefits, including the benefit that gives you access to expanded Saver economy coach availability just like a United Silver Premier member. However, unlike all of the other United cards, you won’t be entitled to upgrades on award tickets.
Additionally, you won’t have any opportunities to earn PQPs from spending on this card whereas all the other United cards do offer that benefit.
Lastly, you might do better with a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card if you aren’t using the checked bag benefit or the expanded award availability benefit. That’s because you’ll have more opportunities to earn points from spend on the Sapphire Preferred, and while you can transfer those points right over to United, you can also take advantage of all of the other Chase Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel transfer partners.
In the end, it depends on you if this is a good card for you, or if another similar card might be better.