Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors American Express Card and
Capital One Spark Cash Review

The Hilton Honors American Express Card is the entry level Hilton card in a family of three Hilton credit cards for individuals including this one, the Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card ($150 annual fee), and the Hilton Aspire® credit card ($550 annual fee).

(All information about the Hilton Honors Aspire® Credit Card ahas been collected independently by Your Best Credit Cards.)

If you stay with Hilton frequently and simply aren’t willing to pay an annual fee, this isn’t a bad card. With 7X earned at Hilton portfolio properties (we value that at 3.5% worth of points back since we value Hilton points at 0.5 cents each), you’ll certainly do well when you pay with this card at Hilton family hotels and resorts.

5X Hilton Honors points at US restaurants, US gas stations, and US supermarkets on a no-annual fee card isn’t bad either, with a 2.5% effective return on spend assuming a value of 0.5 cents per Hilton point).

However, if you do step up to the annual fee cards, you do get more. The Surpass comes with automatic Hilton Gold status instead of Hilton Honors Silver status, which adds a breakfast or meal voucher credit to your benefits along with room upgrades and gives you the opportunity to earn a Free Night Reward valid on any Standard Night Reward after $15,000 in spend on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.

And the Aspire, despite its heft annual fee, provides come crazy benefits like Diamond elite status.

However, you are probably reading about this card because you want a no annual fee Hilton credit card and this one is pretty strong for a new annual fee hotel card. Not to mention the shopping protections like Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection as well as no foreign transaction fees.

Rates and Fees for the Hilton Honors Credit Card from American Express

The Spark Cash credit card is ideal for small business owners that want a 2% cash back card with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

It’s a very simple card. You won’t find transferable points nor a rich suite of card benefits here, but that’s the tradeoff to avoid any sort of annual fee. You still get free employee cards.

Small business owners earn 2% cash back on all eligible purchases, and 5% when you book hotels and rental cars through the Capital One Travel Portal.

If you also have a Capital One credit card that earns Capital One miles like a  Capital One Spark Miles for Business card, or a personal Venture X, Venture, or VentureOne credit card, you can transfer your cash from the Capital One Spark Cash Select to those cards, making them Capital One Miles – transferable to airline and hotel partners. $10 = 1,000 Miles.

Unlike the Spark Cash Plus, the Spark Cash will report to your personal credit profile.

The primary other difference between this Spark Cash card, with a $95 annual fee, and the Spark Cash Plus, with a $150 annual fee, is that the Spark Cash Plus is a charge card with no preset spending limit. For higher spend businesses, the Spark Cash Plus will be a better choice, but this card will work just fine for a business that doesn’t spend enough to justify the additional $55 annual fee in exchange for the no preset spending limit (which is still not unlimited, but rather set based on your spend history).