Capital One recently made a few lucrative signup bonus offers that were previously only available through targeted promos now open to the general public. When you sign up for a new Spark Cash for Business from Capital One and spend $4,500 within the first 3 months, you’ll earn a one-time $500 cash bonus. Alternatively, you can sign up for a new Spark Miles for Business from Capital One and spend $4,500 within the first 3 months to receive a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles. Capital One miles can essentially be thought of as credit towards travel purchases, so your 50,000 miles are worth $500 towards travel.

Spark Cash vs. Spark Miles
Both of these Capital One business credit cards are essentially identical, except that one earns cash back whereas the other earns the cash equivalent in Capital One miles. The Spark Cash earns an unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases, while the Spark Miles card earns 2x miles on all purchases, with no limit to the amount of rewards you can earn. Both cards have an annual fee of $59, which is waived for the first year. They also come with all the standard Visa Business benefits, which include auto rental collision damage waiver, as well as travel and emergency assistance.

As with all Capital One cards, they also do not charge foreign transaction fees.

Redeeming Spark Miles rewards
Miles earned from your Spark Miles for Business card can be redeemed in one of two ways:

• Redeeming for past travel purchases with “Purchase Eraser” — Book your travel as you normally would, using the website, travel agent or other resource that you prefer, then log into capitalone.com or call the Rewards Center to redeem your miles to receive an account credit for the cost of your travel purchase. Redemptions must be made within 90 days from the date your purchase posts. Purchases made from airlines, hotels, rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and time shares are generally considered to be travel purchases. Ultimately, whether a purchase will be eligible for redemption comes down to the merchant category code assigned to the transaction by the merchant.
• You can also choose to book your travel through Capital One. You can go to capitalone.com or call their Rewards Center to purchase your travel. The number of miles needed for travel redemption varies and is based upon the cost of the travel purchase. Each mile is worth a penny when redeemed towards your travel purchase.

With this method of miles redemption, in contrast to typical airline mile redemption, you don’t have to worry about blackouts or other seat restrictions.

Redeeming Spark Cash rewards
Cash rewards can be redeemed either as a statement credit or via check. You can also set up your rewards to be automatically redeemed at either a set time each year, or when you reach a specific reward threshold ($25, $50, $100 or $200). If you don’t set up an automatic redemption preference, you’ll receive your cash back via check on your membership anniversary.

Other considerations
Given that both cards earn at the same rate, there is no good reason to get the Spark Miles card over the Spark Cash card, since redeeming your rewards is far easier with the Spark Cash card.

A few other things to note:

• Capital One pulls from all three credit bureaus, so if you are planning to apply for other cards/loans soon, you should keep that in mind.
• Capital One consistently has some of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings, though one might expect customer service on their business credit cards to be better.
• These are business credit cards. If you elect to apply as a sole proprietor, it will show on your personal credit report and Cap One is not known for being generous with credit limits in these cases.

Still, a $500 signup bonus is extremely attractive, especially since the spending requirements ($4,500 in 3 months) are relatively reasonable.

For more info or to apply, see the following links:

• Spark Cash application
• Spark Miles application