The Capital One Spark Miles Business Card has been making waves lately with a 200,000-mile sign-up bonus. This is hands down the biggest sign-up bonus I’ve ever seen for any credit card. Sure, there was a 200,000-mile Amex Platinum sign-up bonus floating around, but that was targeted—this one is public.
While a 200,000-mile credit card sign-up bonus would normally break the internet, there is one major caveat: A $50,000 spending requirement. There is no extra zero in that sentence.
The Capital One Spark Miles Business Card offers 50,000 miles when you spend $5,000 in three months. Plus another 150,000 miles when you spend $50,000 within 6 months. That’s a little over $8,000 per month in spending requirements. Or six trips to Walmart, as I like to think of it.
“Isn’t Walmart dead as a manufactured spending source?” Not exactly. While liquidating Visa gift cards via money orders is more of a hassle than ever before, it’s still possible. The question is, should you do it?
It’s probably not the best idea to put $50,000 worth of gift card purchases on a new credit card right out of the gate. Since Capital One isn’t a huge player in the rewards credit card game, I doubt they’re imposing Amex-level stringency around gift card churning.
But they also might not let $50,000 worth of gift card purchases slide. Especially when it’s costing them $2,000 per customer. Across 6 months, I personally wouldn’t feel anxious about putting a mix of regular and manufactured spending on that card. But I could be wrong and it could lead to a shut-down for those who do it this way.
Other ways to meet the $50,000 spending requirement
If you can float some cash, Kickfurther is a good option for meeting spending requirements and generating a cash profit. This is also a good time to get into reselling and merchant gift card churning.
In the past, I did pretty well churning iTunes, Starbucks, and Gap gift cards around the holidays. Even with The Plastic Merchant out of the picture, there are other places to resell gift cards at a favorable rate. If you’re able to pull it off, I’d go this route rather than buying Visa and MasterCard gift card. Or at least try to work this into your routine.
I’ve come across a few goldmines at stores like Marshall’s and Nordstrom Rack. A famous toy brand recently showed up at Marshall’s, with markdowns that translate to a 20 – 40% profit after fees.
Toys and board games are big right now, so if you’re able to stock up on a hot item, that might be a good way to meet the massive spending requirement for the Capital One Spark Miles Business Card. And maybe even generate a nice profit.
Is it worth it?
So, is the 200,000-mile sign-up bonus worth applying for the Capital One Spark Miles Business Card? It’s definitely a generous sign-up bonus and if you’re not saving yourself for a Chase card you should consider it. There are reports that Capital One business card activity shows up on personal credit reports, so keep that in mind.
The $2,000 bonus is better than the $750 value of the Chase Sapphire Reserve and you do have the option to transfer miles to airline partners at a 2:1.5 ratio. So the 200,000-mile sign-up bonus could be worth 150,000 Aeroplan,
Some people are going to be turned off by the huge spending requirement. It’s going to be especially challenging if you don’t have a reliable manufactured spending source. If you have other spending requirements to meet (for credit card sign-ups or annual spending bonuses), diverting $8,000 a month to the Capital One Spark Miles Business Card could make things more difficult.
I haven’t decided whether to get this card or not. I did cancel a bunch of credit cards recently, so my wallet is a little light. And I do like that I’d be earning the equivalent of 2% cash back on $50,000 worth of spending, Even though I’ll incur three credit pulls, I think the $2,000 reward is worth it. And on par with the rewards I’d earn from three different credit card sign-up bonuses.
The only questions is whether you’re comfortable channeling $50,000 worth of spending onto one card. I can probably figure something feasible out.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this in the comment section.
I was going to go for it last week but then realized it will be reported on my credit report. I don’t want that. 🙁
Personally, I’d rather get 10 credit cards with a 3-5k spend requirement with bonuses that add up to way more in value than $2000.
But you’d also get 10 credit hits. Capital One *only* pulls three.
Can you get approved for both the spark cash and the spark rewards?
Not sure about getting approved at once, but Capital One does allow you to have two cards. That is a lot of spend though!
Will you get approved? They may not have a strict 5/24 or 6/24 threshold like Chase or Barclays, but they do seem to be sensitive how many new cards you’ve opened in the past 12 months.
I like how your answer to get the bonus on this business card is to start a small business.
Lol! That’s where this hobby is headed right now. Eventually we’ll all have to start businesses in order to keep earning tons of miles.
1st, you need a big credit line with them to churn that much and not hurt your credit score. I hit 15K on my 30K limit on the Arrival Plus and my credit score tanked 50 points. It did come right back though when all cleared. I would want to do $10K per month on this card to be safe. I can do that easily with MS, but real burn it is only about 1/2 the needed spend per month. I feel like I would need to be moving those points out of there just in case they shut everything down.
I think the key is paying off the balance before the statement closes. That balance is what gets reported to credit bureaus. Moving points asap is definitely a good idea – we don’t know how Capital One will react to massive amounts of MS just yet.
My personal turn off are the quality of the transfer partners, including no hotels. CSR is superior in that regard.
And to use instead as credit towards travel purchases defeats the purpose for me of accumulating & applying points & miles at a discount, not full price. The CSR portal offers me a nice discount and transferring to hotel/air partners even more.
I can spend $50,000 on my 3x Chase Freedom Unltd card & earn 150,000 Ultimate Rewards. 150,000 URs buys me $2,250 spend on the Chase Travel Portal (at .015) or $2,700 at Hyatt if transferred to them. And I can do this BECAUSE I keep a 5/24 slot open always for amazing Chase offers!
Capital One definitely can’t compete with CSR. Keeping a slot open for a good Chase offer is smart.
If I get this card, I will knock out some of the spend paying taxes.
#thankyouunclesam
Just too much of a hassle and time commitment to spend $50000 via MS, reselling, etc. to justify a $2000 payout.
I hear ya. It’s not for everyone.
Hi Ariana. Just wondering if you applied for this card? I just got approved for Spark Miles. I once MS’ed $120K in 4 months last year so $50K in 6 months is not really a big deal but like you said know we are not sure how Capital One will react to massive amounts of MS.
I didn’t. Ultimately I didn’t want to channel all that spend towards a cash back card. I’m not MS’ing as much these days as I used to and I’m trying to get my UR and Korean Skypass balances up.