Costs & Pricing

Metric	The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	Spark 1% Classic
Annual fee	$895 (new accounts since 09/18/2025; existing accounts moved to $895 on first renewal on or after 12/02/2025). Refundable if closed within 30 days of the Closing Date the fee posted.	$0 (ongoing; no intro-year structure)
Employee card fee	$400 each Additional Business Platinum Card; $0 each Additional Business Expense Card; max 99 additional cards. Legacy accounts opened before 09/18/2025 and not notified of the change may still be billed $350.	$0 (free employee cards; no per-card fee published)
Purchase APR	Pay Over Time only: Prime + 10.99% to Prime + 21.74% (marketed 17.74%–28.49% variable); cap 29.99%. Does not apply to Pay In Full charges paid by the due date.	28.99% variable on the product page and pre-approval rates block (Sept. 3, 2026). Not published as a range; no Prime + margin table on the Classic page. Review sites still show 29.49%–30.74% — treat as stale vs issuer page.
Intro APR (purchases)	Not offered	Not offered
Foreign transaction fee	$0	$0
Late payment fee	$39 or 2.99% of any past-due Pay In Full amount, whichever is greater	Not on the official Classic page. Bankrate (Dec 19, 2025): up to $39. Do not apply Cap One charge-card 2.99%-of-unpaid-minimum language to Classic.

Rewards & Value

Metric	The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	Spark 1% Classic
Base earn rate	1X Membership Rewards point per $1 on other eligible purchases	Unlimited 1% cash back on every purchase. Marketing: no limits or category restrictions; no minimums. Rewards will not expire for the life of the account.
Welcome bonus	Personalized — marketed as high as 300,000 Membership Rewards points after $20,000 eligible spend in the first 3 months. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible. Do not treat 300k as a guaranteed public offer.	None. Live public offer as of September 3, 2026: no cash bonus, no spend threshold. Historical typical offer: also none.
Redemption value	Issuer does not publish a single cpp. Do not invent one. Pay-with-Points airfare is often treated near 1¢; hotel portal is frequently lower. Transfers can be higher or lower.	Cash at face value on statement credit or check (1¢ per 1% dollar). Official FAQ: redeem for any amount / no minimums. Gift-card rates may vary. Do not assume portal 5% unless the user actually books hotels/cars in Capital One Business Travel. Do not assume World Elite travel credits or transferable miles.
Transfer partners	Membership Rewards program (not card-unique; ratios change). Most airlines 1:1; commonly cited exceptions include Aeromexico 1:1.6, JetBlue 250:200, Hilton 1:2, Marriott 1:1, Choice 1:1, LHW 4:1. Re-check membershiprewards.com. Typical minimum 1,000 points. One-way. No expiration while the account remains open / program rules are met.	None on this cash-back product. Official FAQ: cash rewards earned through spending on Spark Classic are not taxable (issuer still says consult a tax expert).

Credit & Eligibility

Metric	The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	Spark 1% Classic
Personal guarantee	Required in substance. CMA: “The Basic Card Member and the Company remain jointly and severally liable for all Charges.” Not a no-PG product.	Not quoted on the Classic product page. Commonly reported as required; official Classic sentence missing. Secondary sources (NerdWallet, Ramp, WalletHub) treat Cap One small-business cards, including Classic, as PG required.
Credit check	Marketed “Know if you're approved with no personal credit score impact.” Secondary: decision often before a hard pull; hard personal inquiry commonly reported if the card is accepted. Business bureau review may occur when an EIN is used.	Pre-approval advertised as no impact to personal score. Submitted application treated by reviewers as a hard pull on personal credit (commonly all three bureaus). Official: application may be declined if you have a freeze with credit bureaus.
Employee cards	Up to 99 additional. Platinum AU $400 with fuller travel benefits (lounge, hotel status, GE/PreCheck commonly reported as individual). Many statement credits remain account-pooled. Expense cards $0 without the full perk stack. Spend limits, alerts, freeze.	Free; add with name, DOB, phone; option to issue plastic or not; custom spend and cash limits, reset mid-cycle. Number allowed not disclosed. Primary account / guarantor remains responsible (Classic page does not spell joint and several).
Product type	Charge card with No Preset Spending Limit plus optional Pay Over Time (hybrid charge / limited-revolve)	Revolving business credit card (balance may be carried; interest applies). Not a charge card. Contrast siblings: Spark Cash Plus and Venture X Business are pay-in-full / NPSL charge cards.

Pros & Cons

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Pros

• 5X on Amex Travel flights / prepaid hotels / prepaid STRs, transferable MR, and 35% Pay-with-Points airline rebate
• 2X on defined U.S. construction, electronics/software/cloud, shipping, and $5k+ tickets up to $2M
• Global Lounge Collection plus $600 hotel credit and FHR/Hotel Collection access; $0 FTF; NPSL
• Business credit stack (Dell up to $1,150, Indeed $360, Adobe $250, wireless $120, ChatGPT Business $300) if those vendors are already in use
• CLEAR+, Global Entry/PreCheck, hotel elite status, and cell-phone protection on a charge card

Cons

• $895 primary fee and $400 perk-bearing employee cards
• 1X on most everyday spend; 5X does not apply to flights booked direct with airlines
• Credits are fragmented, enrollment-gated, and easy to miss; marketing “$4,000+ value” assumes utilization the business may not have
• Pay-in-full late fee can be 2.99% of past-due PIF; POT APR is high if used as working capital
• Personal / joint-and-several liability; welcome bonus is personalized (“as high as”) and generally once per this product

Spark 1% Classic

Pros

• $0 annual fee with no year-2 surprise
• Explicitly underwritten for fair personal credit — rare in the Spark/Ink/Amex Business set
• Unlimited 1% + 5% Capital One Business Travel hotels/cars; rewards do not expire while the account is open
• $0 foreign-transaction fee on a fair-credit product
• Free employee cards with spend limits, virtual numbers, QBO/Excel export, year-end summaries, and $0 fraud-liability language covering employee cards

Cons

• 28.99% variable purchase APR and no intro 0% — carrying a balance is expensive
• No welcome bonus
• 1% base lags Spark Cash Select (1.5%) and Spark Cash (2%)
• Balance transfers not available
• Likely reports full activity to personal credit — utilization risk

Verdict

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Business Platinum is the lounge-and-credits SKU — not consumer Platinum (different credits, broader direct-airline 5X) and not Business Gold (lower fee, auto-4X ads/restaurants/gas). It pays when portal travel, 2X categories, and enrollment credits are real spend you already have. Unused credits make $895 a net loss versus Ink Preferred or a 2% cash card. Poor daily driver for flat cash back, 0% capital, no-PG underwriting, or flights ticketed direct with airlines.

Spark 1% Classic

Spark Classic is a credit-access card, not a rewards engine and not a 0% working-capital tool. Do not confuse it with Spark Cash Select (1.5%, $750 bonus, 9-month 0%) or Spark Cash Plus (2% NPSL charge card). Do not copy Venture X or World Elite Spark insurance onto this SKU until Classic’s own Guide to Benefits is confirmed. If you can qualify for Select or Ink Unlimited, those are better earners. If you cannot, Classic is a reasonable builder — only if you pay in full.