Review of the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card has been redesigned, and is now more rewarding (and more expensive) than the original version.

This card now offers 4% cash back for dining and entertainment purchases, and 2% cash back at grocery stores. (It previously offered 3% just for dining.)

Until 5/2020, you’ll even get 8% cash back at Vivid Seats, an online ticket reseller.

It has an upgraded welcome bonus offer as well, a $300 cash bonus for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months after account opening.

Cardholders have access to a nice set of World Elite Mastercard benefits, including a variety of cost-saving shopping and travel perks.

The Savor originally had no annual fee, but the new version has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year.

As Capital One upgraded the Savor card, they also released the new SavorOne card, which is a lot like the original Savor. There are now two cards in the Savor lineup:

• Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Card (this post): $95 annual fee, waived the first year; 4% cash back for dining and entertainment; $300 welcome bonus for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
• Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card (Review): No annual fee; 3% cash back for dining and entertainment; $150 welcome bonus for spending $500 in the first 3 months

Is the Savor right for you? Depending on your shopping habits, the card with the best rewards won’t always be the most valuable. Keep reading to learn more.

Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card

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Our Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

We give the Capital One Savor Card 4 out of 5 Stars because it earns cash back at restaurants at a relatively high rate, and it has a good welcome bonus. But it also comes with an annual fee.

Why we like this card

• Good cash back rate at restaurants and for entertainment (4%)
• Decent cash back rate for grocery store purchases (2%)
• Welcome bonus of $300 for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
• World Elite Mastercard benefits
• No foreign transaction fees

Why this card could be better

• $95 annual fee after the first year
• No intro rate for purchases or balance transfers

The Savor isn’t a bad offer, but you may be able to earn better rewards with a different card, or a combination of cards. Check out some alternative card options below.

Insider Advice: Using This Card as Part of Your Credit Card Strategy

• For food spending: Use this card to pay for meals from restaurants (4% cash back) and at grocery stores (2%).
• And for fun: You’ll get 4% back for entertainment purchases, like the movies and sporting events, as well as 8% back on tickets purchased through Vivid Seats.
• Get the welcome bonus: Spend $3,000 in the first 3 months to earn a $300 cash bonus.
• Use your perks: This card comes with World Elite Mastercard benefits which can potentially be quite valuable, like a Concierge Service and the World Elite Hotels & Resorts Portfolio.
• Redeem for statement credits: The easiest redemption method is for statement credits, which will simply reduce your account balance.
• Don’t pay extra while traveling: The Savor card has no foreign transaction fees when making purchases in foreign currency, so you won’t be charged extra.
• Offset the annual fee: You’ll need to spend a minimum of $2,375 with this card to earn $95 in cash back, which would offset the annual fee.

Rewards

Earning

You can earn unlimited cash back, and your rewards never expire.

This card is meant to be your go-to option for food spending. Most cards don’t provide cash back categories for both restaurants and grocery stores, and 4% back for dining is pretty rare.

However, you can find some better offers, overall, with certain other cards. The 2% back for grocery store purchases isn’t really anything special, as some cards provide 2% back for every purchase (like the Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer (Review), which provides 1% back for purchases and an additional 1% back for payments). Check out our other alternatives below for more options.

The introductory offer of $300 cash back is decent for a card like this, though the return on spend is pretty standard. In most cases, with cards at this level you’ll only see offers for $100 or $150, maybe $200.

Capital One’s reward categories include the following types of merchants. Take note that the entertainment category does not include cable, digital streaming, and subscription services.

Redeeming

You can redeem your cash back in three different ways:

• Statement credits to reduce your account balance
• Physical checks
• Gift cards

We recommend that you always redeem your cash back as a statement credit because this is the easiest and most direct method. Physical checks will take several weeks to arrive.

Gift card redemption rates will vary, and you won’t always get the full value of your cash back so we recommend that you avoid this method.

You can set up automatic redemption preferences to make the process easier. You can either set it for certain dates throughout the year or when your cash back hits a specific threshold.

How to Offset the Annual Fee

The Savor has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year. So you’ll want to use it enough to make it worth the cost every year. (Unless you had the original no-fee Savor card, in which case you’ll get the new card version but won’t have to pay the new fee.)

How much would you need to spend to earn $95 in cash back?

At the 4% rate, you’d need to spend $2,375 to earn $95. Or, for an example of more varied spending, it would take $1,187 at the 4% rate and $2,375 at the 2% rate.

If you’re a particularly passionate event attendee, you could also spend $1,187.50 with Vivid Seats (until 5/2020) to recoup your $95.

This doesn’t take into account any of the benefits you’ll get with this card, like the World Elite Hotels & Resorts Portfolio. This comes with a complimentary breakfast for two, room upgrades, and other perks at select hotels. Depending on how you value this and the other card benefits, you may feel like you’re getting a lot for the fee.

The Savor card is not bad, but consider what you’d get from the SavorOne card with the same amount of spending. It has 3% cash back categories for dining and entertainment, but no annual fee.

If you spent $2,375 at the 3% rate, you’d earn $71.25 in cash back. And that would be all profit because you don’t have to offset the annual fee. It turns out that you’d need to spend $9,500 per year at the 4% rate before the Savor card becomes more valuable than the SavorOne — see our comparison below for more details.

Alternatively, you could go with the Uber Visa, which provides 4% cash back for dining and has no annual fee — the best of both worlds, but the welcome bonus is somewhat small.

The Benefits

The Savor card comes with a surprisingly wide variety of potentially useful benefits, from both Capital One and Mastercard.

See Capital One’s benefits here. Or you can check the Mastercard World Elite Guide to Benefits to see the Mastercard benefits in greater detail.

Complimentary Travel Planning

Call your concierge at 1-877-288-6784 any time for access to professional travel advisors.

World Elite Hotels & Resorts Portfolio

You’ll get complimentary discounts and benefits at over 900 hotel properties, including Starwood, Hyatt, InterContinental, and more.

The benefits include, when available:

• Room upgrade
• Early check-in
• Late check-out
• Complimentary daily breakfast for two
• A special World Elite amenity that varies by property

Mastercard Airport Concierge

A 15% discount on a variety of airport meet & greet services. The basic concierge experience consists of:

• Being welcomed by a Meet & Greet representative when you arrive at the airport
• An escort for expedited check-in and security screening, where available
• Assistance with visas or other documentation
• Assistance with inter-terminal transportation and other needs
• An escort to the curb or the aircraft gate, depending on where you’re going

Additional services can be included for a fee, depending on availability at the airport. The possible extras are:

You can visit the Mastercard Airport Concierge site to learn more and book concierge services for your upcoming trips.

World Elite Air Program

You’ll get a selection of upgrades and discounts when using your card to purchase tickets from participating airlines. The deals include:

• Purchase a full fare Economy Class ticket on select airlines and receive an upgrade to Business Class
• Purchase a full fare Business Class ticket on select airlines and your companion can get up to 50% off his or her Business Class airline ticket
• Purchase a full fare Business Class ticket on select airlines and your companion receives a complimentary Business Class ticket

And participating airlines include:

World Elite Private Jet Program

Perks and discounts at select private jet services:

• Sentient Jet:
  • $500 off your next charter flight
• Lufthansa Private Jet:
  • 5% off your next charter flight
• Air Charter Services (your choice of one):
  • Savings of up to $750
  • Complimentary in-flight meals, beverages, and services
  • Chauffeur-driven transportation upon arrival, within 50 miles

World Elite Car Rental Program

Provides a discount of 15–25% at select car rental services. Elite membership status is also provided with each provider.

The included car rental companies are:

World Elite Chauffeured Car Service

You’ll get a 15% discount and a $50 voucher towards your next chauffeured service, when riding with:

World Elite Cruise Program

Get shipboard credits of up to $500 per cabin on select sailings with a variety of cruise lines, including:

World Elite Tours and Vacations Program

Get up to $500 in savings on a variety of vacation packages, from tour providers like:

24/7 Concierge Service

Call 1-877-288-6784 any time to talk to a personal assistant, who can help with all sorts of non-emergency tasks. You can ask for a variety of services, such as:

• Finding hard-to-find gifts
• Making reservations
• Finding local experts to help with everyday needs
• Accessing unique dining and entertainment venues
• Providing travel info and pre-trip planning services, like weather expectations, news and security advisories, must-see attractions, etc.

Capital One Events

The Savor card comes with access to three types of events, provided by Capital One:

• Premier Culinary Experiences: Dinners and lessons with big name chefs, like a dinner with Emeril Lagasse, Timon Balloo and Philip Buccieri (for $275 per person).
• Big-time Sports Events: VIP experiences and discounts at sporting events, like a trip to the NCAA Final Four tournament in San Antonio.
• Must-see Music Events: Tickets and VIP packages to concerts and music festivals, like access to the Capital One Lounge at the Grandoozy music festival.

In addition to those events, cardholders also get a set of perks at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.:

• VIP Experiences: VIP cardholder entrance on 6^th street, and a free year of Monumental Sports Network VIP membership.
• Tickets: A 10% discount on regular season ticket purchases.
• Food and Drink: A 10% discount on food from permanent concession stands in the Capital One Arena.
• Merchandise: 20% discount on retail transactions at the Arena Team Store and retail brands, 50% discount on one pre-selected item per home game.

These benefits and discounts could be very valuable for any sports fans living near Capital One Arena. But keep in mind that you could get the same benefits with the SavorOne card, which has no annual fee.

Capital One CreditWise^®

Provides free access to your VantageScore 3.0 from your TransUnion credit report. You’ll also get access to your actual TransUnion report, which most cards don’t offer. Although this isn’t the more common FICO Credit Score, it can still be a useful way to monitor your credit.

Capital One will provide tips and advice for improving your credit score. There are email alerts to inform you of any changes to your TransUnion credit report. And you can also use the Credit Simulator to see how your credit might change from any particular financial decisions.

Many card issuers offer some kind of credit monitoring service, but CreditWise is one of the best. Even though you can’t see a FICO score, the detailed access to your TransUnion credit report can be very useful. And anyone can use the CreditWise service for free, you don’t need to be a Capital One cardholder.

Chase offers a very similar service with its Credit Journey tool, which anyone can use. In other cases, like with Barclays, you’ll need to use one of its cards like the Uber Visa to get some type of credit monitoring. That card just provides a FICO score, along with some key factors affecting your scores.

Shopping Protections

• Price Protection: Provides reimbursement if you find an eligible item you bought being advertised for a lower price.
• Extended Warranty: Will extend an eligible manufacturer’s warranty.

Travel Protections

• MasterTrip Travel Assistance: Help with travel, like information on regional requirements and medical referrals.
• Master RoadAssist® Service: Call 1-800-MC-ASSIST for help with towing, tire changes, and other road services.
• MasterRental Insurance: Coverage for rented vehicles against damage and theft, as long as you decline the rental company’s own insurance.
• Travel Accident Insurance: Available when traveling by common carrier, which covers you and your family against accidental injury or loss of life.
• Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: If your trip is cancelled or interrupted for an eligible reason, you can be reimbursed up to $1,500 to cover any non-refundable costs.
• Baggage Delay Insurance: If your bags are delayed, you can get up to $100 per day for 3 days to cover the purchase of essential items.

Other Benefits

• $0 Liability Fraud Protection: You will not be held responsible for unauthorized use of your card.
• Identity Theft Resolution Services: Provides assistance from a specialist if you believe that you are a victim of identity theft.
• Eno from Capital One: An extension or program you can use to create virtual card numbers for safer online shopping.
• Security and Account Alerts: Get alerts about account information via text, email, or by phone.
• Second Look: Capital One monitors your account for unusual and duplicate charges, and will send alerts if any are found.
• Card Lock: Instantly lock your card account, and turn it back on again when you’re ready.

The Terms & Fees

The Savor card has a $95 annual fee after the first year. As shown above, you’ll need to spend a minimum of $2,375 to offset that every year.

This card is a bit unusual, because it comes with no fee for balance transfers at the regular APR. However, if you’re offered a promotional APR at some point, like 0% for 6 months, you’ll need to pay a 3% fee for that transfer.

All Capital One cards have no foreign transaction fees, a nice feature to have in case you plan to travel outside the country.

What is the Credit Limit of the Savor Card?

The Savor card will come with a minimum credit limit of $5,000.

You can request a credit limit increase after showing that you’re a responsible card user. If you want a higher limit, we generally recommend requesting an increase once every six or 12 months.

Customer Support

Phone Support

Capital One is known for having pretty good customer support, compared to other credit card companies.

We’ve called its customer support team several times, and we’ve usually been helped by friendly and knowledgeable agents. They can typically answer our questions in a reasonable amount of time, without much frustration, if any.

Every year, J.D. Power ranks the top credit card issuers by customer satisfaction, and Capital One usually does pretty well. In 2018, Capital One came in fifth out of the 11 major issuers included.

That doesn’t sound very good on the face of it, but the third, fourth, and fifth place companies were all about even. And they’re all significantly lower than the first and second place companies — Discover and American Express, respectively. (USAA actually wins the whole survey by a wide margin, but it’s not really included because not everyone is eligible for its cards.)

Web Support

Capital One makes it quite easy to see all the card information on its website, including all the benefit details. It provides a link to the Guide to Benefits you can expect to get, which most card issuers don’t do, and the other Capital One benefits are clearly explained.

Cardholders can contact Capital One online through the live web chat. Or, anyone can get in touch with Capital One through its Twitter support account, @AskCapitalOne. Be sure not to reveal any personal or account information on Twitter or other social networks.

The Bottom Line

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is not the worst choice if you want a card for food spending. But at $95 per year, you may want to consider some other options too.

It offers rewards for dining and entertainment at a relatively high rate, of 4% cash back. But you can get the same rate for dining with the Uber Visa at no annual fee, although the other bonus categories are different and the welcome bonus is smaller. And then there’s the SavorOne, with 3% cash back for dining and no annual fee.

The Savor card’s 8% cash back with Vivid Seats offers a good return on spend, but this highly specific category doesn’t seem likely to be as much of a selling point as its general dining and entertainment rewards.

The Savor has a decent welcome bonus, at $300 for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months, though the return on spend isn’t exceptional. It does come with some valuable World Elite Mastercard benefits, however, which are typically only found on the better travel cards.

If you had the original Savor card with no annual fee, you’ll be grandfathered in to the new rewards program but you won’t have to pay the new annual fee. So you’ll be earning 4% back at no cost whatsoever, as long as you avoid interest and fees. That would be a pretty good deal, probably worth hanging on to.

There are some other cards that could be more rewarding for restaurant purchases, especially if you would have to pay the annual fee for the Savor. Check out some of those alternatives below, one of which might be perfect for your shopping habits.

How to Apply for the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards

You can apply securely on Capital One’s website, and it will check your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis.

Capital One will often provide an instant decision, but in some cases it may request more information to process the application.

This card is designed for excellent credit according to Capital One, meaning a FICO 8 Credit Score of about 760 or above. But this isn’t a direct requirement, and you may be approved if your credit scores are quite a bit lower, in the “good” range, depending on your other finances.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Personal identifying information, including SSN, email address, and phone number
• Total annual income, and source of income
• Monthly mortgage/rent payment
• Must be 18 to apply
• Must not have applied for a Capital One credit card two or more times in the last 30 days
• Must not have five or more open credit card accounts with Capital One
• Must not have a past due Capital One credit card account
• Must not be over the credit line on a Capital One credit card
• Must not have had a Capital One credit card that was charged off within the past year
• Must not have an unresolved, non-discharged bankruptcy

Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card

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Alternatives to the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards

• Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card (Review): No annual fee; 3% cash back on dining and entertainment, 2% back at grocery stores; $150 welcome bonus for spending $500 in the first 3 months
• Uber Visa Card (Review): No annual fee; 4% cash back at restaurants, 3% back on airfare and at hotels, 2% back at Uber and for online services; $100 welcome bonus
• AARP® Credit Card From Chase - Everyday Rewards: No annual fee; 3% cash back at restaurants and gas stations; $100 welcome bonus
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Review): $95 annual fee; 2X points for dining and travel; 60,000-point welcome bonus for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months

Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card

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The Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card (Review) is a toned-down version of the Savor card. It offers less for the spending rewards and welcome bonus, but also has no annual fee to pay. Other than that these cards are pretty similar.

Rewards

As you can see, the rewards are reduced: 1% less cash back at restaurants and on entertainment, and a much smaller welcome bonus of only $150. The 2% back at grocery stores is the same.

Benefits

The benefits for the SavorOne card are the same as those described for the Savor card above.

Terms & Fees

The SavorOne has no annual fee. It also comes with a 15-month 0% introductory APR for both purchases and balance transfers before the regular 16.24% - 26.24% APR starts. That makes it quite a bit cheaper than the Savor, and gives you some time to pay off purchases or transferred balances.

Other than that, the terms are mostly the same between these cards.

Which card is more rewarding overall, the Savor or the SavorOne? The Savor earns a bit more cash back, but it also has a $95 annual fee to pay every year, cutting into your profits.

It turns out that you’d need to spend more than $9,500 per year before the Savor will be more rewarding for dining and entertainment spending. That’s after accounting for the annual fee.

Here’s how much cash back you’d earn with each card at various spending levels.

Read more in our Review of the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card

Uber Visa Card

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The Uber Visa Card (Review) is a top competitor of the Savor card, offering the same reward rate for dining but at no annual fee. There are some other valuable reward categories, although this card doesn’t have a lot to offer other than the spending rewards.

Rewards

So you’ll be earning just as much back at restaurants, and you’ll also get a solid 3% cash back for hotels and airfare. Those are good rates compared to other cards.

The 2% back for online purchases could be valuable as well, if you don’t have a different card that gives you 2% back or better. The Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer (Review) earns 2% back for every purchase, for example, and is more useful because you get that rate for both online and in-store purchases.

The welcome bonus is fairly weak at $100, but it’s also easy to get with just $500 in purchases. That 20% return on your spending is pretty good.

Benefits

The Uber Visa doesn’t have the same selection of travel benefits that you get with the Savor card, but it does have several that you might find useful.

• $50 Streaming Subscription Credit: An annual $50 credit for streaming services, like Netflix and Hulu, after spending $5,000 in a given year.
• Uber Exclusive Events: Cardholders may occasionally receive invitations to events in big cities around the country.
• Cell Phone Insurance: Up to $600 in cell phone insurance, when you pay your bill with the card.
• Price Protection: Provides reimbursement if you find an eligible item you bought being sold for a lesser price.
• FICO 8 Credit Score: Check your FICO 8 Credit Score at any time, based on your TransUnion credit report, and see the key factors influencing your score.

Terms & Fees

The Uber Visa has no annual fee, and there are no foreign transaction fees either.

It’s pretty similar to the Savor card in the other details, but it will charge a 3% fee on balance transfers.

Read more in our Review of the Uber Visa Card

AARP® Credit Card From Chase - Everyday Rewards

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The AARP® Credit Card From Chase - Everyday Rewards is another good option for anyone who likes to go out to eat often (or order in). You don’t need to be a member of the AARP to apply for this card.

Rewards

The AARP card provides 1% cash back less than the Savor card, and it also doesn’t have the entertainment or grocery store categories. But instead it includes gas stations for 3% back, which is a pretty good rate compared to most cards.

If you’re not interested in the entertainment or grocery store categories of the Savor, but you want a card for dining and gas spending, this one might work well for you.

The $100 welcome bonus isn’t very impressive, but it also won’t be very hard to earn. So that seems like a fair trade-off.

Benefits

The AARP card comes as either a Visa Platinum, with basic benefits, or a Visa Signature, with better benefits. Visa Signature cards will come with features similar to those of the Savor above, although they may not be quite as good.

If you’re approved for the AARP card with a credit line of $5,000 or more, you’ll get a Visa Signature. Otherwise you’ll get a Visa Platinum.

The potential Visa Signature benefits may include:

• Visa Signature Concierge: Call for non-emergency assistance with a variety of tasks, like making reservations or finding good tickets.
• Luxury Hotel Collection: Special perks at over 900 hotels around the world.
• Fine Wine & Food: Complimentary tastings and discounts at wineries in Sonoma County, California.
• Shopping discounts: Get special offers and discounts at participating retailers, like Lenovo, Pier 1 Imports, and Travelocity.
• Travel and purchase protections: Including Purchase Protection, Lost Luggage Reimbursement, Roadside Dispatch, and more.

Terms & Fees

There’s no annual fee for the AARP credit card. It charges 3% for foreign transactions, and also 3% for balance transfers.

Other than the fees on foreign transactions and balance transfers, the terms are pretty much the same as the Savor card.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Review) is regarded as one of the best credit cards for travel, and it’s a bit different than the others in this post. It earns rewards at a good rate for dining, and has some other attractive features as well.

Rewards

You’ll earn 2X points for dining and travel purchases, but the value you end up getting will depend on how you redeem those points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points can be redeemed in a number of ways. If you redeem through the Ultimate Rewards portal for travel expenses you’ll get a 25% bonus, which will give you 1.25 cents per point. That comes to a cash back equivalent of 2.5% for dining and travel.

However, you can also transfer your UR points to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty partners, where you can find a better value. You may find deals that give you 2 cents per point or more, which would provide a cash back equivalent of 4% or more. That would make it equal to the Savor card for dining.

The Sapphire Preferred has an excellent introductory bonus of 60,000 UR points for spending $4,000. Even though it would take a bit more spending to hit the requirement, you could potentially earn as much as $1,200 or more from the points you get.

Benefits

You’ll get some travel perks with the Sapphire Preferred that could be pretty useful. People are especially fond of using point transfers to get high-value redemptions.

• 1:1 Point Transfer: Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred at a 1:1 rate with popular airline and hotel loyalty partners, like Marriott Bonvoy and United MileagePlus.
• Visa Signature Concierge: 24/7 help with non-emergency tasks, like dining reservations or making travel plans.
• Direct Access to a Customer Support Specialist: You’ll be immediately connected with a real human when you call customer support.
• Shop Through Chase: A shopping portal where you’ll find offers to earn more points, from retailers like The Apple Store, Macy’s, and The Home Depot (current offers at the time of publication).
• Chase Preferred Experiences: Invites to exclusive experiences from Chase, often for music or sports events.
• Invite friends for bonus points: Get 10,000 bonus points for every friend you successfully refer, up to 50,000 points per year.
• Shopping and travel protections: Including Trip Delay Reimbursement, Baggage Delay Insurance, and more.

Terms & Fees

The Sapphire Preferred has terms and fees that are about the same as the Savor card.

It has an annual fee of $95. There are no foreign transaction fees. Balance transfers are subject to a 5% fee.

Overall, the main difference between these cards is that the Sapphire Preferred is designed for travelers. If you’re able to plan out redemptions, transferring your points for a high value, you’ll be able to get a good return on both your restaurant and travel spending.

Read more in our Review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Do you have the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card? How do you like it? Leave your own review of the Capital One Savor card, we’d love to hear from you!

Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card

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