Credit Card Insider is an independent, advertising supported website. Credit Card Insider receives compensation from some credit card issuers as advertisers. Advertiser relationships do not affect card ratings or our Editor’s Best Card Picks. Credit Card Insider has not reviewed all available credit card offers in the marketplace. Content is not provided or commissioned by any credit card issuers. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information, though all credit card information is presented without warranty. When you click on any ‘Apply Now’ button, the most up-to-date terms and conditions, rates, and fee information will be presented by the issuer. Credit Card Insider has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Credit Card Insider and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. A list of these issuers can be found on our Editorial Guidelines.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Spending Rewards |
---|
|
|
|
|
Welcome Bonus Offer |
---|
|
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.
Dining | ||
---|---|---|
Restaurants | Fast-food Chains | Cafes |
Bars | Bakeries | Lounges |
Entertainment | ||
---|---|---|
Movies | Concerts | Plays |
Sporting Events | Tourist Attractions | Theme Parks |
Aquariums | Zoos | Pool Halls |
Dance Clubs | Bowling Alleys | Record/Video Rental Stores |
Grocery Stores | |||
---|---|---|---|
Supermarkets | Dairy Product Stores | Specialty Markets | Meat Lockers |
You can redeem your cash back in three different ways:
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.
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.
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.
Pay for a monthly Postmates Unlimited subscription with your Savor card to get a statement credit for the membership fee ($9.99) each month. You must subscribe to a monthly plan, rather than annual plan, to qualify.
Postmates Unlimited comes with free delivery on orders over $15 along with some other perks.
Take note that this benefit only lasts through December 2019, and after that you’ll be charged (and will have to pay) the membership fee unless you cancel.
Call your concierge at 1-877-288-6784 any time for access to professional travel advisors.
You’ll get complimentary discounts and benefits at over 900 hotel properties, including Starwood, Hyatt, InterContinental, and more.
The benefits include, when available:
A 15% discount on a variety of airport meet & greet services. The basic concierge experience consists of:
Additional services can be included for a fee, depending on availability at the airport. The possible extras are:
Luggage Assistance/Baggage Porters | Premium Baggage Collection/Delivery | Executive Car Transfers/Limousine Service | VIP Wheelchairs/PRM Service Option | Un-accompanied Minors Service | Seating Assistance |
Valet Car Parking Service | Tarmac Transfers | Electric Buggy | Car Park Jockey | Airport Courier | Cloak Room Service |
Train Bookings | Lounge Bookings | Meeting & Conference Room Bookings | Personal Shopper | Gift Services on Arrival |
You can visit the Mastercard Airport Concierge site to learn more and book concierge services for your upcoming trips.
You’ll get a selection of upgrades and discounts when using your card to purchase tickets from participating airlines. The deals include:
And participating airlines include:
Aer Lingus | Aeromexico | Austrian | Etihad |
LATAM Airlines | Lufthansa | Virgin Atlantic |
Perks and discounts at select private jet services:
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:
Avis | National | Sixt |
You’ll get a 15% discount and a $50 voucher towards your next chauffeured service, when riding with:
Sixt Limousine Service | International Limousine Service | Vitesse | Avis Chauffeured Car |
Get shipboard credits of up to $500 per cabin on select sailings with a variety of cruise lines, including:
Avalon | Azamara | Crystal | Cunard | NCL |
Oceania | Paul Gauguin | Regent | Royal Caribbean | Sea Cloud |
SeaDream | Silversea | Uniworld | Un-Cruise Adventures |
Get up to $500 in savings on a variety of vacation packages, from tour providers like:
Abercrombie & Kent | Absolute Travel | Avanti Destinations | Globus | Journey Mexico |
Kensington Tours | Key Tours | Classic Vacations | Ski.com | Butterfield & Robinson |
Swain Tours | Big Five | Ker & Downey | Perry Golf | South African Airways Vacations |
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:
The Savor card comes with access to three types of events, provided by Capital One:
In addition to those events, cardholders also get a set of perks at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.:
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.
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 card to get some type of credit monitoring. That card just provides a FICO score, along with some key factors affecting your scores.
Purchase APR | Balance Transfer APR | Cash Advance APR |
---|---|---|
16.24% - 25.24% Variable | 16.24% - 25.24% Variable | 25.24% Variable |
Annual Fee | Foreign Transaction Fee | Balance Transfer Fee | Cash Advance Fee |
---|---|---|---|
$0 intro for first year; $95 after that | None | $0 | 3% of the amount of the cash advance, but not less than $10 |
Penalty APR | Late Fee | Returned Payment Fee |
---|---|---|
Up to $39 | See Terms |
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.
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 for existing accounts | 1-800-CAPITAL (1-800-227-4825) |
Apply for a credit card | 1-800-695-5500 |
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.)
@AskCapitalOne |
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 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 there’s also 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.
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.
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.
Spending Rewards |
---|
|
|
|
Welcome Bonus Offer |
---|
|
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.
The benefits for the SavorOne card are the same as those described for the Savor card above.
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 15.74% - 25.74% Variable 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.
Amount Spent Annually | Savor Cash Back Earned (4%) | SavorOne Cash Back Earned (3%) |
---|---|---|
$2,375 | $0 | $71.25 |
$5,000 | $105 | $150 |
$7,500 | $205 | $225 |
$9,500 | $285 | $285 |
$15,000 | $505 | $450 |
Read more in our Review of the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card
securely on the issuer's website
The Uber Credit Card (Review) used to be a top competitor of the Savor card, offering the same reward rate for dining but at no annual fee. But the card has since been downgraded in that sense, and the redemption options are more restricted now as well.
Spending Rewards |
---|
|
|
|
Introductory Bonus Offer |
---|
|
So you’ll be earning a bit less back at restaurants, and you’ll also get a solid 3% back for hotels and airfare. Those are good rates compared to other cards.
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.
This card has been updated recently, and you’ll now earn rewards in the form of Uber Cash. Uber Cash can only be redeemed for purchases in the Uber App, like rides and Uber Eats, making it a bit harder to cash in.
The Uber card 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.
The Uber Credit Card 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 Credit Card.
securely on the issuer's website
The AARP® Credit Card From Chase 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.
Spending Rewards |
---|
|
|
Introductory Bonus Offer |
---|
|
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.
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:
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.
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.
Spending Rewards |
---|
|
|
Introductory Bonus Offer |
---|
|
Redemption Bonus |
---|
|
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.
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.
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!
Credit Card Insider receives compensation from advertisers whose products may be mentioned on this page. Advertiser relationships do not affect card evaluations. Advertising partners do not edit or endorse our editorial content. Content is accurate to the best of our knowledge when it's published. Learn more in our Editorial Guidelines.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by bank advertisers. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by bank advertisers. It is not the bank advertisers' responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.