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Capital One Savor Rewards Review

Written by Dayana Yochim
Fact-checked by Andrea Coombes
Edited by Carolyn Kimball

March 13, 2024

Why trust us? Investor.com has no financial relationship with any of the credit card providers whose products we analyze and review. Our opinions are based solely on data and our own extensive independent research — that means unbiased guidance for consumers. Rewards cards in our cashback credit card calculator are listed in descending order according to how much money they pay out annually based on the inputs.

The unlimited 4% cashback rate on dining and 3% on groceries adds a nice zing to Capital One's perk-rich Savor Rewards card, if you can stomach the annual fee.

The Savor Rewards card’s $95 annual fee buys foodies a rewards upgrade from the no-annual-fee SavorOne card: Cardholders earn 4% cash back on dining, entertainment and select streaming services (versus SavorOne’s 3%), and a larger welcome bonus (which requires a much larger spend to earn). Both cards pay out 3% on groceries and come with appealing Capital One travel-related perks. See our Capital One Savor Rewards vs. Capital One SavorOne Rewards comparison for more details.

The basics: Earn unlimited 4% cash back on dining, entertainment and popular streaming services, 3% at grocery stores, and 1% on all other purchases. New cardmembers can earn a one-time $300 cash bonus once you spend $3,000 on purchases within three months from account opening.

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dining Dining

theater_comedy Entertainment

local_gas_station Gas

shopping_cart Groceries

monetization_on Other

local_pharmacy Pharmacy

card_travel Travel

local_shipping Amazon

storefront Costco

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smart_display Streaming

local_taxi Transit

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Calculate Cash Back

Best for Foodies

Capital One Savor Rewards

Cashback Per Year

$...

Annual Fee

$95

Welcome Bonus

$300

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Want to compare more cards? Use our full calculator.

Capital One Savor Rewards pros and cons

thumb_up_off_alt Pros

Unlimited 4% cash back on dining/entertainment/streaming services
Unlimited 3% cash back on groceries
Access to Capital One Dining perks
No minimums required for redemptions
No foreign transaction fees
5%-8% cash back on travel/entertainment purchases through Capital One
Offers pre-approval

thumb_down_off_alt Cons

Charges $95 annual fee
Low 1% base rate on non-entertainment/food-related purchases
Big spend required to earn sign-up bonus
Warehouse club/superstore groceries ineligible for 4% cash back
No balance transfer or low intro APR on new purchases offer
Requires excellent credit for approval

Capital One Savor Rewards cashback rewards spending categories

The following table shows the cashback rewards rate per $1 spent in the six most common spending categories. The “Bonus Rate” refers to the amount you can earn in excess of the card’s standard rewards rate.

Some cashback cards limit the spending amount eligible for the bonus rate (aka the “Spend Cap”). Once you hit that cap (e.g., $1,500 spending in a particular category during a defined time period), the rewards rate on future purchases in that category reverts to the lower “Default Rate.”

Category	Default Rate	Bonus Rate	Bonus Spend Cap	Bonus Spend Period (Months)
Gas	1.00%	-	-	-
Travel	1.00%	-	-	-
Dining	4.00%	-	-	-
Entertainment	4.00%	-	-	-
Pharmacy	1.00%	-	-	-
Groceries	3.00%	-	-	-
Other Purchases	1.00%	-	-	-

Note: In addition to the rewards categories illustrated above, the Capital One Savor Rewards card also pays 4% unlimited cash back on qualified streaming services purchases, as well as elevated cashback rates on travel and entertainment purchases made through Capital One.

Tip: Expand the “Spend Categories” in the investor.com credit card rewards calculator above to incorporate additional rewards categories (e.g., Transit, Wholesale Clubs, Utilities) into the cash back per year total.

What we like

A 4% cashback rewards rate on dining/entertainment spending and 3% cash back on groceries — with no rewards earning caps — makes the Capital One Savor Rewards a best-in-class card pick for spenders with big appetites. See top-rated picks in our guide to the Best Cashback Credit Cards for Dining and Groceries.

Foodie-focused perks: Cardholders have access to Capital One Dining perks, including help with hard-to-book restaurant reservations and “culinary experiences” curated by world-renowned chefs.

Social butterflies earn 8% cash back on concert, theater, sports, and special event tickets purchased through Capital One Entertainment. The swoon-worthy unlimited rewards on classic date-night activities coupled with access to entertainment perks earned Savor the 2024 investor.com trophy for Best Cashback Card for Date-Nighters.

Order in and cash in big. Couch potatoes will appreciate earning 10% cash back on Uber Eats purchases and rides when using the Savor card. Plus, Capital One will cover your Uber One monthly membership fee through Nov. 14, 2024.

Reward redemption options are plentiful and there are no minimum redemption requirements. In addition to a statement credit or requesting a check, cardholders can use cashback rewards when booking flights, hotels or car rentals through Capital One, or when shopping at Amazon.com and places that accept PayPal.

No foreign transaction fees make the Savor Rewards card a good one to pack for your round-the-world culinary tours. Opa!

The Savor lineup of cards offers lots of valuable extras for travelers, such as:

Unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
Free price drop protection (up to $50 in travel credit to cover the difference).
Price matching if you find a lower price within 24 hours of booking (difference paid as a travel credit).
Complimentary concierge service, 24-hour travel assistance, travel accident insurance.

What we don't like

We could do without the $95 annual fee. But to its credit, Capital One does offer a very competitive no-annual-fee dining/entertainment-focused alternative: Capital One SavorOne Rewards. It offers nearly all of the same extras as the Savor Rewards card, but with a 3% cashback rate instead of 4%.

Not all food purchases earn 4% cash back. Like many rewards cards, Capital One Savor Rewards has a narrow definition of “grocery store” purchases. Groceries purchased at convenience stores, warehouse clubs, discount stores and superstores (like Target or Walmart) earn only the 1% cashback base rate.

The 1% cashback rate on non-entertainment/food-related purchases leaves a bad taste in our mouths. To counteract that anemic rewards rate, we suggest pairing the Savor Rewards card with either a flat-rate cashback card (if you don’t want the hassle of tracking spending categories) or a tiered-rate rewards card that pays more than 1% on your other large expenses. (Here, our credit card calculator can help you find the most rewarding card based on your usage.)

Requires "excellent" credit for approval. According to guidelines offered by Capital One, this means having never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan, not being more than 60 days late on any credit card, medical bill, or loan in the last year, and having had a loan or credit card for three years or more with a credit limit above $5,000. The good news is that Capital One allows you to see if you're pre-approved for the Savor card before officially applying.

High sign-up bonus spending requirement. You’ve got just three months from account opening to put $3,000 in purchases on the card to earn the $300 welcome bonus. For comparison, the no-annual-fee SavorOne Rewards card offers a $200 welcome bonus after spending just $500 in the same three-month timeframe.

No balance transfer deal or 0% intro APR on new purchases is available at this time. (FYI: This signup offer for the sibling SavorOne card currently includes a no-interest period on purchases and balance transfers.)

Some major streamers don’t qualify for the 4% unlimited cash back on streaming purchases. According to Savor Rewards rules, you’ll earn just 1% cash back using your card to pay for Prime Video, AT&T TV and Verizon FIOS On Demand, as well as audiobook subscriptions and fitness programming. (Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ are eligible for 4% cash back.)

The bottom line

Is the Capital One Savor Rewards the best rewards card for your wallet? The answer depends entirely on your spending patterns. Let the numbers speak for themselves: Use the investor.com Cashback Credit Card Calculator to see which credit card pays back the highest rewards based on how much you spend each month.

Capital One Savor Rewards fine print

Feast your eyes on the Capital One Savor Rewards card’s fine print for details about qualifying rewards, APRs, and all the other fine print-y stuff.

Does the Capital One Savor Rewards charge an annual fee?

Yes, the Capital One Savor Rewards charges an annual fee of $95.

tips_and_updates Trivia time!

How common are annual fees? Roughly 17% of the consumer cash back cards we review charge an annual fee. They range from $39 to $99, with an average annual fee of $67.

Does the Capital One Savor Rewards offer a welcome bonus?

Yes, the Capital One Savor Rewards has a welcome bonus of $300.

tips_and_updates Fun fact

More than half (55%) of the consumer cash back credit cards we track in the investor.com database offer a welcome bonus, ranging from $30 up to $300. The average sign-up bonus for new cardholders is $197, with the median being $200.

How much cash back can I earn with the Capital One Savor Rewards?

The average American that spends $1000 per month will earn $173.20 in cash back per year using the Capital One Savor Rewards. For comparison, the average annual rewards payout from the cashback credit cards in the investor.com database is $191.26, and $180 is the median.

These calculations are based on average consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the reward payout rates from the providers we track. Of course, you’re so much more than an average data point (aka “consumer unit,” in BLS parlance). The amount you can earn in cashback rewards using the Capital One Savor Rewards depends entirely on your unique spending habits.

Find out exactly how much you’ll rake in with the Capital One Savor Rewards by tailoring the spending inputs in the calculator above.

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Methodology

The results of the investor.com Credit Card Rewards Calculator are based on the monthly spending amounts you enter and the annual dollar value of the rewards each credit card program pays per $1 spent. Credit card companies often express this payout amount as a percentage (e.g., 1.5% of every dollar spent) or on a points basis (e.g. ,1.5 points for every dollar spent). We converted all of them to a dollar amount (“Cash Back Per Year”) to make comparing offers easier.

To calculate the amount of cash back you could earn per year, we factored in:

Spend category inputs: The default dollar values for each “Spend Category” in the Best Cashback Credit Cards tool — gas, groceries, travel, restaurant, entertainment, pharmacy, other — are based on average American spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We also include additional spend categories (such as streaming services, online shopping, utilities, transit, Amazon and more) to help you see which rewards cards are most closely aligned with your actual spending patterns. We encourage you to customize the monthly spend inputs for the most accurate results.
Tiered rewards rates: If a rewards credit card pays higher cashback rates on certain spending categories (also called “Bonus Rewards”), that difference is reflected in the total “Cash Back Per Year” tally.
Rewards spending caps: Some cards impose category- or time-based limits (monthly, quarterly, annually) that affect the amount of rewards you can earn. For example, a card may pay 3% cash back on groceries on up to $1,000 of spending each quarter, then revert to the base/default rewards rate until the following quarter. We accounted for bonus spending caps and timeframe in the calculations.
Default rewards rates: Purchases that exceed a spending cap are usually subject to a lower default rewards rate (e.g., 1% or 1.5%). We mathed that out too.
Annual fees: If a rewards card charges an annual fee, we deducted that amount from the “Cash Back Per Year” total to provide a true accounting of a card’s annual rewards payout.

What’s not included in the “Cash Back Per Year” total is the cash value of any sign-up/introductory bonus. We highlight any Welcome Bonus separately. While sign-up bonuses can be the most lucrative part of getting a new cashback rewards credit card, not everyone will want or be able to do what it takes to earn the extra cash. (It usually requires spending a certain amount in a specified time period after the card is activated.)

About the Editorial Team

Dayana Yochim

Dayana Yochim has been writing (articles, books, podcasts, stirring speeches) about personal finance and investing for more than two decades, focusing on bringing clarity and the occasional comedic aside to what is often a murky, humorless topic. She’s written for NerdWallet, The Motley Fool, HerMoney.com, Woman’s Day, Forbes, Newsweek and others, and been a guest expert on "Today," "Good Morning America," CNN, NPR and wherever they’ll hand her a mic.

Andrea Coombes

Andrea Coombes has 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, and other publications, and she's shared her expertise on CBS, NPR, "Marketplace," and more. She's been a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, and is working on becoming a Certified Financial Planner. She knows that owning pets isn't necessarily the best financial decision; her dog and two cats would argue this point.

Carolyn Kimball

Carolyn Kimball is Managing Editor for Reink Media Group and the lead editor for content on investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.