Capital One SavorOne Rewards Credit Card Review

Full Review of Capital One SavorOne Rewards Credit Card

Pros Explained

• Generous Cash Rewards for Dining and Entertainment: The Capital One SavorOne offers handsome rewards on going out, with its unlimited 3% cash back on purchases that are coded as dining and entertainment. Those transactions include spending at restaurants, bakeries, movie theaters, concert halls, and other entertainment venues.
• Doesn't Impose Some Frequent Fees: The Capital SavorOne's absence of an annual fee is welcome, especially considering its robust rewards. But the card also skips charging a foreign transaction fee or imposing a penalty APR as part of its late fees.

Cons Explained

• Excellent Credit Recommended for Approval: Capital One assigns each of its cards a credit level that's recommended for approval to help applicants gauge how likely they are to be approved. This card recommends a credit level of "Excellent," which could make it harder to qualify if you have fair or good credit. It may be worthwhile to check your credit report and score before applying to determine if your score lands in the "Excellent" range. 

The Capital One SavorOne Rewards card is best suited for someone who wants to earn solid cash back rewards on dining and entertainment without paying an annual fee—and risking that they won't justify its cost. Its introductory bonus also makes it ideal for those who don't plan to charge a lot to the card, requiring only $500 in spending over three months in order to earn $200 in cash. 

The Capital One Savor One Rewards is worth considering, too, by those who mostly cook their own meals. The unlimited 2% cash back at grocery stores is a very respectable rate, especially for a card with no annual fee. If you’re a typical household, spending about $4,500 a year on groceries, food spending would alone yield $90 a year in cash back earned at the 2% rate. 

This is also a decent card if you plan to make purchases outside the U.S., since it has no foreign transaction fee. Foreign transaction fees imposed by other cards can easily add 2% to 3% to the cost of purchases made in foreign currency, either while traveling or when buying online from a retailer based outside the U.S.

Capital One SavorOne Rewards Credit Card One-Time Offer

This card has an introductory one-time offer of $200, which you can earn by spending $500 on purchases within the first three months of opening your account. That's not a difficult sum to reach, breaking down to a modest $167 per month. Indeed, you could reach the target by charging several weeks of groceries or a few dinners out with friends and family.

Rewards Earning Details

Cash back rates range from 1% to 3%, with the highest rewards tier reserved for dining and entertainment. You earn 3% cash back on those purchases, 2% cash back at supermarkets, and 1% cash back on everything else. Those rewards are unlimited and your cash back never expires as long as your account remains open and in good standing. 

A few things to note about dining, entertainment and grocery rewards. To qualify for the higher reward rate, purchases must be assigned to the proper merchant category. Capital One notes that some vendors, such as food trucks, supermarket food counters, and hotel restaurants, may not qualify for the dining rewards rate if the merchant doesn't code them accordingly. 

You also won't earn 3% rewards on purchases made at golf courses, country clubs, college sporting events, charitable organizations that provide live entertainment, amusement park tickets purchased through third-party sites, or resort packages that are categorized as "travel" or "hotel." 

Additionally, not every supermarket qualifies for the 2% cash back rewards rate on groceries. Like some other card issuers, Capital One excludes superstores, such as Walmart and Target, as well as warehouse clubs and convenience stores. If you buy groceries at those store types, you'll earn only 1% cash back on those purchases. 

Rewards Redemption Details

Rewards can be redeemed for a statement credit, check, gift cards. or merchandise. No minimum amount of cash back is required in order to redeem, and you can do so at any time. You can also set up automatic redemption options to redeem rewards at a specific date or once you reach a certain dollar amount.

Gift cards are sold on a 1:1 basis—that is, you receive a card with the same value as the rewards you used to buy it. Partners range from Target, Walmart, and Sam's Club through Amazon and Macy's to Subway, Cracker Barrel, Panera, and Outback Steakhouse. Cards are issued only as physical cards that are mailed to you.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

To get the most from this card, you can start by qualifying for the introductory $200 one-time offer. The $500 minimum spending requirement should be a fairly easy target to hit within the first three months.

You can continue to maximize your cash back earnings by using your card widely, and especially for dining, entertainment, and grocery store purchases. Let's assume you go out more than most people, and spend $750 per month on dining and entertainment (about 25% above the norm, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and $400 on groceries (about the average). On an annual basis, you'd earn $270 in cash back on the former and $96 on the latter, for a total of $366.

Capital One SavorOne Credit Card's Outstanding Benefits

• Save money instantly with Paribus
• Find the best price on online purchases with Capital One Shopping
• Complimentary 24/7 concierge service

Standard Benefits

• Extended warranty protection
• Travel accident insurance
• 24-hour travel assistance services
• Access to exclusive tickets for entertainment and sporting events

Cardholder Experience

Capital One earned a rating of 807 in J.D. Power's 2019 Credit Card Customer Satisfaction Survey. That placed the company third among card issuers, behind only Discover and American Express. 

The company offers a number of fairly standard features that help make managing your account easier, including Autopay, 24/7 customer service access and online and mobile banking access. You can also text Eno, the Capital One Assistant, to get your account balance or pay bills using your card on the go. 

CreditWise is Capital One's credit monitoring service, which is free to use. You can get regular credit updates based on information in your TransUnion and Experian credit reports. 

If you have questions, you can tweet @AskCapitalOne or call customer service at 1-800-CAPITAL (1-800-227-4825). The company, however, has no chat or email options for customer service, at least as available through its website.

Security Features

Capital One offers a number of standard security services on its cards, including:

• Credit fraud alerts, via text, email, and phone
• Virtual card numbers for online shopping
• Ability to lock your card if it's lost or stolen
• $0 fraud liability protection in the event that your card is used to make unauthorized purchases

Our Verdict

For a card with no annual fee, the Capital One SavorOne credit card offers an outstanding, even unequaled, cash back rate for dining and entertainment. Indeed, its rewards are so good that this card may prove as cost-effective as others that target the same categories and charge a fee. 

For example, this card's sibling, the Capital One Savor Rewards, charges a $95 annual fee and offers 4% rather than 3% in cash back rewards on dining and entertainment (other rates are all but equal for the two cards). By our calculations, using our example of a household that eats out and is entertained more than most, you’d make $96 more in rewards with the Capital One Savor card—which is almost precisely its $95 annual fee. Unless the relatively modest differences in perks between the cards matter to you, the Capital One SavorOne looks like a safer bet for all but the highest of high-rolling households.