Capital One Savor Review: Supersized Rewards on Food and Fun

If a night out is just another night for you, the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card might be calling your name. This card offers an impressive — and unlimited — 4% cash back on dining and entertainment spending, plus 2% back at grocery stores and 1% back on everything else. It also carries one of the biggest sign-up bonuses currently available from a cash-back card.

The catch? There's an annual fee of $95. And that's expensive for a cash-back product, especially since similar foodie-focused cards exist for no fee at all.

It's not a good card for homebodies. But for those who spend plenty of money eating out at sit-down restaurants and fast-food joints, going out to movies and shows, and hanging out at nightclubs, coffee shops or even bowling alleys, the rewards can make it worth the fee.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit cards for restaurants

Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card: Basics

Card type: Cash back.

Annual fee: $95.

Sign-up bonus: Earn a one-time $300 cash bonus after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

Rewards:

• 4% cash back on dining and entertainment.

• 2% cash back at grocery stores.

• 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Interest rate: The ongoing APR is 15.99% - 24.99% Variable APR.

Foreign transaction fees: None.

Minimum redemption requirement: None.

How this card defines 'dining and entertainment'

• Dining includes purchases at restaurants, fast-food places, coffee shops, cafés, lounges, bakeries, bars, nightclubs and more, according to the issuer.

• Entertainment includes tickets purchased for a movie, play, concert, sporting event, tourist attraction, theme park, aquarium, zoo, dance club, pool hall or bowling alley, as well as purchases at record stores or video rental locations, the issuer confirms. (It doesn’t include purchases like cable, digital streaming or subscription services.)

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit cards for entertainment spending

Savor vs. SavorOne

If you're looking at the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card, one of the first questions to answer is whether you would be better-served by its $0-annual-fee cousin, which goes by a similar name: the Capital One® SavorOne® Cash Rewards Credit Card. The cards at a glance:

If you evaluated these cards only by the 1-percentage-point difference in their top cash-back rates and the difference in their annual fees, you'd have to spend more than $9,500 a year on dining and entertainment before the regular Savor comes out ahead. But the math changes significantly once you consider the regular Savor's bigger sign-up bonus and the fact that its annual fee is waived in the first year. Those features give it a big head start.

Assuming that you claimed the sign-up bonus on the regular Savor, it could take years for the SavorOne to catch up. The more you spend on dining and entertainment, the longer it would take. If you spent $3,000 a year ($250 a month), for example, it would take nearly three years before your total accumulated rewards on the no-fee card surpass those on the regular version. At $6,000 a year ($500 a month), it would take six years. Use our calculator to see how long it would take you, based on your spending:

One final consideration: If you want a 0% introductory APR period, you'll get one only with the SavorOne.

» MORE: Capital One credit cards mobile app review

Why you might want the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card

good for those who spend big on night life 

This card pays for itself with $2,375 a year in dining/entertainment spending, and, as mentioned, it can maintain an edge on its no-fee cousin for years. If you're out on the town several nights a week or you frequently cover the dining and entertainment costs for a crowd, that might not be a very high bar to clear. Maybe you entertain clients for business, or you like to pick up the group tab at a restaurant or bar and have your friends Venmo you their share.

How can you know what counts as a dining or entertainment purchase? It comes down to the merchant classification code used by the business. If the merchant is using a code that Capital One defines as dining or entertainment, you should get 4% cash back for it.

there's a big sign-up bonus

The Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card has an excellent sign-up bonus for a consumer cash-back card: Earn a one-time $300 cash bonus after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Although the ongoing rewards on this card are the main dish, the generous upfront offer makes for quite the appetizer.

cash back is more flexible than travel rewards

Many top-shelf dining credit cards offer rewards in the form of points that can be redeemed for travel. If you don't travel much — or just don't want to use your rewards for it — they're not a great fit. This card's dining rewards come in the most flexible form of all: cash, which you can use for anything (yes, including travel). While this card could be a great pick for a frequent traveler who spends plenty on dining and entertainment, it's just as good for someone who prefers adventures closer to home.

Why you might want a different card

the fee may be hard to swallow

If a $95 annual fee is a dealbreaker, you have other options when it comes to dining rewards. In addition to the no-fee version of this card discussed above, take a look at the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card. It, too, earns 4X back on dining purchases, but unlike the Savor, the card's annual fee is $0*. Notably, however, it does not earn bonus rewards on "entertainment" purchases. If that's a big category for you and you still want to avoid a fee, also consider the The Marvel Mastercard®, which has an annual fee of $0 yet offers super rewards. You get 3% cash back on dining and select entertainment, including amusement parks, zoos and aquariums; movie theaters; video rental and game stores; theater and concert tickets; digital entertainment; toy and hobby stores; books and newsstands (including comic books); and Marvel products and conventions. Even if superheroes aren't your thing, the rewards on dining and entertainment could be downright heroic for your wallet.

» MORE: U.S. Bank Altitude Go vs. Capital One Savor: Which one wins?

TRAVEL BENEFITS could be a better fit

The fact that the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card is not specifically a travel card can be either a benefit or a drawback, depending on your style. If you're looking for a card that offers both dining rewards and travel benefits, the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card could be a stronger choice, despite its more modest dining rewards.

This card offers 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases, and 1.5 points per dollar spent on all other purchases. (You could boost your rewards higher if you qualify for the Bank of America® Preferred Rewards program.) Points are worth 1 cent each whether they’re redeemed for cash back, travel purchases or other options. The card comes with an airline incidental statement credit worth up to $100 every year (for expenses such as seat upgrades and baggage fees) and a reimbursement for TSA Precheck or Global Entry application fees worth up to $100 every four years. It also features a generous sign-up bonus: Receive 50,000 bonus points – a $500 value – after you make at least $3,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening. The annual fee is $95, and the card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.

Another alternative for those who enjoy both dining out and traveling: the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. If gives you 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining and 1 point per dollar on all other spending. Points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed for travel booked through Chase, so your effective rewards rate on dining can be 2.5%. It has an annual fee of $95, charges no foreign transaction fees and offers a tremendous sign-up bonus: Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Is the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card right for you?