Capital One SavorOne Review: Delicious Foodie-Focused Rewards, for No Fee

If your recycling bin runneth over with takeout containers or grocery bags, the $0-annual-fee Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is an excellent choice.

It offers an unlimited 3% cash back on dining and at grocery stores, as well as on entertainment and eligible streaming services. You'll get 1% back on everything else.

The potential to earn such a rich rate on both eating out and eating in helps separate this card from much of its competitors, which tend to focus on only one of those categories or the other. It's possible to find similar or higher rates in either of those categories, but rarely on both with the same card unless you're willing to cough up an annual fee.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit cards for restaurants

Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card: Basics

Card type: Cash back.

Annual fee: $0.

Sign-up bonus: Earn a one-time $200 cash bonus after you spend $1,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

Rewards:

• 8% back on Capital One Entertainment purchases.

• 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

• 3% back on dining, eligible streaming services, grocery stores and entertainment.

• 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Interest rate: 0% intro APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers, and then the ongoing APR of 19.74%-29.74% Variable APR; 3% fee on the amounts transferred within the first 15 months.

Foreign transaction fees: None.

Minimum redemption requirement: None.

Credit score requirement: According to Capital One, you'll need excellent credit to qualify for the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card. Typically, excellent credit means a credit score of at least 720. (NOTE: Applicants with less-than-excellent credit may be approved for a different version of this card — one that earns the same ongoing rewards, but doesn't offer the upfront incentives of a sign-up bonus or intro APR period.)

How this card defines 'dining and entertainment'

• Dining includes purchases at restaurants, fast-food places, coffee shops, cafes, lounges, bakeries, bars and nightclubs, 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. "Entertainment" doesn’t include purchases like cable, digital streaming or subscription services — but again, streaming is its own separate 3% bonus category.

How this card defines eligible streaming services

Unlike American Express, which maintains a comprehensive list of services that qualify for bonus rewards on streaming, Capital One has yet to publish such a list. As of October 2021, its website was describing eligibility this way: "Streaming purchases made from eligible music and video streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. Some services, such as Prime Video, AT&T TV and Verizon FIOS On Demand, are excluded, as well as audiobook subscription services and fitness programming."

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SavorOne vs. the original Savor

The Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is one of two cards under Capital One's Savor brand. The original Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card pays a higher rewards rate on dining, streaming and entertainment and comes with a bigger sign-up bonus — but it also charges an annual fee. Here's how the cards compare:

Which card is better for you depends first on your spending and second on your tolerance for annual fees.

The original Savor card's higher maximum cash-back rate and bigger bonus can give it a head start over the no-fee version. But you have to spend much more to snag that bigger bonus — and, of course, sign-up bonuses can vary over time.

The main question to ask is this: Do you spend enough each year on dining, streaming and entertainment to make a $95-annual-fee card more valuable than a $0-annual-fee card?

Hint: Taking into account those fees, you'd have to spend more than $9,500 a year on dining, streaming and entertainment before the regular Savor comes out ahead. (But again, that doesn't take into account the Savor's bigger bonus, assuming you can spend enough to snag it.)

A secondary question to ask is this: Do you want a 0% introductory APR period? Because if so, only the no-fee SavorOne offers that.

» READ: Is Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card or Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card better for you?

Why you might want the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card

Easy-to-earn rewards for going out — or cooking at home

Whether your taste in food runs from Michelin-starred to Mickey D's to Meijer supermarkets, you can get plenty of value out of the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card. It has broad definitions of "dining" and "entertainment." Plus, unlike some of its competitors, it doesn't limit how much spending is eligible for its higher rewards rates, and it doesn't have a minimum amount for redeeming your rewards.

So what counts as a "restaurant" or a "theme park"? It comes down to the merchant classification code assigned to the business where you use your card. If the merchant is using a code that Capital One defines as a dining or entertainment expense, you should get 3% cash back for it.

No annual fee

Most cards that offer bonus rewards for dining are also travel cards with steep annual fees. That’s a pain if you aren't spending thousands of dollars in the card’s bonus categories.

The Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card offers more breathing room with its annual fee of $0. There's no need to worry about spending a certain amount before breaking even on rewards.

Why you might want a different card

Bigger spenders can earn more elsewhere

As mentioned, if you're spending upward of $9,500 a year on dining, streaming and entertainment, consider the original Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card. That card is an especially better deal in the first year, when the bigger sign-up bonus is in play.

If dining out is your biggest line item, you can do better

If you don't cook much at home, consider instead the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card. It, too, has a $0 annual fee, but it earns a whopping 4X back on dining purchases. Note, however, that this card is not as rewarding on groceries or streaming, and there's no bonus category for "entertainment" spending at all.

Or if drive-thru meals are a major expense for you, look into the no-fee U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card. It earns 5% cash back in two categories of your choice (see the list below), on up to $2,000 spent per quarter on combined purchases. Possible 5% categories include fast food, not to mention TV, internet and streaming services. The card also offers an uncapped 2% back in an everyday category of your choice, including restaurants. All other non-bonus-category purchases earn 1% back.

If groceries are your biggest line item, you can do much better — for a fee

For a $0, the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card offers very good rewards at grocery stores. Even still, it's possible to double that rate.

Consider the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, which offers 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000 in spending each year) and 1% after that. Terms apply (see rates and fees). The card charges a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95. But if you spend around $61 at grocery stores each week, it would be a better deal than the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card.

Costco shoppers can do better

When talking about no-annual-fee dining credit cards from major issuers, you pretty much have to include Costco's popular co-branded card, the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi. This card offers unlimited 3% cash back at restaurants, in addition to other bonus categories, making it a great option for dining enthusiasts. It's also a better choice if you do most of your shopping at Costco, since it offers an unlimited 2% back on Costco purchases. The Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card, by contrast, is a Mastercard and isn’t accepted at Costco.

The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi has an annual fee of $0, but, of course, you must be a Costco member, which has its own fee (at least $60 a year, as of this writing). If you're going to pay that fee anyway, it's an excellent pick.

You can also visit NerdWallet's best credit cards page to see how these cards compare versus other cash-back alternatives.

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

Foodies of any stripe may want to clear a space in their wallets for the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card. In terms of rewards at both restaurants and grocery stores, it may be the best $0-annual-fee option available.

But if your spending tends to favor one category over the other, other cards can out-earn this one.