Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card review: Great for social foodies

For a credit card with no annual fee, the SavorOne offers competitive cash back rates in everyday categories and plenty of redemption options. (See Rates & Fees) It also carries a good intro APR period on purchases and balance transfers that may appeal to new cardholders.

Rewards: Great rates on everyday purchases 

The SavorOne card’s bonus categories cover popular expenses, making the card an excellent option for earning unlimited cash back. The SavorOne earns 3 percent cash back on dining, entertainment, grocery store purchases (excluding Walmart and Target) and popular streaming services. 

Although other cards come close to matching in some areas, they might include different categories or have spending limits for the highest-earning categories. For example, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express offers the same cash back rate at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations and U.S. online retailers, but it’s capped at $6,000 in purchases per year, then it earns 1 percent.

Keep in mind the card’s fine print: You’ll only get the card's best cash back rates on Capital One Travel, Entertainment, Uber and Uber Eats purchases. In addition, only certain grocery stores and streaming services are eligible for the card’s boosted reward rates. For instance, superstores and wholesale clubs are not included. And if you like to order your food through a different app or prefer a streaming app not included in the eligible services, then this card may not benefit you.

Sign-up bonus: Easy to obtain

The SavorOne carries a solid welcome offer of $200 after you spend $500 in your first three months. That's a 20 percent return on spend, comparable with other top no-annual-fee cash back cards. Competing cards might even make you spend slightly more to earn the same bonus value.

Rates and fees: Low cost to open and maintain

The no-annual-fee Capital One SavorOne card is affordable both upfront and over time. It lacks some of the fees you might find on other cards like foreign transaction fees, making it a low-cost and user-friendly card to carry. 

Intro offer: Lengthy intro APR for a low-fee card

The SavorOne keeps itself competitive with a longer-than-average intro APR. The intro balance transfer fee is also on the lower end at 3 percent of the amount transferred in the first 15 months of account opening (then 4% at a promotional APR that Capital One may offer you at any other time). Many cards also apply a higher balance transfer fee after a few months, but new cardholders have the entire 15-month introductory window.

(See Rates & Fees)

The Capital One SavorOne can be a great choice as a cash back card because of its generous rewards rates, welcome offer and intro APR. However, it has some downsides that consumers should consider before applying. 

Applying: High credit requirements

We recommend that you have at least good credit (a FICO score of 670 or higher) before applying for the SavorOne. This may put it out of reach for people with fair credit, but this is typical for cards in this category. 

If you don’t meet this card’s credit requirements, you can still build your credit over time. A great first step for students would be to apply for the Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards Credit Card. If you aren’t a student, any starter credit card from Capital One could be a good choice. Whichever route you choose, you can apply for the SavorOne Cash Rewards card with more confidence when you’ve established a healthier credit score.

Benefits: Shrug-worthy perks

The Capital One SavorOne card comes with standard Mastercard benefits, including fraud coverage for unauthorized charges, MasterRental® Coverage, MasterRoadAssist® Service* and ID theft protection*. 

This is a relatively thin portfolio compared to what Visa offers with its Visa Signature cards. Visa Signature cards have more benefits, including roadside dispatch, auto rental collision damage waivers, emergency cash disbursement and extra benefits at Luxury Hotel Collection properties.

While lackluster benefits may not be a dealbreaker, cash back cards with better perks are available.

Bankrate expert, Nouri Zarrugh, stands by the SavorOne Cash Rewards card as a great way to save on food delivery and for complementing rewards earned with other Capital One cards.

I don’t get food delivered regularly, but free delivery and discounts on Uber Eats orders have come in handy, and I haven’t seen a perk like this offered on any cards other than Capital One rewards cards. Add this perk to the card’s ongoing cash back on dining purchases, and I’d say the SavorOne is easily the best card for food delivery.

A lot of people may not realize that you don’t need to redeem SavorOne rewards as cash back. You can also move rewards from the SavorOne to a Capital One travel card at a 1:1 ratio. Considering how many categories this card covers without charging an annual fee, it could help you build a surprisingly powerful travel rewards credit card stack.

— Nouri Zarrugh, Senior Editor at Bankrate/Credit Cards

(See Rates & Fees)

The Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards card slots nicely between two industry heavyweights: the Chase Freedom Unlimited® Card and the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card. Both of these cards feature a $0 annual fee and strong rewards, but they also fall short in some areas.

While you can earn bonus cash back on groceries, dining and entertainment with the SavorOne’s highest cash back categories, they may not be your largest spending categories. Here are cards you can pair with the Capital One SavorOne to bolster your cash back strategy and maximize your earnings.

Here's who is most likely to benefit from the reward categories and benefits of the SavorOne Cash Rewards card.

The no-annual-fee Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards credit card is one of the best cash back cards on the market. The variety of bonus cash back categories allows you to earn cash back at a great rate on plenty of purchases while enjoying a generous introductory offer. (See Rates & Fees)

However, if you don’t spend a lot of money on entertainment, groceries or dining, you could have difficulty maximizing rewards with this card. Plus, other rewards cards have higher rates on some of the same categories. The SavorOne is a great catch-all card if you want to just hold one credit card. But rewards strategists may be better off pairing a flat-rate card with a rewards card that comes with higher rates in one or two categories.

*All information about the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest).

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review: