Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card Credit Score: What Are My Approval Odds?

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is one of the best cash back credit cards, especially for dining and entertainment. But how high of a credit score do you need to get approved?

This article will give you an idea of what you can expect your approval odds to be based on your credit score. 

Interested in finding out the top travel credit cards for this month? Click here to check them out! 

Capital One Savor Credit score: What’s Needed?

There are reports of being approved for the Capital One Savor card with credit scores in the mid to upper 600s, so you definitely don’t need a perfect credit score to get approved for the Capital One Savor.

But keep in mind that the applicant there was applying for the old Capital One Savor card and the new version is a more premium product which means it will usually require a higher credit score.

The Capital One Savor card is not a card meant to rebuild your credit so if your score is in the low to mid 600s, it is probably not be for you. But if you’re in the high 600s, you might stand a decent chance.

My advice would be to try to get up above 720 or at least 700 to increase your approval odds for the Savor. In addition, I would try to establish at least a year of credit history with some issuer to increase those approval odds.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Capital One Savor benefits

The original Capital One Savor was released in the fall of 2017 but it was later re-launched in 2018 and it came with an upgraded package. Here’s what the new and improved Capital One Savor offers:

  • 4% cash back on dining
  • 2% cash back on groceries
  • 1% cash back on everything else
  • Rewards don’t expire for the life of the account, and you can redeem cash back for any amount
  • World Elite MasterCard benefits
  • $95 annual fee
  • No foreign transaction fees

Bonus spending

  • 4% cash back on dining and entertainment
  • 2% cash back on groceries
  • 1% cash back on everything else

The Capital One Savor is one of the best cards for cash back on dining and entertainment with 4% cash back. You have to factor in the $95 annual fee which will obviously cut into the savings but if you spend a substantial amount of money on dining and entertainment then earning that 4% back can most definitely be worth it.

No foreign transaction fees

CapitalOne cards, like Discover cards, come with no foreign transaction fees. This is great if you don’t have a MasterCard with no foreign transaction fees because you’ll be able to take your 4% earnings on dining abroad with you and not have to worry about any issues if they don’t take Visa but do take MasterCard.

Drawbacks

One of the drawbacks to applying for a Capital One card is that they pull from all 3 credit bureaus. You can have one of your bureaus frozen like Experian to mitigate the damage, however.

Capital One Savor credit limits

It’s hard to predict what your credit limit will be for the Savor credit card. However, there are reports of others getting credit limits as high as $30,000. More realistically, with an average credit score, you’ll probably get started off with a credit limit of $5,000 to $10,000.

The actual limit you get will depend on your credit score and income but in the past Capital One has always been one of the most generous issuers for me when it comes to credit limits. They also allow you to request credit limit increases, usually after 6 months, so you can always try to work your way up the credit limit ladder with those requests.

Improving your credit score

If you think you’re on the cusp of getting approved then you may just need to work a little bit on your credit score. If you need a quick refresher on how credit scores are determined, click here. 

Related: How to Raise Your Credit Score by 200 Points

Your credit score is determined by the following categories:

Payment history

Obviously, you want your payment history to be squeaky clean. If you have a late payment within the last couple of months, consider waiting a few more months to apply for another credit card. If you have multiple late payments, you might need to wait 6 to 12 months before applying and possibly even longer.

Utilization

You want to try to keep your utilization around 10% but no higher than 30% for good approval odds. It’s really important to know how to properly pay off your credit card bill to maintain good utilization.

Credit history

As stated, you probably want to apply for this card after you’ve established some credit history for a while. I would shoot for at least a couple of years of solid credit history.

New credit

Capital One can be a little sensitive to new accounts opened up so try to space out your applications so that you’re not applying for a bunch of Capital One cards right after applying for other cards.

Mixed credit

This looks at your mix of revolving credit accounts and installment accounts and is the least important factor for your FICO score. You shouldn’t stress too much over this factor.

Depending on which factor is holding you back, there are different ways to quickly improve your credit score. You can read about these different methods here. 

Final word

The Capital One Savor is a great cash back rewards credit card but you’re going to need to have at least a decent credit score to get approved. Capital One advertises this card as needing “Excellent” credit so you know that your score needs to be in decent shape before applying.

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card Review [2020]

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is a great card for earning cash back on dining and entertainment purchases. But what exactly counts as dining and entertainment and how does it stack up to other similar cards? In this article, I will tell you everything you need to know about this card and also show you how it stacks up to some of the other top cards out there.

Capital One Savor Intro

The Capitol One Savor is a good card for someone looking to maximize cash back on dining and entertainment purchases. The value of the early spend bonus varies but at times it can be one of the most valuable cash back offers.

The Capitol One Savor has some decent travel protections but there are certainly better options and I’ll discuss them below. I would generally choose a different card if you are interested in earning travel rewards.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Early spend bonus

The Capitol One Savor comes with an early spend bonus of $300 cash back after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening up your card.

This is a fairly decent early spend bonus. One thing to note is that in the past we have seen this bonus as high as $500. It is not clear if and when that larger bonus will return but I have a feeling that we will end up seeing it again at some point.

However it is also worth noting that you can find much more valuable spend bonuses with other cards. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.

Related: Capital One Amazon Offers & Discounts Guide 

Eligibility

Capital One has its own eligibility rules. The first is the 1/6 rule which means that you can only apply for one credit card every six months.

There is also a max two card rule that applies to Capital One branded cards. Basically you would typically be limited to only two cards at a time out of the following:

  • Journey Student Credit Card
  • Platinum
  • Quicksilver
  • Savor Rewards
  • SavorOne Rewards
  • Venture Rewards
  • VentureOne Rewards

If you find it confusing and time-consuming to keep up with all of these credit card application roast don’t worry there is a product on the way to automate all of these calculations for you. It’s called WalletFlo and it is getting very close to being launched.

WalletFlo will automatically calculate all of the terms and conditions and show you which rules may apply to you based on your specific credit card portfolio. It is going to be a huge timesaver and also have a lot of features that help you maximize your cards, deal with annual fees, etc.

Bonus categories

  • 4% back on dining
  • 4% back on entertainment
  • 2% back at grocery stores

4% back on dining

Getting 4% back on dining purchases is extremely competitive. It compares nicely with premium cards like the American Express Gold Card that earns 4X on dining. The difference is that the Gold Card earns Membership Rewards which can be transferred out to various travel partners for much more value than 4% cash back. For that reason, the Savor card is not the best dining card for travel rewards.

What counts as dining?

Here is what Capital One states counts for dining:

Purchases at restaurants, cafes, bars, lounges, fast-food chains and bakeries.

As you can tell, the dining category is fairly broad and it compares nicely to other dining cards.

4% back on entertainment

Getting 4% back on entertainment is also very competitive.

I don’t know of any other cards offering 4% back on entertainment purchases in the form of straight cash back so this is a fantastic bonus category. The Marvel credit card could be a logical competitor for entertainment purchases but that card only earns 3% cash back.

What counts as entertainment?

Here is what Capital One states counts for entertainment:

Ticket purchases made at movie theaters, sports promoters (professional and semi-professional live events), theatrical promoters, amusement parks, tourist attractions, aquariums, zoos, dance halls, record stores, pool halls or bowling alleys. This excludes golf courses, collegiate sporting events and non-industry entertainment merchant codes like cable, digital streaming and membership services.

It is a little odd to me that collegiate sporting events are excluded but this is still a pretty broad category that should allow you to earn bonus points on most of your entertainment purchases. It’s also nice to have theme parks like Disney World covered since some folks drop a lot of cash there.

2% back at grocery stores

The 2% back on grocery stores is okay but you can do much better than that. Personally, I use my American Express Gold Card to earn 4X on my grocery spend and that amount to much more than 2% back.

What counts as a grocery store?

Here is what Capital One states counts for grocery stores:

A supermarket, meat locker, freezer, dairy product store and specialty market. Excludes superstores like Walmart® and Target®.

It is pretty standard for cards that are in bonus points on the grocery stores to exclude super stores like Walmart so this is pretty standard.

The Capitol One Savor really shines when it comes to its bonus categories. It is one of the best cash back cards for dining and entertainment earning a whopping 4% back. There are not many cards that can compete with 4% back on these two categories so the Savor really has a distinguishing feature.

Overall, I think this is a great card for someone who wants to capitalize on bonus category earning for dining and entertainment and is interested in cash back rewards.

Even cafes offer 4X earnings.

Vivid Seats 8% back

Up until May 2020 you can earn an additional 8% cash back on your tickets when you use your saver card at Vivid seats. Vivid Seats is an online ticket marketplace where fans can buy and sell tickets to sports, concerts, and theater events.

Getting 8% back on your tickets (in addition to the 4% back you already are getting) is pretty fantastic and this is a very nice promotion. I’m not sure about how big their inventory is or how their prices compare to other places like StubHub or Ticketmaster so it would definitely be in your best interest to always compare prices.

No foreign transaction fees

Like all Capital One cards this card does not have any foreign transaction fees.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Protections

The Capital One Savor Card will offer you MasterCard World Elite protections if you are approved for the World Elite version. Below is a list of some of the key benefits and then I’ll share some of the details below and give you a comparison to a similar card.

  • Extended warranty
  • Personal Identity Theft Resolution Services
  • Capital One Concierge Service
  • Secondary rental car coverage
  • Travel accident insurance
  • Baggage delay
  • Trip cancellation 
  • Price protection 

Extended warranty

The extended warranty doubles the original manufacturer warranty up to 24 months. If the original manufacturer’s warranty or the service contract covers more than 24 months, this benefit will not apply. The maximum benefit cannot exceed the amount charged on your covered card or $10,000, whichever is less.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year on eligible warranties of three years or less, so it’s possible to get two times the coverage with the Sapphire Preferred. 

Baggage delay

You can get reimbursed for up to $100 per day for three days if your bags don’t show up on time. The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a similar protection but it will cover you for up to five days.

Trip cancellation

The policy will pay up to a maximum benefit of $1,500 per trip. Compare that amount to the Chase Sapphire Preferred which reimburses up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses. That’s a huge difference.

Rental car insurance

The Capital One Savor will offer you secondary rental car insurance. Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Offers primary rental car coverage which means that you won’t have to file a claim with your car rental insurance company. It also means that you can turn down the collision damage waiver when renting a car and save money.

Price protection

Coverage is limited to the difference between the actual cost of the item (excluding taxes, storage, shipping, and handling costs) and the advertised lower price, up to $250 per claim. There is a maximum of four claims per 12 months.

OpenTable

Capital One cards will come with a new benefit which is access to premium reservations with OpenTable (the restaurant reservations app).

All you need to do is download the OpenTable app and then verify that you have the Capital One Savor Card by visiting this website right here (on mobile). Once you have the app downloaded you will see a purple button at the bottom that says “Verify Capital One card.”

Annual Fee

The annual fee is $0 the first year and then $95 after that. If you spend $2,375 on dining and entertainment, then you can offset the annual fee based on your bonus spend alone.

However, there is also a no annual fee version of this card known as the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card. That card earns only 3% back on dining and entertainment though which is not quite as impressive.

Final word

The Capital One Savor Card is perfect for people who spend a lot on dining and/or entertainment and want to earn cash back rewards. But, if you are interested in travel rewards, I would really look into a card like the American Express Gold Card which earns 4X on dining and groceries.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card vs Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card [2020]

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card are two of the hottest Capital One cards. But these are two very different cards in terms of the potential value that they offer and when it comes to things like their bonus categories. In this article, I’ll go through the strengths of each card and talk about which card I would choose and why.

Capital One card eligibility

Capital One has a couple of restrictions for getting their cards.

The first is that you cannot currently have more than two Capital One branded credit cards. These are cards like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card. So if you already have two of those type of cards, you will need to close one of them before you pursue another one.

The other rule is the six-month rule.

This rule prohibits you from getting more than one Capital One card in a six-month period. So you just need to wait six months between your Capital One credit card applications and you will be good. 

By the way, if you would like to automate your eligibility for all of these credit card application rules, be sure to check out the new app WalletFlo. It’s a free app and it will help you optimize your credit cards by using smart automation. It’s been helping a lot of people get approved for more cards and better capitalize on their rewards so I highly recommend it.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Early spend bonus

Capital One Venture

CAPITAL ONE VENTURE benefits

The standard offer for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is 50,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in the first three months. Plus, earn an additional 50,000 Bonus Points after you spend $20,000 total on purchases within the first 12 months of account opening.

Venture miles are worth 1 cent per point towards travel which means that the 50,000 point early spend bonus is worth $500 in travel. You can also redeem your points for other types of things like cash back and gift cards but you will often be losing out on value. You can read more about those redemption opportunities here. 

That’s because Capital One announced that beginning in early December 2018, you can transfer your Capital One miles to various travel partners. 

Below are the different airlines and hotels that you can transfer to along with the transfer ratios. 

  • Aeromexico (Club Premier) (2:1.5)
  • Air Canada (Aeroplan) (2:1.5)
  • Air France/KLM (Flying Blue) (2:1.5)
  • Alitalia (MilleMiglia Program) (2:1.5)
  • Avianca (LifeMiles) (2:1.5)
  • Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles) (2:1.5)
  • Emirates (Emirates Skywards) (2:1)
  • Etihad Airways (Etihad Guest) (2:1.5)
  • EVA Air (Infinity MileageLands) (2:1.5)
  • Finnair (Finnair Plus) (2:1.5)
  • Hainan Airlines (Fortune Wings Club) (2:1.5)
  • JetBlue (TrueBlue) (2:1.5)
  • Qantas (Qantas Frequent Flyer) (2:1.5)
  • Qatar Airways (Privilege Club) (2:1.5)
  • Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) (2:1)

Hotel partners

  • Accor Live Limitless (2:1)
  • Wyndham Rewards (2:1.5)

Having these partners is huge for two reasons.

The first is that some of these travel partners are simply fantastic. Some of these programs offer great redemption rates and allow you to mitigate or completely avoid expensive fees on your award redemptions.

Several of the programs that I really like include: Aeroplan, Avianca, EVA, Cathay Pacific, Flying Blue and Etihad. These give you some solid ways to redeem on partners like United, American, and Delta so all three legacy carriers are covered with the new partners.

Having these transfer partners also means that you can now get much more value from your points than 1 cent per point. If you transfer your points out to these partners for business class or first class bookings you can often easily get over 10 cents per point.

For example, in the past I’ve used Aeroplan miles to fly SAS in business class to cover flights worth $15,210 for two people. On that redemption we got 14 cents per point in value! That’s 14X the value you’d get with a standard redemption on travel with the Venture.

The potential for this outsized value is what makes the Venture card truly one of the contenders now.

Capital One Savor

The current offer for the Capitol One Savor is for $300 once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. (One point there was an offer for $500 after you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.)

The early spend bonus for the Savor card is simply $300 cash back and you cannot transfer your points earned to travel partners.

So the Venture offers way more flexibility and a much higher ceiling for the value of your points that the Savor can’t really compete with. On the other hand, if you don’t want to transfer your points out to airline partners then the Savor could actually be a great option for you since it offers straightforward cash back for its rewards.

SAS business class on the A330.

Bonus spending

Capital One Venture

The Venture does not have true bonus categories but it earns 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase. When you redeem your points towards travel, you’ll get 1 cent per point so it’s an effective 2% back on you purchases which isn’t bad.

Here’s what Capital One considers travel:

Purchases made from airlines, hotels, rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and time shares are generally considered to be travel purchases

So every purchase is like getting 2% back for those purchases listed above but now that you can transfer your points to airlines at a 2:1.5 ratio, it is like earning 1.5 miles per dollar spent for the airline transfer programs which is pretty competitive.

Capital One Savor

The Capital One Savor offers a variety of bonus categories which include the following:

  • 4% cash back on dining
  • 4% cash back on entertainment
  • 2% cash back at grocery stores
  • 1% cash back on all other purchases

This is where the Savor really offers a tremendous amount of value. If you’re trying to maximize cash back on dining then the Savor will be the better option out of these cards. Capital One states that the following counts as dining:

Purchases at restaurants, cafes, bars, lounges, fast-food chains and bakeries.

Capital One notes that some merchants that sell food and drinks that are located within larger establishments (such as hotel restaurants or grocery store food counters) as well as some food trucks or food carts may not categorize themselves as dining merchants.

Not many cards offer 4% cash back on entertainment so that’s another strong point of the card. Here’s what Capital One counts toward entertainment:

movie theaters, record stores, video rentals (excluding digital streaming and subscriptions services), tourist attractions, amusement parks, aquariums, zoos, dance halls, billiard and pool establishments, bowling alleys and ticketed events (e.g., live theater, bands, orchestras and commercial sports operations).

The 2% back at supermarkets is not that impressive but here is what counts for that category:

A supermarket, meat locker, freezer, dairy product store and specialty market. Excludes superstores like Walmart and Target.

Always keep in mind “purchases made through third-party payment accounts, mobile or wireless card readers, mobile or digital wallets or similar technology may not receive a higher percentage reward, depending on how the technology is set up to process the purchase.”

A major difference between the Savor card and the Venture card is that your cash back for the Savor card can be applied at $.01 per point toward any type of purchase. So you are not limited to travel purchases to maximize your cash back.

Unfortunately, soon after the Savor upped its bonus category game to 4% back on dining, other cards also stepped up their game. For example, the Amex Gold Card offers 4X on dining and U.S. supermarkets, which can come out to much higher than 4% back since Amex has several great transfer partners.

So while I like the bonus categories for the Savor card, it’s not exactly the most compelling credit card for dining at this point due to the strong competition in this sector.

Get 4% back on dining with the Savor.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Annual Fee

Capital One Venture

  • $0 intro for the first year, $95 after that

Capital One Savor

  • $0 intro for the first year, $95 after that

Both cards waive the annual fee for the first year so you can really get a sense of the value of the card before ever being forced to pay an annual fee.

Foreign transaction fees

Both of these cards do not come with foreign transaction fees.

$100 Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check credit

The Venture also comes with a $100 Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check credit. Many cards offer this benefit now although it’s still not super common for a card with a $95 annual fee to offer the perk.

Final word

In my opinion, the Venture is the far superior card for travelers. That’s because it comes with a strong bonus and most of all it has some of the best transfer partners out of any card. Meanwhile, the Savor is a good card for dining and entertainment, but it’s not the best dining card for many due to alternative options. However, if you are just looking for a strong cash back card for dining the Savor card is still not a bad option.