Capital One’s popular no-annual-fee dining and entertainment credit card is getting a new name: Savor.
Wait … isn’t there already a Savor card? There was, and now there is again. Allow us to explain.
Up until July 2024, Capital One was offering two cash back credit cards with rewards structures that focused on dining and entertainment. One had a $95 annual fee, and one had a $0 annual fee. The one with the fee was named “Savor”; its top rewards rate was higher, and it offered a larger sign-up bonus. The one without the annual fee was the “SavorOne.” However, Capital One stopped accepting applications for the annual-fee version in July. And now the SavorOne is taking over the Savor name.
What you get with this Savor
The “new” Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card offers the same basic rewards structure and benefits as the “old” SavorOne:
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3% cash back at restaurants.
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3% cash back at grocery stores.
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3% cash back on entertainment.
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3% cash back on eligible streaming services.
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5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
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1% cash back on other purchases.
Sign-up bonus: For a limited time, earn a $250 cash bonus once you spend $500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening..
Interest rate: 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months; 19.74%-29.74% variable APR after that; balance transfer fee applies.
Why this might sound familiar
This is just the latest twist in the curious life story of Capital One’s Savor brand.
Savor’s history goes back to March 2017, when the issuer introduced what was initially called the “Capital One® Premier Dining Rewards Credit Card.” It was a rather plain name (and a rather plain-looking card), but it allowed the issuer to test consumers’ appetites for a cash-back card whose rewards were focused on going out rather than staying in. At the time, groceries were already a common bonus rewards category on credit cards; restaurants, not so much.
The Premier Dining Rewards card offered unlimited 3% cash back at restaurants, 2% at grocery stores and 1% everywhere else, for a $0 annual fee.
Consumers must have proved sufficiently hungry, because in November 2017, the issuer rebranded the card with the “Savor” name. The rewards rates remained the same, although the new version included a bigger sign-up bonus and a 0% introductory APR period.
Here’s where things start to get complicated. In August 2018, the no-annual-fee Savor card was renamed “SavorOne,” and it gained an additional bonus category: unlimited 3% cash back on entertainment. At the same time, Capital One introduced a new card under the old “Savor” name. This new card had a $95 annual fee and paid 4% cash back on dining and entertainment, 2% at grocery stores and 1% everywhere else. The new card had a higher sign-up bonus, too.
In the years that followed, Capital One beefed up the rewards on Savor and SavorOne. For example, the cash back rate at grocery stores was elevated to 3% on both cards. Bonus rewards were added for certain travel bookings. And both cards added bonus rewards on streaming services (4% for Savor, 3% for SavorOne).
In July 2024, Capital One announced that it would stop accepting applications for the Savor card. The SavorOne remained available, but now the no-annual-fee card will be known as Savor … again.