Let’s talk about this new Capital One Savor card. It has:

• A $300 cash sign-up bonus after meeting spending requirements
• 4% cashback on dining and entertainment
• 2% cashback at grocery stores
• 1% cashback everywhere else
• Learn more here

I dug into that entertainment category and realized how surprisingly broad it really is. It includes:

Buying tickets to a movie, play, concert, sporting event, tourist attraction, theme park, aquarium, zoo, dance club, pool hall or bowling alley. Also, making purchases at record store and video rental locations.

Some of those things are pricey! And saving 4% could add up quick.

The dining category is wide, too – it includes nearly any place you can get a meal, snack, or drink. But I’ll keep my Chase Sapphire Reserve for those purchases.

If you’re LOL/24, looking for a nice sign-up offer, or spend a lot on entertainment the card easily pays for itself. And could be worth keeping long-term.

Let’s look at some numbers.

Capital One Savor review

• Key Link: Capital One Savor card – learn more here

Capital One Savor	$300 Cash
	• 4% cashback on dining and entertainment • 2% cashback at grocery stores • No limit to how much you can earn
• $95 annual fee	• $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening
	• Learn more here

To start, there aren’t many cards with “entertainment” as a category bonus. The only 2 that come to mind are Citi Prestige and Citi ThankYou Premier – both earn 2X for entertainment.

So not only does the Capital One Savor earn more for entertainment (4% cashback), it’s also not a Citi card (obvi).

You’ll earn $300 cashback after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

There’s a $95 annual fee, waived the first year. So you have a full 12 months to see how much you’ll earn with the card. And the sign-up bonus alone is worth it.

Keep in mind, Capital One pulls from all 3 credit bureaus when you apply for their cards. And they won’t give you more than 1 personal card every 6 months.

What’s entertainment include with Capital One Savor?

Here’s how I think of it: basically anything you do for fun outside your house. That would include things like:

• Season passes for sporting events 🏈⚾️
• Tickets at your local theaters for plays, concerts, movies… 🎬🎭🎤🎟
• Visiting the zoo, arboretum, or museums 🦁🌳🎨
• Nights at the bowling alley or skating rink (OMG remember those?) ⛸
• Theme park tickets, like Disney World, Six Flags, Legoland 🎢
• Dance clubs and pool halls 💃🎱
• (I personally wonder if brewery and winery tours are included…) 🍻🍷

The list goes on and on. Sporting events and theme parks in particular come to mind as “adding up quickly.”

If you’re a movie buff, like to see live music, or want a card to take when you’re in tourist mode (no foreign transaction fees!), this card would be ideal for saving 4% on all those things.

Keep in mind, entertainment:

Excludes non-industry entertainment merchant codes like cable, digital streaming, and subscription services.

So Capital One won’t reward you for your Netflix, HBO Go, or Hulu subscriptions, or cable packages. This card is about entertainment out of the house.

By the numbers

The first year, it’s a no-brainer. You can earn $300 cash as a bonus, plus cash rewards with no cap. Afterward, there’s a $95 annual fee.

You’d need to spend $2,375 a year in the 4% categories to justify keeping it ($2,375 X 4% = $95).

Phrased another way, you’d need to spend ~$198 per month on dining or entertainment to make the card a keeper, which is typical for most.

Say per month you tend to spend:

• $400 eating out
• $200 for entertainment (a trip to Disney or football games could cost many times this amount)
• $200 on groceries

Over a year, you’d earn $336 in cashback.

Of course, you can scale this up or down, depending on your personal spending habits.

I tend to see a few concerts a year, visit attractions here and there, and definitely see a lot of movies. So the Savor card would easily be worth its salt for me. Run the numbers to see if it could make sense for you, too.

Bottom line

• Key Link: Capital One Savor card – learn more here

I tend to overlook most cashback cards. I have a couple (the Fidelity Visa, etc.), and the only thing that gets me going is 1) a nice sign-up bonus and 2) interesting or unusual bonus categories.

The Capital One Savor card has both of those going for it. It has a $300 cash bonus after meeting minimum spending requirements.

But it’s the bonus categories that got me, especially 4% cashback on dining and entertainment. The latter of those includes expensive past times like theme parks, sporting events, movies, concerts, and pretty much anything touristy or fun you can think of.

The $95 annual fee is waived the first year, so this is an easy way to earn a smooth $300 and see how much you can earn in cashback rewards. I know my interest is piqued.

What do you think of the Capital One Savor card?

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