Get 4% Cashback for Sporting Events, Theme Parks, & More With This Card’s Unusual Category Bonus

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.

capital one savor review

I freaking love Sleigh Bells (look them up!). You can earn 4% on a HUGE number of activities with Capital One Savor

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

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…) 🍻🍷
a city with tall buildings

Observation decks, tours, excursions, historical sites are all considered entertainment, too

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.

a roller coasters and a ferris wheel

Take your Savor card with you to theme parks for 4% cashback – the best rewards of any card

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

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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About Harlan

Just a dude living in Memphis, traveling, and working toward financial independence.

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  1. The math for justifying the card is slightly flawed if you consider that there are $0 annual fee cards that pay out 2% on everything. The rationale for adding the card Compared to the Citi Premier, which earns 3% on dining and travel, the Savor card only offers an extra 1%. For the remaining entertainment categories, the justification should compare 4% versus a 2% card.
    If the card had $0 annual fee, I would pick this card up in an instant. For $95, I’m not as positive. The availability of the Marvel MC (Synchrony) and Wells Fargo’s new $0 AF Propel Amex also make the justification more challenging.

    • I definitely hear ya, Bill. I’m not a fan of that annual fee either, but I’d consider picking this up for $500 and no fee the first year.

      Thanks for the food for thought, always appreciate hearing from you!

  2. Everyone should know that the “entertainment” category can be very misleading. Most sports organizations and museums are using incorrect MCC codes that disqualify you from earning 4%. I live in Boston and can tell you that the Museum of Fine Art (MFA) comes up as a charity/club for annual memberships, a school for tickets bought onsite, and a general store for tickets bought over the phone. Red SOX – charity/club, Boston symphony – charity/club. Only the Celtics quality for 4% in Boston. You have to buy all other tickets through a 3rd party like Ticket Master or Stub Hub to get the 4% Capital one also allows record stores to earn 4%. All the record stores I shop at in Boston are using “general merchandise” or “misc”. None will earn 4%

    The link below will allow you to look up any organization and see how it will code with Visa. This is what Capital one will use to determine your points.
    https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator-app/app/#/home/supplier-locator

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