Update 2024.10: The new welcome offer is $250. Now, Capital One has renamed this SavorOne credit card ($0 annual fee) to Savor and discontinued the old Savor credit card ($95 annual fee), which is very confusing.
Update 2021.5: Capital One has improved the earning structure, you can now earn:
- 3% cash back on dining, groceries, entertainment and streaming.
Previously, it was just 2% off groceries and no bonus points for entertainment and streaming. This is a nice improvement, and don’t forget that Capital One has made a lot of improvements to its miles system in 2021.
Update 2021.4: The link for the $250 offer is broken. Current offer is $200.
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Benefits
- $250 Offer: Earn a $250 cash bonus after spending $500 in the first 3 months. This is the best deal on this card.
- 3% cash back on dining, grocery, entertainment and streaming purchases; earn 1% cash back on all other purchases.
- If you have a Capital One Miles earning card (such as Capital One Venture), then you can transfer your cashback into Miles and improve its potential value.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- No annual fees.
Disadvantages
- Capital One will bring together the three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax) for one credit card application!
Introduction to Capital One Miles (C1)
- You can earn C1 Miles with two types of cards: cards allowing you to earn Miles or cards allowing you to earn cashback. Miles earning cards mainly include: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Spark Miles for Business. Cash back cards mainly include: Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Spark Cash Plus, etc.
- You can move your C1 Miles from one Miles-earning card to another Miles-earning card at any time, and you can also move your cashback from a Cashback-earning card to a Miles-earning card Miles at any time. However, you cannot move your Miles from a Miles-earning card to a Cashback-earning card. Cashback is therefore more flexible than Miles in the C1 system.
- C1 Miles never expire. You will lose the C1 Miles on a card if you close the account, but you can avoid losing your C1 Miles by moving the points to another C1 card first.
- If you have a Miles-earning card, C1 Miles can be transferred to certain airline miles and hotel points. Some good 1:1 transfer options are: Air Canada (AC) (Star Alliance), Avianca (AV) (Star Alliance), Asia Miles (CX) (Oneworld), British Airways (BA) and Wyndham hotel points, etc. . If you use C1 Miles this way, the value is approximately 1.6 cents/point.
- You can redeem your C1 Miles for travel expenses at a fixed ratio of 1.0 cent/point. You can also redeem your C1 miles for gift cards from select merchants at a flat rate of 1.0 cent/point.
- You can redeem your C1 miles for a statement credit at a fixed ratio of 0.5 cents/point.
- In summary, we estimate that C1 Miles are worth around 1.6 cents/point.
Recommended application time
- We recommend applying for this card after having a credit history of at least two years and being very comfortable with the credit card game.
- (1/6 rule) You can only apply for one Capital One credit card every 6 months, including personal and business credit cards. You will get an automatic rejection if you break this rule, but there will be no hard draw.
Summary
The sign-up bonus is decent for a card with no annual fee. Other than that, the major highlight of this card is 3% cash back on dining and groceries. Note that the cashback value can be improved if you have the Venture card. You might also consider Capital One Savor (4% cash back on dining and entertainment but with a $95 annual fee) if you dine out a lot. Note that Capital One will use all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax) for a single credit card application, and it is very difficult to get approved if you have many recent applications.