Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards Credit Card: The new best student credit card?

(See Rates and Fees) 

Quick highlights 

• Rewards rate: Unlimited 3 percent cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services, and at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target); 5 percent cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel; 8 percent cash back on Capital One Entertainment purchases; 10% cash back on purchases made through Uber & Uber Eats, plus complimentary Uber One membership statement credits through 11/14/2024. Plus 1 percent cash back on all other purchases
• Welcome offer: $50 cash bonus after spending $100 in the first three months
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase intro APR: N/A
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: 19.99 percent to 29.99 percent (variable)
• (See Rates and Fees)

Current welcome offer

Welcome offers like sign-up bonuses and zero-interest periods aren’t particularly common for student cards. However, the Capital One SavorOne Student adds to its already impressive cash back value with a $50 cash bonus after spending $100 on purchases within your first three months. 

Not many issuers offer cash bonuses, and it’s worth noting that the SavorOne Student’s offer is not only one of the few student credit cards that provide cash back, but it also has the potential to outclass welcome offers on other student cards. The Discover it® Student Cash Back has the potential to be the best offer with its Cashback Match™  program. This program, exclusive to Discover, matches all cash back earned at the end of your first year. However, it takes a year and more spending to earn welcome offers typically available with minimal spending on competing cards.

The Chase Freedom® Student credit card provides a $50 cash bonus upon the first purchase made within three months of opening an account — an equal, but much more obtainable, offer. You may also see a few cards with student-oriented offers, like the Deserve® EDU Mastercard for Students and its free year of Amazon Prime Student subscription (a $59 lifetime value) after spending $500 within the first three months of card membership. While these competing offers are enticing, earning a $50 cash bonus for spending $100 in the first three months is ideal for low-budget spenders who want a decent welcome offer.

Rewards rate

If you’re looking for a straightforward, low-maintenance starter card to dip your toes into the rewards pool with, the Capital One SavorOne Student is an excellent choice. It’s a bonus category cash back card that earns generously in common categories all year without a limit and without enrollment. This gives the card an advantage over the Discover it® Student Cash Back card, which earns 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 in rotating category purchases each quarter (activation required and 1 percent after). 

Students who make regular purchases throughout the year in the SavorOne Student card’s boosted categories can earn plenty of cash back without tracking their spending or specific categories.

How you earn

You’ll earn 3 percent cash back using your card for dining, entertainment, grocery store purchases (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®) and popular streaming service purchases. You’ll also earn 8 percent cash back on entertainment purchases. The unlimited 1 percent cash back rate for purchases outside your bonus categories isn’t the most rewarding, but it does mean you can earn cash back on textbooks and other academic expenses.

It’s always good to check the merchant’s category code if you’re not sure what counts as eligible streaming services or entertainment purchases. Here are more details on how Capital One defines these two types of purchases:

How you redeem

Capital One’s rewards program is remarkably easy to handle through your online account or the Capital One mobile app. Although you can’t receive cash back as a direct deposit to your bank account, Capital One provides an automated redemption process. You can set your rewards to redeem after you’ve built up a certain amount of cash back (either $25, $50, $200, $500 or $1,500) or at a selected date each year in the form of:

• A statement credit
• A mailed check
• A gift card
• Checkout payments through Amazon.com and PayPal

You can access redemption options in your online account or through the mobile app, but you can’t set up automatic rewards through the app. You also don’t need a minimum cash back balance to redeem unless you choose an automatic cash rewards redemption threshold.

Your student SavorOne rewards work like other cash back programs by earning a percentage back of each dollar spent. For example, if you ring up $100 at the grocery store, you’ll snag $3 back since you earn 3 cents per dollar in that category. In categories where you earn 1 percent back, you’ll earn 1 cent per dollar spent.

As far as student cards go, the SavorOne Student card is packed with an extraordinary roster of features. Card issuers don’t usually invest in additional perks on cards primarily meant to build credit, but this card carries benefits equivalent to a no-annual-fee credit card for good credit (See Rates and Fees). Although you won’t find any typical student-centric perks, the valuable assortment of account, travel and shopping protections inspires more than enough peace of mind for students.

Protections and price protections

Although extended warranty* coverage is a standard purchase protection, the student SavorOne credit card’s plan goes beyond the norm. Instead of the usual one-year extension on three-to-five-year manufacturer warranties, your warranty is automatically doubled (terms, conditions and exclusions apply. Refer to your Guide to Benefits for more details). Plus, eligible purchases are covered by price protection* — an under-the-radar perk that reimburses you the difference if your item’s price drops within 120 days of purchase.

Account security

Two of the more exclusive benefits that Capital One offers to keep your account secure are its CreditWise and virtual credit card number features. CreditWise is a free credit monitoring service that alerts you of any suspicious credit report changes and social security number leaks on the dark web, which is comprehensive for a free issuer-based service. To make sure certain sites don’t get your account information in the first place, Capital One’s Eno browser extension can generate unique card numbers for each online merchant instead of providing them with your real card number. This extra wall of security is becoming rare since few major issuers still offer virtual card numbers, but it can be a worthwhile safeguard for students who frequently shop online.

Automatic account review for a higher credit line after six months

Automatic account reviews are an often underrated benefit when you’re building credit as a student. After only six months, Capital One will inspect your account activity for positive credit habits like on-time, in-full payments and keeping a low balance. If they recognize you as a reliable cardholder, the issuer may increase your credit line — meaning it’ll be even easier to improve your credit score since a higher credit limit can help keep your credit utilization ratio lower.

Capital One is one of the best issuers for quick credit line upgrades since its automatic review period typically starts sooner than other issuers. For example, Discover’s student cards offer a credit line  review after graduation by calling in to update information on file, while the Chase Freedom Student’s review period starts at 10 months if you’ve made at least five on-time payments.

Travel features

Although they’re standard credit card network perks, you can drive easier knowing the SavorOne Student card protects eligible rental vehicles against damage and theft with MasterRental® Coverage (by paying with your card), along with protecting you via its 24-hour Master RoadAssist® Service (fees apply).

Your card’s Complimentary Concierge Services can also lend a hand when looking for dining, entertainment or travel. The service representatives can help with anything from booking dinner reservations to buying a last-minute anniversary gift.

The SavorOne Student cash back card carries an impressively low number of fees, but it isn’t the best choice if you need to carry a balance for any reason. The purchase and balance transfer APR can range from 19.99 percent to 29.99 percent (variable), which can either be a relatively low rate or swing to a high rate that isn’t a good APR. Interest charges can add up quickly, costing you more than you earn in rewards and possibly making it harder to pay off your debt. (See Rates and Fees).

Like most student cards, the SavorOne Student doesn’t have an intro APR offer. The Discover it® Student Cash Back is one of the rare student cards with an introductory period for interest charges. But if you already have a starter card and you want to transfer your balance to Capital One, you won’t pay a balance transfer fee ($0 at the Transfer APR, 3 percent of the amount of each transferred balance that posts to your account at a promotional APR that Capital One may offer to you). (See Rates and Fees).

The SavorOne Student card’s other fees are typical for a student card. You won’t have to worry about paying an annual fee, any foreign transaction fees (typically 3 percent) or a penalty APR, although there is a late payment fee of up to $40 if you miss a payment.

The SavorOne Student Cash Rewards card is great for any student who spends modestly in the card’s rewards categories. That said, it lacks an intro APR which can help students avoid interest on a balance they’re carrying with their current credit card. If you aren’t sold on the SavorOne Student card’s rewards categories, you might benefit more from a flat-rate rewards card that rewards all your purchases equally at a moderately boosted rate.

Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards vs. Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards

Hands down, the Capital One SavorOne Student card is one of the best student credit cards available when it comes to ongoing rewards. It trounces the other two Capital One student cards, even the Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card. Using our yearly rewards formula based on the average $15,900 annual spend determined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average consumer with the SavorOne Student card can earn almost $368 per year, while they would earn only about $250 annually with the Quicksilver Student card at its 1.5 percent flat cash back rate.

Granted, both the SavorOne and Quicksilver student cards now provide the same welcome offer, and 5 percent cash back for hotel and rental car bookings made using Capital One Travel. The SavorOne’s bonus categories are likely to be more lucrative for the typical student — unless non-category expenses like utilities, books and rent are your biggest expenses.

Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards vs. Discover it® Student Cash Back

The Discover it® Student Cash Back beats the SavorOne Student in terms of rewards with an average of $390 per year — as long as you manage to maximize the spending limit for its rotating categories rewards. The trouble is, it may be difficult to maximize Discover’s bonus categories on a student budget.The SavorOne Student card’s unlimited rewards structure more than makes up for the extra $29 the Discover it® Student Cash Back earns on average since it’s much easier to manage.

However, the SavorOne Student card may not be the optimal choice depending on the benefits you’ll use or whether you carry a balance. It isn’t the lowest-cost student card, but it does protect you against foreign transaction fees, penalty APRs and a balance transfer fee while other student cards may not (See Rates and Fees). The Discover it® Student Cash Back is the only rival card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees or a penalty APR, but it goes one step further by waiving your first late payment fee as a brilliant safety net for students getting used to credit card payments. However, your late fee is up to $41 after the first time you pay late.

Best cards to pair with the Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards

Building credit and upgrading from a student card after graduation should be your chief priority instead of maximizing your rewards spending. However, the SavorOne Student’s sibling card — the Capital One Quicksilver Student — would be one of the best partner cards on account of its flat-rate cash back. That way, you could earn boosted rewards on big expenses outside your categories like textbooks, student fees, rent and other bills.

*The Journey Student Rewards from Capital One is no longer available. The information about the Chase Freedom® Student credit card has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.