Capital One Savor Student Card: Great for College and Beyond
The Bottom Line
5.0
As long as you meet the eligibility requirements, it’s hard to find fault with this card, especially since it remains valuable long after you graduate.
Rates, fees and offers
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1%-8%
Bonus offer
Earn $50 when you spend $100 in the first three months.
Intro APR
N/A
Ongoing APR
APR: 19.49%-29.49% Variable APR
Cash Advance APR: 29.49%, Variable
Balance transfer fee
Balance Transfer Fee applies to balances transferred at a promotional rate
Foreign transaction fee
0%
More details from Capital One
- Earn unlimited 3% cash back at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®), on dining, entertainment and popular streaming services, plus 1% on all other purchases
- Early Spend Bonus: Earn $50 when you spend $100 in the first three months
- Enjoy peace of mind with $0 Fraud Liability so that you won't be responsible for unauthorized charges
- Enjoy no annual fee, foreign transaction fees, or hidden fees
- Earn unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options. Terms apply
- Earn up to $500 a year by referring friends and family when they're approved for a Capital One credit card
- Earn 8% cash back on entertainment purchases when you book through the Capital One Entertainment portal
- Build your credit with responsible card use
- Whether you're at a 4-year university, community college or other higher education institution, this card might be an option for you
Pros and Cons
Pros
No annual fee
Bonus categories
No rewards caps
Reports to the three major credit bureaus
Cons
High APR
Detailed Review
The Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card is meant for college students, but it’ll make you feel like you've already graduated. The card’s ongoing rewards structure is similar to what you’d receive with its elder sibling, the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card — it's just that the student version has less stringent credit score requirements.
Coffee breaks during a study session, an outing to the movies and a Hulu subscription will all qualify for an elevated 3% cash back rate, and you can earn up to 8% back on select entertainment purchases. That's a lot of value for students who may still be working on bolstering their credit history.
You will still need at least some established credit to qualify for the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card, which means other student credit cards will be easier to get.
The Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card, discussed here, was formerly known as the Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards Credit Card. The issuer rebranded the card as just "Savor" in October 2024.
Click to see a side-by-side comparison of Capital One's student credit cards
Empty Table Header | Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card | Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card |
|---|---|---|
Rewards |
|
|
Annual fee | $0 (see rates and fees). | $0 (see rates and fees). |
APR | The ongoing APR is 19.49%-29.49% Variable APR. | The ongoing APR is 19.49%-29.49% Variable APR. |
Sign-up bonus | Earn $50 when you spend $100 in the first three months. | Earn $50 when you spend $100 in the first three months. |
Foreign transaction fee | $0. | $0. |
Student status required | Yes. | Yes. |
Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card: Basics
Card type: College student.
Annual fee: $0 (see rates and fees).
Sign-up bonus: Earn $50 when you spend $100 in the first three months.
Rewards: 3% cash back in the following categories:
Dining.
Entertainment.
Popular streaming services.
Grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target).
The card also earns 5% back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel as well as 8% back on Capital One Entertainment purchases. All other purchases earn 1% back.
Redemption: Cash back can be redeemed for a statement credit, a check or gift cards. Cardholders can also automate redemption to occur at a certain time each year or when a certain amount is reached.
APR: The ongoing APR is 19.49%-29.49% Variable APR.
Foreign transaction fee: $0.
Other benefits:
Travel accident insurance.
Access to 24/7 concierge.
Compare to Other Cards
Benefits and Perks
High rewards rates across popular spending categories
The ongoing rewards rates for the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card are similar to the bank's non-student version, which means that even with average credit (FICO scores of at least 630), you might qualify for rich rewards across a host of popular and useful everyday spending categories: 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, streaming services and grocery stores. Those are excellent rates for any card, student or not.
(Note, though, that Capital One excludes Amazon Prime Video from the streaming category, and it doesn’t count Walmart and Target as grocery stores.)
Traveling abroad during spring break, the summer or for a full semester? You could earn an unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through the Capital One Travel portal when you pay for your reservation with your Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card. Terms apply. (You won't receive cash back unless you book through Capital One.)
Longevity
You can keep the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card after you graduate or leave school for any other reason, and you'll likely want to: The rewards rates remain the same even when you aren’t a student, and rewards never expire.
Of course, if you feel you’ve outgrown student credit cards and want a card with more robust rewards and sign-up bonuses, there are plenty of excellent credit cards for young adults. But it’s not necessary to cancel your Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card even if you replace it with another card. Length of credit history factors into your credit scores — the longer, the better — as does your credit utilization ratio. When you close a credit card account, you lose access to that line of credit, which could increase your credit utilization. In general, lenders prefer credit utilization ratios below 30%.
Instead of canceling an old student card, keep using it, or take it out of your wallet and store it in a safe place. Or you could seek a "product change" with Capital One.
No foreign transaction fees
The Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee, making it an ideal travel companion for a semester abroad or a spring break cruise to Cancun. When many college students’ budgets are already tight, it’s refreshing to have a card that won’t nickel-and-dime you with every purchase (see rates and fees).
Sign-up bonus
The Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card offers the following sign-up bonus: Earn $50 when you spend $100 in the first three months. That's not the highest sign-up bonus on the market, but it's fairly rare to find any kind of bonus on a student card. Plus, this one should be relatively easy to obtain due to the low spending threshold.
Drawbacks and Considerations
Eligibility
The Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card isn’t the most accessible. As with many student cards, you have to be an admitted or enrolled full- or part-time student at an accredited university or community college, but you'll also need a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. That criterion will exclude many international students from applying.
As noted above, you'll also need at least some credit to qualify for this card. If you have no credit, you might instead want to consider student cards from Discover, such as the Discover it® Student Cash Back or the Discover it® Student Chrome. These cards earn rewards but have no FICO credit history requirement, and both of them feature a potentially valuable sign-up bonus, which the issuer phrases this way:
INTRO OFFER: Unlimited Cashback Match for all new cardmembers – only from Discover. Discover will automatically match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year! So you could turn $50 cash back into $100. Or turn $100 cash back into $200. There’s no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Just a dollar-for-dollar match.
Generally, be aware that all credit cards come with age and income requirements, and the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card is no different. By law, you must be 18 to get a credit card; some students are 17 when they matriculate. Capital One also requires proof of a monthly income that is greater than your rent or mortgage payment by at least $425.
If you can’t check all of these boxes, you can’t get the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card.
How To Decide If It's Right For You
If you can qualify for the card, it's worth considering. There may not be a better college student credit card out there. It’s an excellent card for students relatively new to credit, yet it comes with many of the perks you’d find in a more “grown-up” card.
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.
This card doesn't have a FICO credit history requirement. It earns 5% cash back in bonus categories that change every three months, on up to $1,500 in spending per quarter when you activate (1% back on everything else). There's also a unique sign-up bonus, which Discover describes this way: "INTRO OFFER: Unlimited Cashback Match for all new cardmembers – only from Discover. Discover will automatically match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year! So you could turn $50 cash back into $100. Or turn $100 cash back into $200. There’s no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Just a dollar-for-dollar match."
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Methodology
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