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Earlier this week, I returned from almost six weeks abroad. My family started out in Europe, where we visited 7 different countries, before continuing on to Mauritius, Singapore, and Japan. I’ll soon publish more info about the trip itself, but one of the things I was most excited about was testing out my Capital One SavorOne card for both entertainment purchases and foreign grocery purchases to see what would succeed and what would fail for those bonus categories. As expected, I got 3% / 3x earnings on dining almost universally throughout the trip, but I also utilized the 3% / 3x on both “entertainment” and “grocery” in a number of countries during the trip, getting 3x / 3% back on a range of purchases. Of course, not every attempt succeeded, particularly on “entertainment” purchases. I’ll add that since the Wells Fargo Attune card also features an “entertainment” bonus category and like my SavorOne card it is also a Mastercard, I imagine purchases on that card would have similar successes and failures.
I hope that readers will share some of their own data points with the SavorOne in the comments. Note that I’m not listing “dining” successes and failures because the vast majority of dining purchases coded as expected, whereas “entertainment” and “grocery” are likely far more variable, particularly abroad.
Why “3% cash back” with my Capital One SavorOne card?
I’m a miles and points guy, so those unfamiliar with the intricacies / idiosyncrasies of the Capital One ecosystem may wonder why I’m jazzed up about earning 3% cash back in select categories with the SavorOne card. After all, the new Robinhood Gold card offers 3% cash back across the board, so if I mainly wanted cash back, it would make more sense to get that card and use it for everything than to try to hunt out bonus categories with other cards.
However, the reason I am enthusiastic about 3% back with Capital One is because of the flexibility to turn the cash into miles.
While the SavorOne card earns “cash back” rewards, it is possible to move those cash back rewards to a card that earns miles, like the Capital One Venture Rewards card or Capital One VentureOne Rewards card at a rate of $0.01 cash back = 1 mile. Once moved to a miles-earning card, the rewards can be transferred to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners. More information about how to do that can be found in this post: Huge: Convert Capital One cash back to miles by moving rewards.
In other words, when I spend a dollar in a qualifying bonus category and earn 3% cash back on my SavorOne card, I have the flexibility to keep that 3% as $0.03 in cash or to turn that $0.03 into 3 miles. The 3% categories are therefore effectively 3x miles since I also have a VentureOne card. Capital One also allows you to transfer rewards to another cardholder, so I could alternatively transfer to my wife’s Venture X card, though you need to call Capital One to move rewards to another cardholder.
Furthermore, I have a very old VentureOne card with a redemption option that is only available to some cardholders: I can redeem 64,250 Capital One miles (which would ordinarily be enough to offset a $642.50 travel purchase) for a $900 Marriott gift card. I wrote about this capability years ago (See: The best hotel credit card ever). This isn’t a common redemption option, since I have this ability to redeem Capital One miles at what is effectively a rate of 1.4c per mile toward a $900 Marriott gift card, I do that periodically to pay for stays when using points doesn’t make sense.
The big drawback: “Entertainment” is a gamble
Before I get to successes and failures, I have to recognize the biggest drawback: using the SavorOne for an “Entertainment” purchase is almost always a gamble (the same is true for other cards bonusing entertainment). That’s because you never know for sure what’s going to code as entertainment. Unlike “dining” or “grocery”, where you can usually be reasonably sure that you’re going to earn the category bonus, “entertainment” is a far more difficult category to identify in advance. Unfortunately, when you miss, you’re only earning 1% back with this card, which is pretty awful given the plethora of cards on the market that out-earn that rate on everyday spend.
At the same time, when read through information about the entertainment bonus category on the Wells Fargo Attune card when that card was launched, I was surprised at the wide range of example purchases they provided that would constitute “Entertainment”. Read more about it in this post: New Wells Fargo Attune card offers 4% back on Disney tickets, dance classes, golf courses and more.
In turn, that made me more curious about the SavorOne card that I’d recently acquired through a Capital One product change (which they refer to as an “upgrade”, even when you’re changing from a card with an annual fee to the SavorOne, which has no annual fee). I had mostly been interested in the SavorOne card for its grocery and dining bonus categories as an alternative to the Amex Gold card and its newly increased annual fee, but then I became interested in which purchases might code as entertainment.
However, I can’t overemphasize the cost of the gamble one makes with the SavorOne for an entertainment purchase. In my case, I also have the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card, which earns 3x on all mobile wallet purchases, including anything where you tap with your phone to use Apple Pay / Google Pay. In situations where I used my SavorOne card to make an in-person purchase that I hoped would code as entertainment, I could have tapped my phone to use my Altitude Reserve card, getting a certain 3x points (which can later be used at a value of 1.5c per point toward travel booked through US Bank or directly with providers via Real-time Mobile Rewards). When faced with the decision between a certain 3x US Bank Altitude Reserve points vs a gamble that may yield 3 Capital One rewards or may only yield 1 Capital One reward, I think most people should take the US Bank rewards if you have that option. Indeed, if I weren’t someone who writes about credit card rewards, that’s probably the choice I’d have made 9 times out of 10.
However, if you don’t have an Altitude Reserve but you do want a card with no annual fee to bring with you and use for enhanced rewards on your touristy-type purchases, the SavorOne card can be a great option. There are no foreign transaction fees and I earned 3x on a decent range of purchases. Furthermore, in some cases, tap to pay just isn’t an option. For instance, I was very surprised at how few times I could tap my phone to pay in Japan — I almost always needed to insert a card in the card terminal for in-person purchases outside of the airport. The SavorOne card became useful there.
Capital One SavorOne entertainment category successes
Here are some purchases from my recent trip where I successfully earned 3% back / 3x on “entertainment”:
- National Museum of Scotland gift shop
- Dubrovnik City Walls admission charge
- L’Aventure du Sucre (National sugar museum admission) in Mauritius. Note that in the gift shop we only got 1%
- teamLab Planets admission tickets in Tokyo, Japan (purchased online)
- teamLab Borderless admission tickets in Tokyo, Japan (purchased online)
- Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan) admission
- Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan) gift shop
- Tokyo Disney Resort tickets purchased online from Disney
- Tokyo Disney Resort gift shop and dining purchases everywhere in the park
- Dole Pineapple Plantation in Oahu (admission to the maze)
- Dole Pineapple Plantation in Oahu (food and gift shop)
Capital One SavorOne foreign grocery purchase successes
- 3% grocery at a grocery chain in Scotland (Sainsbury’s)
- 3% grocery at a small corner grocery store in Warsaw, Poland (zabka)
- 3% grocery at COOP in Murano (Venice), Italy
- 3% grocery at Voli in Kotor, Montenegro
- 3% grocery at a very small grocery shop near a beach in Corfu, Greece
- 3% grocery at Azabudai Hills Market in Tokyo, Japan. This was more like a mall fruit stand.
Capital One SavorOne entertainment category failures
- Stirling Castle (Scotland) admission
- Stirling Castle (Scotland) cafe (expected dining, but got 1%)
- Shuttlepass Paris (airport shuttle from CDG to Hyatt House CDG) (hoped for entertainment, but got 1%)
- L’Aventure du Sucre gift shop (National sugar museum gift shop) in Mauritius. Note that we got 3% for entertainment on admission tickets
- Osaka Castle admission in Osaka, Japan
- Osaka Castle gift shop in Osaka, Japan
- National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology (Miraikan) admission in Tokyo, Japan (the museum cafe did code as dining though)
- Airport Limousine Bus from Hilton Tokyo Bay to Narita (note that we purchased tickets and later cancelled and paid a cancellation fee. Both the original ticket purchase and the cancellation fee coded as “Other Travel” for 1%)
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I’ve found the Savor One to be more reliable in coding than similar cards, but I agree: entertainment really is a gamble, and grocery can be hit or miss. We paid for a couple of season ticket packages to Off-Broadway shows before realizing that those were coding as either non-profit orgs or some other type of educational expense (the subscriptions could be $300-$500 each). That hurt a little bit, but I’ve found that I gravitate to the Venture X anytime that I am unsure (like a museum gift shop). I get much more frustrated by 1x than 2x, so I’m happy to play it safe. I’m pretty wary of using the entertainment category for anything non-profit or run as a tiny organization. Your instinct to use the USBAR when possible is the correct one, though I appreciate that you took some losses for science. I enjoyed the post.
OMG. I have the VentureOne and never noticed I can redeem for hotel gift card at higher value. I could have used that a couple times, making my points worth more.
C1 points have for me very little value (even with the yearly travelling to other continents). My most common redemption is with car rental through their portal.
I pivoted to WellsFargo, as I have the old Biz Platinum card that has flights redemption 1.5x through their portal. Can can transfer points/cashback between all old and new cards, making the new Signify Biz and the Active cash worth 3% on everything.
Adding to the US Altitude Card, I dropped that card as the mobile wallet didn’t work most of the time overseas, making it fairly useless to me. The places where I would use mobile pay were places that met another category anyway. Sure that card has other benefits, but for me I had an overlap with other cards.
Nice data points and thanks for trying it so many places!
I think most of the purchases that failed make sense. Airport shuttles and limos have always coded as transit on my CSR. And some of the castles are national historical monuments instead of entertainment. But pleased to see the museums and such – I’ve tended to have a very narrow view of entertainment, so this opens it up quite a bit!
Really helpful list you started there, Nick..
I’ve had the card for a couple of years. I go to a TON of entertainment and that’s the sole reason I got the card (I also have Vx). I’ve been pretty disappointed in quite a few major purchases not coding as entertainment. The very worst offender, where I spend a couple thousand a year is, and shows up on statement as, “Atlanta Fox Theater!”
Going to Vegas for a couple weeks so lots of dining to be had. Probably take my Savor, TDBank and Chase Flex. I like variety. And all have 3% Cashback.
C1 is a tough partner for someone in the game.
About a year ago I finally got approval for myself and P2 for Venture X Business.
Today I tried personal card and got rejected again…
I’ve generally had good luck with the SavorOne coding as expected.
Entertainment successes: getting 3% back for StubHub, Netflix, most museums, most concert tickets (though recently I bought a ticket to a “humanities festival,” and that only coded at 1%.), baseball games. I recently went to the King’s Island amusement park in Cincinnati, and that all coded at 3%, including dining there. I pay $5 a month to a podcast Patreon, and that too codes as entertainment at 3%.
Dining successes: Most code at 3%. A couple coffee shops I frequent code as groceries for some reason, but that also earns me 3%.
Dining failure: I dined in a lobby bar at a Marriott recently and that did not categorize as dining but rather lodging, so I only got 1% on that.
I think the SavorOne is a vastly underappreciated card, especially for a no-fee card, particularly with other perks like no foreign transaction fees, 10% back on Uber and UberEats purchases, etc. If you’re in a U.S. city with a Capital One Cafe (which can be quite nice), you can get 50% off coffee drinks.
10% back on Uber and Uber Eats? I need to switch my default card!
Yes! (Only in the US though, not outside the US.) And you can get a free UberOne membership, though that benefit is set to end Nov. 14 this year. https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/more-than-money/complimentary-uber-benefits/
Only for a bit longer unfortunately: https://frequentmiler.com/free-uber-one-10-back-at-uber-and-uber-eats-with-select-capital-one-cards/
Have been using my SavorOne in Greece for both groceries and restaurants (never used entertainment) for since before the pandemic – and a whole lot during the pandemic. Rarely I would get 1% and usually for a grocery store I had gotten 3% before. I called CapOne and had those checked every time. Especially where the 1% was for a store that had coded 3% before, I got the other 2% credit. And a couple of times where there was ‘(Name) Super Market’ on the title but had coded for 1%, I did get the other 2% on the phone. So, try that route. It may work.
Thanks for this DP! I’ve been meaning to try that for a couple of years but really assumed it wouldn’t work.
Oregon Coast Aquarium. 3% CB. College season FB tickets (x5) coded at 3% through Ticketmaster platform. Garnered $80 on those transactions alone. Has been hit or miss in other circumstances.
The information about category bonuses is interesting and useful for people with some of these cards, but man — the trip itself (I follow on Instagram) was like a masterclass in advanced points and miles techniques. You used cruise matches, multi-seat (like six? or eight?) flight redemptions, layovers, an Aeroplan stopover, and I don’t know what else to create an around-the-world smorgasbord for four people during prime summer travel season. Each aspect deserves its own write-up but taken together, it would probably be a book-length refutation of the “miles and points aren’t good for anything” mindset.
Just returned from a few weeks in Europe and like Nick it was a dice roll on what would code as Grocery & Entertainment. For the most part in Italy (Milan & Florence) Coop and Carrefour coded as Grocery. I did end up with one odd transaction at Pasticceria Marchesi which is a take out or eat in Pastry shoppe in Milan. We opted to eat in so I assumed it would be dining, coded as Grocery but only for 1x. Tickets to a show in London’s East End and drinks at the show coded as Entertainment. I was disappointed that Uber outside of the US does not appear to earn 10x.
Why dont you use USB AR everywhere as I am sure in most places you went they take contactless payments and Altitude Reserve guarantees 4.5% for mobile wallets without worrying about categories. It is my goto card overseas. Mobile wallets are more secure than using physical cards too. No Foreign transaction fees and 4.5% back without worrying about categories… What more can you ask for!
Thanks for commenting. If you read the whole post, you’ll see that I addressed that.
I have a store nearby, which codes as “Misc food store, MCC 5499), it only gave 1x on Amex Gold and CIti Premier, but was giving 3% on Savor One. The same goes to iHerb online, which codes the same.
Love iHerb, always get the 3x online grocery from my Sapphire Preferred for purchases.
Like Nick, I recently product changed to a Savor One and used it extensively during a recent 2+ week trip to the UK. I viewed entertainment purchases as risky and so focused my usage on grocery stores. I used the card at a range of stores from supermarkets (e.g. Sainsbury’s) to small roadside food stands and including dedicated butchers and fishmongers. Some purchases were with the physical card, but many were with Apple Pay. They ALL encoded correctly as grocery stores and earned 3%.
Sainsburys take Discover which earns 5% this quarter.