Earlier this week, Capital One removed what might have been considered (or at least intended) to be one of its flagship cards from its site. As of July 16th, the bank is no longer accepting applications for its Savor Rewards card. So what was behind this move and what’s next?
To be clear, this removal only affects the Savor card and not the SavorOne card or its specialty variants. We’ll get into why I think that is — but let’s talk about what the Savor card is/was first.
On paper, the Savor card was extremely attractive, offering 4% back on dining, 4% on entertainment, and 4% on select streaming service purchases. Additionally, the card earned 3% at grocery stores and 1% on everything else. The catch is that the Savor card carried a $95 annual fee.
While that fee isn’t terrible, what made the Savor look bad was the fact that the SavorOne wasn’t far behind it — and came with no annual fee. Sure, the SavorOne lowered those 4% cashback categories to 3%, but the math was still in its favor for most customers. In fact, if you spent a combined total of $10,000 a year on dining, entertainment, and streaming using Savor card, you’d earn $400 cash back. The same spending on the SavorOne would yield $300 — meaning that, after the $95 annual fee, you’d only earn $5 more with the Savor than you would with the SavorOne. I’m sure there are people who spend more than $834+ a month in these categories to make it technically worth it, but I’m guessing most don’t.
On top of that, the SavorOne’s welcome bonus was more appealing. The standard bonus for the SavorOne is $200 back for $500 in spending whereas the Savor’s was $300 for $3,000 in spending. In other words, the former has a bonus with a 40% return on spending while the latter was only 10% — not good!
I’ve often wondered who was getting the regular Savor card when the SavorOne seemed like such a better deal. Yet, the card still managed to stick around for so many years that I figured people must still be getting it. Well, I guess that wasn’t really the case after all.
So the question I have now is: will Capital One revamp the Savor card to be more competitive or just let it die? I’m inclined to guess it will just be the latter — although I do think it will be a bit odd to have a “SavorOne” card without “Savor.” I suppose the bank could also rename the SavorOne to adopt the simpler moniker, but that could also lead to more confusion in the long run.
The moral of the story is that, if you didn’t have a chance to get the Savor card, you really didn’t miss out on much. Meanwhile, the SavorOne is still available and happens to be one of my most recommended cards. With that, although I look forward to seeing what Capital One does with the Savor now, there will be no love lost if it stays gone for good.