Compare the Features and Benefits of Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card and
Citi Strata Elite℠

Unlike the Capital One Savor card (now discontinued for new applicants, anyway), which offers 4% back dining but the same 3% back on dining, at grocery stores, and on entertainment purchases and popular streaming services) but charges a $95 annual fee, the Savor, despite 1% less in cash back, will be a better choice until you reach a high level of spend such that the annual fee is offset.

Plus, don’t forget that you’ll earn cash rewards (8%) on Capital One Entertainment Purchases and 5% cash rewards on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

Early on in this review, I mentioned a “secret” way to convert your Savor cash back into Capital One miles (See our complete guide to Capital One Miles).

If you also have a Capital One Venture X, Venture, VentureOne, or Spark Miles for Business card, you can freely convert your Savor cash back into miles by transferring the cash back to any of those cards. It transfers 1:1, meaning that $10 = 1,000 miles.

Here’s a list of Capital One Miles transfer partners should you transfer your Savor cash rewards over to one of the aforementioned cards (to be clear, you cannot transfer to any of these partners with this card alone; you would need a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, or Capital One Spark Miles for Business card to transfer to):

There’s no denying that 3% cash back on dining, grocery store, streaming services and entertainment purchases is a solid deal for a credit card without an annual fee. In fact, entertainment purchases (which include things like concerts and shows) is one of the rarest bonus categories. If you attend a lot of Broadway shows or concerts, this card can really rack them up. And should you happen to resell any tickets on StubHub, etc, this is an extra 3% in your pocket.

Plus, if you don’t mind booking hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, that’s 5% cash back as well.

Bottom line? If you are interested in cash back rather than points, this would be a good card to have in your wallet, however, I would recommend pairing it with another card for other categories. For many, a second card like a Citi Double Cash, which earns 2% on everything, could be the perfect card combo. Or, scroll down and use our own Card Combo tool to see which card would pair best with a Savor based on your own spending profile.

And remember what I said above… there are ways to convert this cash back into Capital One Miles as well.

The Citi Strata Elite℠ is a premium level card that will make a ton of sense for some, and not as much for others.

If you already tend to book using travel portals (this could be Expedia, Booking.com, or Agoda, for example), then you are in luck as the 6X on airfare and 12X on hotels, car rentals and experiences when booking via the Citi Travel portal is massive. The Citi Travel portal is powered by Agoda so it will look familiar.

You can get the annual fee back, and then some, based on how easy the credits are for you to use (i.e. are you spending where you wouldn’t have already or just shifting spend?). If you book via travel portals anyway, the $300 hotel credit will be an easy one. And that’s just over half the annual fee alone.

If you value AA Admiral’s Club passes and would have paid $79 a pop, then that actually takes care of the rest of the annual fee. And that $200 annual Splurge credit isn’t too hard to use either – you can use it (on up to two of these merchants maximum, per year) at 1stDibs, American Airlines (exclusions apply), Best Buy^®, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation (exclusions apply).

Or you might use that $200 ($100 each half year) Blacklane credit. And of course if you don’t already have Priority Pass via another premium card, then there is definite value there as well.

So there are several ways to recoup the annual fees.

You’ll also get the best transfer rates (1:1 in most cases) to Citi’s wide range of airline and hotel partners that now includes American Airlines AAdvantage®, which is a huge win for Citi in that it was previously lacking a US airline partner beyond JetBlue.

But the crux of this card, in our opinion, comes down to those 6X and 12X multipliers for booking via the Citi Travel portal. If you do, you’ll really clean up earning ThankYou points. If you don’t, you may want to look at a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® which gives 4X points on airfare and hotels booked directly.