Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card: One of the best student credit cards

The Capital One Savor Student card and the Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card have similar features and welcome bonuses. So, deciding between these two cards depends on your individual spending needs. 

If you spend more in Savor’s bonus categories, it will be a more rewarding choice. While the Quicksilver earns a higher rate in non-bonus categories, the Savor’s bonus categories will likely provide more value overall. Using our yearly rewards formula, based on the average $22,500 annual spend determined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average consumer with the Savor Student card can earn almost $600 per year, while they would earn only about $338 annually with the Quicksilver Student card at its 1.5 percent flat cash back rate.

However, the Quicksilver earns on all eligible purchases and elevated rewards on hotels and rental cars. The Quicksilver may be a better fit if you spend a decent amount outside the Savor's bonus categories.

While the rewards structures are equally beneficial in different ways, the protections for students may sway you towards the Discover it® Student Cash Back. The Discover it® Student Cash Back has better reward potential than the Savor Student if you maximize the spending limit for its rotating quarterly bonus categories, which might be difficult on a student's budget and schedule. The Savor Student card’s unlimited rewards structure makes managing it much easier since you don’t need to activate categories or change bonus categories.

But the Savor Student card isn’t ideal if you need to carry a balance or miss a payment. The Discover it® Student Cash Back waives your first late payment fee (up to $41 after) and won’t raise your APR for missing a payment. You’ll also get a modest intro APR period and lower interest rates. The Savor Student doesn’t offer any of these features, which doesn’t benefit students new to the world of credit cards.

Since it’s a student card, the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card is only available to college students enrolled in a four-year or two-year institution. Because of this, it caters well to the needs of a typical college student. By earning elevated rates in categories like dining, grocery stores, entertainment and streaming, college students can earn excellent rewards on purchases they’d typically make. A robust reward balance can motivate them to use credit cards responsibly.

Students with the discipline and ability to pay their balance in full can greatly benefit from this card. Since there is no intro APR offer and potentially high interest rates, avoiding a balance should be the goal with this card. Spending responsibly within your means to maximize your rewards can be very beneficial with this card.

A student or credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score. 

Students already face a ton of expenses, so extra card costs are best avoided if possible, and people with limited or damaged credit tend often find the cards they can qualify for are much pricier than traditional credit cards designed for people with a good or better credit score. 

We compare a card’s total cost, including any annual fees, account activation fees, monthly fees and more against the total cost of other cards in this category and assign each card a score based on its affordability. We also factor rewards-earning potential into our assessment of a credit-building card’s total cost, subtracting a card’s expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a card’s rewards-earning potential, we estimate its average annual rewards rate and average annual earnings based on the most popular spending categories (as covered in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending report). 

However, we use a slightly lower spending assumption ($300 per month or $3,600 per year) to estimate average earnings, assuming students and credit-builders will start out with a lower credit limit, will want to keep credit utilization low and will focus primarily on small purchases they can easily pay off.

Given the many costs students face — from textbooks to laptops — the presence of an introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers also plays a role in a student card’s score.

A card’s APR is also a major factor in its credit-building score. Each card’s average APR is compared against the average APR of other cards in the category, and the cards with lower-than-average APRs receive a higher rating. 

Though high APRs are hard to avoid when you’re just starting out or working on your score, credit-builders should strive for as low an APR as possible since they’re likely to either be new to managing cards or trying to establish better financial habits and avoid falling into debt.

Along with a credit-building card’s cost, our rating system takes into account how easy the card makes it to build credit. To assess this, we evaluate its credit limit potential and minimum deposit requirement.

Unsecured cards with a high starting credit limit and secured cards that let you put down a large deposit and get a matching high credit limit will score the highest according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric and are more likely to appear on our list. 

This is because a high credit limit can make it much easier to keep your credit utilization low, a primary credit-building factor that makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. 

Secured cards have a slight advantage in this category since the maximum credit limit on a secured card tends to be much higher than the typical starting credit limit on an unsecured card that’s available with a bad or fair credit score. However, unsecured credit-building cards have the upper hand in another key aspect of building credit: accessibility. 

Cards that carry no or a low deposit requirement can also receive a high score according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric since these cards offer a lower barrier to entry than secured cards that require you to put up hundreds of dollars in an upfront deposit. 

Indeed, some users may prefer to pay a non-refundable $50 annual fee while they work on their credit score than tie up hundreds in a refundable security deposit.

We also evaluate each card’s benefits based on how useful they are for students or someone looking to build a positive credit history and save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program, student-centric perks and access to your credit score or a credit monitoring service of prime importance, along with the ability to prequalify for the card with only a soft credit pull and a clear path to increase your credit limit or graduate to an unsecured or full-fledged rewards card.

Cards that include these benefits are likely to score higher according to our credit-building card scoring rubric.

It’s recommended to have a fair-to-good credit score, which is anywhere between 580 and 739 on the FICO scale, to apply for the Savor Student card. You may also be approved with a limited credit history. Capital One lets you check if you’re prequalified on its website before committing to a hard credit pull.

You must be at least 18 years old to get a credit card. However, if you’re under the age of 21, you may be required to show proof of income or have a co-signer.

According to Capital One’s website, you can still use your card's benefits and rewards once you graduate. You can also contact the issuer to explore upgrade options.