Capital One Savor vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited®

If you’re comparing Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited® rewards cards, you’re looking at two of the most popular no-annual-fee cash back credit cards around today.

Both cards offer unlimited cash back at a fixed rate, a welcome bonus, and flexible redemption options for your rewards. However, each card does take a slightly different approach to earning rewards for everyday spending.

While Savor focuses on lifestyle spending categories like groceries, dining and entertainment, Chase Freedom Unlimited® offers baseline rewards across a broader range of purchases, making it attractive to cardholders who want flexibility and simplicity. In this in-depth comparison review, we’ll explore how these two popular cash-back cards compare overall.

Capital One Savor vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited® at a glance

Rewards comparison

The opportunity to earn cash back on everyday purchases can add up over time, but the value you’ll get depends largely on where you spend the most money.

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card rewards

With Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, you’ll earn 3% cash back in expense categories like dining, groceries (excluding superstores like Target and Walmart), entertainment, and streaming services. Then, you’ll earn 1% cash back on everything else. This card elevates rewards for everyday expenses while also allowing you to earn cash back on all other purchases.

Chase Freedom Unlimited® rewards

With Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you earn 3% cash back on dining and drugstores, 5% back on Chase Travel℠ purchases, and 1.5% back on all other purchases. This card’s biggest strength is its tiered rewards rate on expense categories that most households have and a flat cash-back rate on all other purchases that don’t fit into the bonus categories.

Which card earns more?

This depends on your spending habits, but overall, Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is the better option to maximize rewards if you’re already spending on groceries, dining, entertainment, and streaming services.

However, if you spend significantly on categories outside of groceries and dining, the Chase Freedom Unlimited® provides a better offer with 1.5% cash back on all your purchases. Chase Freedom is also a strong option if you travel more since you’ll earn 5% cash back on Chase Travel purchases.

Grocery and dining rewards comparison

Groceries and dining out are two of the largest expense categories for most U.S. households, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. While both cards offer competitive rewards on restaurant purchases, their approach to grocery spending is quite different.

Which card is better for groceries?

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is clearly the winner for grocery spending rewards, but only if you use well-known supermarkets like Kroger, Publix, Whole Foods, etc. For families spending hundreds of dollars per month on groceries at these stores and similar chains, the difference can add up quickly.

Unfortunately, this card’s 3% cash back excludes purchases at Walmart and Target, so if you tend to get your groceries from either of these stores, Chase Freedom Unlimited® may be a better option.

Which card is better for restaurants?

Both cards earn an identical 3% cash back on eligible restaurant purchases, including takeout and food delivery services. For Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, this covers a wide range of dining spots like cafes, bars, lounges, fast-food chains, and bakeries. Chase Freedom Unlimited® offers the same 3% rate on dining and takeout, making the two cards evenly matched for restaurant spending. Because neither card holds an edge here, your choice between them will depend on how you spend across other bonus categories.

Which card wins for food spending?

When evaluating combined grocery and dining expenses, Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card holds a distinct advantage. It delivers double the cash back on grocery purchases compared to Chase Freedom Unlimited® — provided you shop at traditional supermarkets. Moreover, both cards remain tied on restaurant spending, giving the Savor card the edge overall for food-focused budgets.

Entertainment and streaming rewards

Entertainment and streaming costs can really add up over time, so maximizing your rewards with these expenses is key. Here’s how each card lines up in terms of rewards for these categories.

What counts as entertainment?

For Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, 3% cash back on entertainment includes ticket purchases made at movie theaters, for sporting events, live theater shows, amusement parks, tourist attractions, and more. Tons of entertainment purchases fall under this category, so you’ll definitely want to track your rewards with this card. However, there are some exclusions, like purchases made at golf courses and collegiate sporting events.

With Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you’d just earn 1.5% cash back on all entertainment purchases since this isn’t a special rewards category.

Streaming services eligible for rewards

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card offers 3% cash back on streaming purchases made from eligible music and video streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney. However, many other streaming services are excluded, such as audiobook subscriptions, fitness program content, and services like Verizon FIOS On Demand.

Why Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card has an advantage here

Chase Freedom Unlimited® doesn’t offer dedicated entertainment or streaming rewards categories. So it’s clear that Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card has the advantage here for households that are paying for multiple subscription services or regularly attending events and paying for entertainment.

Welcome bonus comparison

While ongoing rewards matter most over the long term, a welcome bonus can provide a lot of value during your first year as a cardholder. Both Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card and Chase Freedom Unlimited® offer introductory incentives for new cardholders.

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card welcome offer

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card provides a signup_reward welcome bonus to new cardholders who spend signup_bonus_spend_amount within the first three months of opening an account.

Chase Freedom Unlimited® welcome offer

Chase Freedom Unlimited® currently offers a signup_reward welcome bonus to cardholders who spend signup_bonus_spend_amount on purchases during their first three months.

Which bonus is more valuable?

Currently, both welcome bonuses are the same, so if you’re considering these cards based on welcome bonus value alone, these products are both equally as valuable.

Travel rewards and redemption value

Both Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card and Chase Freedom Unlimited® offer flexible redemption options, but the process for each works a little differently. Also, if travel is one of your goals, it’s important to understand how each program handles points, cash back and travel redemptions before deciding which card offers the best value over time.

Capital One rewards ecosystem

The rewards you earn with your Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card Card can be redeemed online or through the portal or the Capital One mobile app. Rewards never expire and you can redeem for cash back, a statement credit, gift cards, and purchases through PayPal or Amazon.

You can also redeem rewards for purchases through Capital One Travel and tickets for sporting events, concerts, and other activities through Capital One Entertainment.

Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® earns Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. Cash back rewards don’t expire and you can redeem for a statement credit, electronic deposit into a Chase account, gift cards, purchases on Amazon.com and purchases through Chase Travel.

On its own, the card functions primarily as a cash back card. While this card functions primarily as a cash back card on its own, its value can increase when paired with cards such as Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

Which rewards program is more valuable?

For those solely looking to earn steady and consistent cash back, both programs are extremely valuable and easy to navigate. But if you’re looking to travel and maximize rewards to supplement costs like flights, hotel stays, car rentals, etc., Chase often has the advantage because Ultimate Rewards points can become significantly more valuable when combined with premium Chase travel cards.

Chase cardholders can transfer rewards to travel partners for hotel stays with Hyatt, for example, and select airline redemptions where it’s common to be able to get more value per point than through a standard cash-back redemption.

Travel benefits and foreign transaction fees

Cash back cards may not be your first pick for travel benefits, but here’s how both cards stack up when it comes to spending on travel and facing foreign transaction fees.

Savor travel advantages

As highlighted in our in-depth Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card review, one of the card’s strongest travel-friendly features is that it does not charge foreign transaction fees. This makes it a convenient option for international travel.

Cardholders can also earn 5% cash back on hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars, and activities booked through Capital One Travel. This card also comes with resources like Capital One’s price protection tool, which helps you plan the best time to get the lowest price for your flight as well as free price drop protection.

Sometimes, booking through a travel portal can restrict your ability to shop around, but Capital One has a price match guarantee (if you find a better price elsewhere) so you’ll always get the best deal.

Freedom Unlimited travel advantages

As noted in our Chase Freedom Unlimited® review, this card offers competitive rewards on travel booked through Chase Travel and access to the broader Ultimate Rewards ecosystem. You’ll also earn 5% cash back on all purchases made through Chase Travel.

This card also comes with benefits like:

• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Auto rental coverage
• Travel and emergency assistance

Which card is better for travelers?

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card excels during international travel because it incurs no foreign transaction fees. However, Chase Freedom Unlimited® offers greater long-term value for strategy-minded travelers who transfer points to Chase travel partners via a Sapphire card.

Benefits and protections

From extended warranty coverage and purchase protection to travel-related perks and entertainment benefits, these features can add value as well for both Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card and Chase Freedom Unlimited®.

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card benefits

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card offers 8% cash back on tickets and events purchases through Capital One Entertainment. You also get quite a few travel benefits, such as:

• 24-hour travel assistance services if your card is ever lost or stolen as well as an emergency replacement card and a cash advance
• Automatic travel accident insurance

Some other protections that come with this card include security alerts, $0 fraud liability, and CreditWise from Capital One so you can monitor your TransUnion or Experian credit scores for free.

Chase Freedom Unlimited® benefits

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® also comes with $0 liability protection for fraud and travel and emergency assistance, as well as trip cancellation insurance for up to $1,500 per covered traveler and $6,000 per trip.

This card also comes with extended warranty protection and rental car coverage for theft and collision damage.

Also, travel purchases made through Chase Travel earn 5% cash back.

Which card has better perks?

Freedom Unlimited generally offers somewhat stronger purchase and travel protections, while Savor focuses more heavily on everyday lifestyle rewards.

Can these cards work together?

Both cards have no annual fee and you may benefit from using them together.

Why some users combine Savor and Chase cards

Many credit card users seeking rewards don’t limit themselves to a single card. Both Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card and Chase Freedom Unlimited® are easy to use and manage without too many different spending categories to keep up with.

You’ll earn cash back on any purchase with either card, but you might use Savor for its elevated cash back categories, then switch to Chase Freedom Unlimited® for everyday purchases that fall outside those categories and to maximize travel rewards. This allows you to earn higher rewards on a larger share of your spending rather than relying on a single card for everything.

Savor offers strong standalone cash-back value for lifestyle spending, while Freedom Unlimited can serve as an entry point into the Chase Ultimate Rewards system, especially if you’re looking to add a Chase Sapphire card to your wallet in the future.

Building a cash-back setup

Consider using Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card for your groceries at local supermarkets, dining out, and entertainment. Then, you may want to use Chase Freedom Unlimited® to buy toiletries, prescriptions, and other items at drugstores.

You can also stack welcome bonuses by opening both cards and meeting the required spending thresholds during the introductory periods.

When having both makes sense

Having both cards may make sense if you spend heavily on groceries and entertainment during the year and want access to Chase Ultimate Rewards as well. Having both cards also means you can switch to Savor when traveling internationally so that you won’t have to pay foreign transaction fees.

Capital One Savor vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited® for different users

• Best for groceries: Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card gives you 3% at supermarkets (excluding Walmart and Target).
• Best for dining rewards: Both cards offer 3% cash back on dining purchases.
• Best for entertainment spending: Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card earns 3% back on entertainment and streaming services while also gaining access to Capital One Entertainment.
• Best for everyday spending: Chase Freedom Unlimited® offers a high cash back rate (1.5%) for everyday spending.
• Best for travel rewards users: Both cards offer elevated rewards on travel when booked through their respective portals. The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card card has the edge, though, thanks to no foreign transaction fees on international travel purchases.
• Best for simplicity: If you’re looking for a basic cash back card with few bonus expense categories to keep up with and access to a reputable travel portal, Chase Freedom Unlimited® is the better option.
• Best for families: Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card caters better to families with everyday expenses like groceries, dining out, streaming services, and other entertainment costs.
• Best for young professionals: Chase Freedom Unlimited® is better for professionals who have spending habits that extend beyond groceries and entertainment, such as rideshare apps, gas, work-related costs, and travel.
• Best for building a rewards ecosystem: Chase Freedom Unlimited® makes it easy to integrate points with other Chase cards and transfers to travel partners.

Who should get Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card?

You should consider Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card if you:

• Spend heavily on groceries
• Spend frequently on dining
• Pay for streaming services
• Attend concerts and entertainment events
• Want straightforward cashback rewards

Who should get Chase Freedom Unlimited®?

You should consider Chase Freedom Unlimited® if you:

• Want higher rewards on non-category spending
• Already use Chase cards
• Plan to earn travel rewards
• Want Ultimate Rewards flexibility
• Spend significantly outside dining and grocery categories

Final verdict: Which card is right for you?

When comparing Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited®, both cards offer significant cash back benefits and even some travel and entertainment rewards. But Savor seems to be the stronger choice for card users whose spending centers around dining, groceries, and entertainment. Chase Freedom Unlimited® offers more long-term upside for users who are focused on building within the Chase rewards ecosystem.

At the end of the day, the better card depends less on rewards percentages and more on where most of your monthly spending actually goes. Choosing the card that aligns with your spending habits will typically produce the greatest value over time.

Frequently asked questions