SAVOR versus UBER - 4% cash back on Dining

[MakingProgress]

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@digitek wrote:

For dining category I'd add the Amex Gold in the mix as well.

CSR is best, no FTF, Visa, 4.5% min cashback on broad 'dining' category (includes restaurant/fast food/bars), best customer service and $450 AF (makes sense if you can use the credits and travel/insurance perks)

Gold is x4 MR on narrow 'restaurant' category (no fast food/bars), no FTF, Amex so spotty international acceptance, good customer service and $250 AF (makes sense if you can use the credits and Grocery category)

Uber is no FTF, Visa, broad 'dining' category, 4% cashback, pretty solid cell phone insurance, decent customer service and no AF (probably best for dining/restaurant/fast food/bars category if you don't have a reason for CSR/Amex Gold)

Savor is no FTF, Visa now, 4% cashback on broad 'dining' category that includes sketchy entertainment category, decent customer service, $95 AF

I use the Gold if I'm pretty sure it is an obvious restaurant that will code right as such with Amex.  You can get Amex Offers for restaurants that can stack with Grubhub credit on the Gold, too.  Uber for everything else.

It is hard to justify the AF on the Savor long term unless you can really use the extra 2% from the entertainment category to offset it.  I try not to think about the SUB when determing whether to get a card, but I guess the Savor is better than the Uber for any length of time under 3 years if you factor that in and just want to churn one for an easy $300 (or $500 before SUB nerf)

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If you are getting a $300 sub, and spending $95 AF for three years you are really only netting $15 that kind of nerfs the whole subs over 3 years.   Like you said less than 3 years you make more, but even at 2 years you pay $190.00 and net $110.00, the uber has a $100 SUB so once again no real advantage.   If you are sub chasing then pay the fee one year, then you make more otherwise it is a wash. 

[M_Smart007]

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@Shooting-For-800 wrote:

Just get em both!

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I want the one with The $28,500 Limit

[MakingProgress]

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@Aim_High wrote:

Looking at the Pro's and Con's of the 4% cash-back on Dining cards;

                Capital One SAVOR and Barclay's UBER.

Which one did you pick and why?

For CASH (not points or miles), are there any other straight 4% cash back cards?

From my quick review:

Pro's for Savor: Higher $300 SUB (vs $100 for UBER); Also includes +4% on entertainment.

Pro's for UBER: No AF after Year 2 (Savor = $95); +3% (hotels, airfare); +2% (online, streaming)

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Savor - pros Higher Sub, 4% on entertainment.  I work for a cable company and I had a customer tell me her cable bill qualified as entertainment. YMMV on that one.   Soft Pull CLI.

If redemptions on Savor are the same as the QS the they are easy and rewards post at the same time as the charge posts.

Cons - You can never be sure what will code as entertainment, and you will get a triple pull.   Cap one has tightened up on CLI so to get one make sure you are running a lot of spend through your card.  $95 AF waters down the sub. 

Uber - Pros 4% dining, I have had places that don't code as dining on my other cards, code as dining for uber.   No AF, not sure where you got after year 2 for that. 3% on Hotels/Airfair is nice if you don't travel enough to make the AF on a travel card work for you,  the $50 subscription credit is nice as long as you run $5K through your card every year. $100 SUB

Cons - online app link is nerfed, only way to app to through the Uber App and that dosen't even seem to appear for everyone.  Barclay's.

Redemption - $25 minimum for rewards redemption, but even if your dining spend is only moderate it dosn't take long to hit $25 in rewards.   Rewards post to the account at the same time as the transaction so no waiting for statements to cut. 

Conclusions - both are good, both have their cons.    Pick your own poision.    I picked Uber because I refuse to pay an AF. 

[wasCB14]

Savor redemptions are simple and easy.

The $95 AF didn't water down the SUB for me. It's waived the first year automatically and I'm dropping it if I can't get some sort of retention offer for year two. I'm not saying I deserve one or that I didn't know the terms when I applied...just that I'm willing to walk away.

Pull practices are a little YMMV.

[Anonymous]

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@SBR249 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

i'm also trying to decide between these 2 cards. the uber card looks more enticing because no AF and you get 2% on all online purchases.

you can prequalify for the cap1 card, but the uber card has no prequal and is a crapshoot. i have a thin file and short history so prequal means a lot to me.

this website has a review and a graph at the end to compare reward value:

https://www.creditcards.com/reviews/uber-visa-card-from-barclays-review/

they value the savor's 4% at 1.92 cents, and uber's 4% at 1.61 cents? i actually don't understand how they got that. not sure if they are saying the cap1 card is a better value in spite of the fee or what.

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The valuations there is based on overall reward rate assuming a fixed amount of monthly spending in set categories if you used that card exclusively. So if you spent $1000 a month with $500 at restaurants, $300 online, and $200 at hotels, that's a total of 2000+600+600 = 3200 points which is equivalent to $32 in cashback. That's $32/$1000 = 3.2¢ per dollar spent or 3.2% rewards rate. But of course, the average person's monthly spend will probably be majority non-cat stuff like groceries, gas, utilities, so the reward rate is lower. 

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Well the Savor family has 2% on groceries too which increases the value of the card as an everyday spend card and makes it far more flexible for the average person than the Uber. 

[Anonymous]

I have had the Uber card for two years.  Both years, I hit $5K spend (mostly on restaurants), and got the $50 streaming credit (which was applied to my Netflix charges).

So in effect, I earned more than 4% on restaurant spend.  Probably like 4.4%.

Plus, I like it because of the cell phone insurance.  

Savor is OK if you want to hit the bonus and then downgrade to Savor One when the AF kicks in.  Uber is the better long term solution for me.  At least until BOA approves me for Cash Rewards, which will get 5.25% back at restaurants for me.  BTW, I hit the Uber $5K threshhold based on Q1, Q2 and Q4 restaurant spend, because I use Discover in Q3 for 5%.

[wasCB14]

With life changes come spend changes. Combined with nerfs and the introduction of new products, sometimes the best long-term strategy is to just get a nice bonus up front and see what happens, switching to greener pastures when ideal. It can take a lot of spend for a 3% or 4% category card to pay off (vs. a nice bonus) if a 2%+ card is already in place.

[M_Smart007]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

With life changes come spend changes. Combined with nerfs and the introduction of new products, sometimes the best long-term strategy is to just get a nice bonus up front and see what happens, switching to greener pastures when ideal. It can take a lot of spend for a 3% or 4% category card to pay off (vs. a nice bonus) if a 2%+ card is already in place.

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[arkane]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Uber has a $50/year subscription credit so the rate of return is a higher than 4/3/2% up to the first 5k spent.

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$50 is 1% of $5k, so for the first $5k in spend, it's actually 5/4/3% return. For "online purchases", just use Paypal as much as possible, since that very reliably triggers the 2% category for me.

As to the OP, the only correct answer is: get them both, churn the Savor for the $300 SUB, then promptly dump it after the first year unless your spending patterns can justify the $95 AF, and keep the Uber.

[longtimelurker]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

With life changes come spend changes. Combined with nerfs and the introduction of new products, sometimes the best long-term strategy is to just get a nice bonus up front and see what happens, switching to greener pastures when ideal. It can take a lot of spend for a 3% or 4% category card to pay off (vs. a nice bonus) if a 2%+ card is already in place.

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Yes!    And this is true for "families" of cards as well.    See a number of people here (not all, but several!) are switching from UR to MR, with the advent of a better gold card and the 2% business card and Rakuten etc, along with loss of some critical UR partners, yet we still see lots of people aiming for the Chase trifecta without questioning if that is still a worthwhile goal for them.

Now it probably makes sense for people building or rebuilding to go for a set of cards that are fairly reliably "good" including some 2% card, and get the score to a reasonable level.   But then, IMO, loyalty and keeper cards are very much so 2018 concepts.