Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards

For a student card, 3% back across dining, entertainment, select streaming, and groceries is a strong spread of categories, and it comes with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, which matters if you spend a term abroad. Capital One briefly raised the signup bonus to $100 in June and cut it back to $50 on September 9, so the welcome offer is at the low end of its recent range; the consolation is that it takes only $100 of spending in three months, which a single grocery run clears. Hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel earn 5%, though that rate applies only inside the portal. Everything outside the bonus categories earns 1%, so this is a card to pair with a flat rate option later rather than run all your spending through. The regular APR is 18.49% to 28.49% with no intro period, so pay the balance in full each month.