Discover It Card Review: New, Improved… Game Changer?
For 2013, scrappy little Discover is trying something bold. They’ve chucked everything and started fresh with only one card – the new Discover it® Card. (Yes, lowercase, don’t ask me why.) No longer promoted are the Discover More, Motiva, Open Road, Escape, and Miles cards. You may have noticed a lot of commercials about it recently, claiming it to be a “Game Changer”.
After a closer look, the new card is a definite improvement over the old products, with many positive changes in direct response to the competition. Here are the highlights:
- 5% cash back on rotating categories. My favorite feature. As with the Discover More card, you’ll get 5% cash back from select categories each quarter. From April to June 2013, you’ll get 5% cashback at all Home Improvement Stores on up to $1,500 in purchases.
- 1% flat cashback on all other purchases. Previous cash back cards had an initial tier that only gave you 0.25% cash back on the first $3,000 in purchases, and then 1% after that. They’ve finally matched competitors and went for 1% flat.
- Late payment forgiveness. There is no late fee for your first late payment, and your APR won’t automatically increase either. You can also pay-by-phone for free, up to midnight Eastern on your due date. We all make mistakes, so this is a nice addition.
- Direct-to-human, 100% US-based Cashback Concierge who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card. Instead of an intentionally-complicated robot phone tree, you can now select at any time to go straight to a human. I’m a little bummed that this has to be touted as a feature, but sadly it is…
- No annual fee, no fee for going over your limit.
- 0% Intro APR on both purchases and balance transfers for 14 months. 14 months is pretty long for purchases. Intro offer has a 3% balance transfer fee with no minimum.
- No foreign transaction fee. Okay, but I wouldn’t take a Discover internationally anyway. Discover acceptance is good inside the US, but much worse outside.
- Silly things. Things that shouldn’t matter, but still might. The card arrives via UPS/FedEx mail in a sleek-looking box. The card front is made to look like brushed stainless steel with no raised embossing – your name and card number are only on the back. I wonder where they got that idea?
Is it really a game-changer? Well, no. It’s not quite “one card to rule them all”, but it does combine the good bits from several other popular cards (Chase Sapphire, Chase Freedom, Citi Simplicity) to create a competitive offering. I like the 5% categories that are usually different from my Citi Dividend and Chase Freedom.
Discover is still the underdog to American Express/Visa/Mastercard, but it has its own perks. There are bonuses above cash back value for gift card redemptions. For example, you can regularly redeem $40 in cashback rewards for a $50 gift card to Wal-mart or Sam’s Club, that’s 25% extra that you can use even on the 5% back earnings. (Hint: If only Sam’s Club is available, you can use a Sam’s Club gift card at Wal-mart.) Their ShopDiscover cashback portal also often has the highest percentages for online shopping merchants, like 10% at Sears, better than eBates and such. Finally, Discover card has a lot of consumer features like return protection and an extended warranty that extends the manufacturer’s warranty for up to an extra year.
Basically, this Discover card is certainly a worthwhile addition to your wallet, just don’t make it the only card in your wallet. 
Existing cardholders. I have not gotten any communication from Discover that my existing cards will be converted to an “it” card in the near future, let me know in the comments if you have. I’m assuming that we’ll eventually get switched over at some point, hopefully soon because it (pun intended) seems to be better.
Update: Readers report that if you call them up, they will convert you to the new card manually (it will not happen automatically). You get to keep your same card number and thus credit history. Certain people with annual fee miles-type cards may prefer to stay, but again I think this card is definitely better than the plain Discover and Discover More cards.
By Jonathan Ping | Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 1/6/13, 6:08pm
January 6th, 2013 at 6:14 pm
I applied for the discover more card with $100 offer last year in Oct and called them to switch it over to Discover It. They also kept the $100 bonus offer on the new card. Same card number and everything’s pretty awesome so far!
January 6th, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Don’t you have to pay royalties to Frequent Miler for using the phrase ‘One Card to Rule them All’?
January 6th, 2013 at 7:46 pm
I have the original Discover card (member since 1986, so I’m talkin’ Original Original), and I called to ask if I would be automatically transferred to the new card or get the same terms. Apparently not, because they hooked me up with the new card team who is issuing the new card to us. Like Frank, same card number and all.
January 6th, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Meh. Pass.
January 6th, 2013 at 8:56 pm
I called Discover once I found out about the new card and asked that my current More and Open Road cards be converted to the new card, and the CSR immediately connected me to a Discover it specialist. I asked if Discover had planned to eventually automatically convert current cards to the new program, and the specialist responded that they weren’t planning to do so. According to her, they did not want to force something on their customers…instead, they preferred to have people call in and request that their accounts be changed over to the new program. As it turns out, once you call in, they cannot immediately convert the card over. Instead, you have to wait until the next billing cycle for it to take effect. I was told that my new cards would be FedExed to me.
January 6th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Thanks to your article I called Discover and converter both of our Discover More cards into Discover its. Took less than 7 mins each. Very easy.
Thanks Frank for giving me the idea!
January 7th, 2013 at 4:12 am
All I care about is cash back. 6% grocery on my Blue Cash Preferred Amex, 5% gas on my PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa, 4% on resturants and all amazon.com on my Citi Forward Visa, 2% all on my Fidelity Amex and 2% all on my Priceline.com Visa.
I hate rotating categories. There are no excuses for having late payments. I have never had a problem getting to a human for support. So there is nothing really in there for me.
January 7th, 2013 at 5:15 am
I am already getting the same 5% cash back categories with the same limits on my “original” Discover card so I don’t see a compelling reason to ask for the new card. My guess is that if I needed any of the other benefits they would do it if I asked by phone. At the current time I don’t use Discover for anything except the 5% categories and the occasional “Shop Discover”. (15% on Groupon is nice!)
January 7th, 2013 at 6:26 am
Like Warren, I see no real need to update my original Discover card. I normally get 3% back at restaurants through my Costco AmEx card, but this month I’ve asked at every restaurant if they take Discover, and only one of four has (Five Guys). I remember that from last time their promotional rate included restaurants.. that it’s almost worthless because most restaurants don’t take Discover.
January 7th, 2013 at 7:44 am
Aren’t you making a commission by promoting this card?
January 7th, 2013 at 10:20 am
Thanks for the post. I called this morning and switched my cards over. Previously earned cash back rewards carry over. The change to no-tier 1% is worth the switch.
January 7th, 2013 at 10:26 am
Since one can still use the cash back on Amazon purchases with “Discover it” and the cash back is now 1% starting with dollar one, think I will convert. Don’t use Discover except when the 5% categories are worthwhile or “Shop Discover”. If you have a Discover More card already appears you might as well switch in any case.
January 7th, 2013 at 10:53 am
Now, all they have to do is get their card accepted everywhere like MC/Visa.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:43 am
Thank you! Very informative. May I know your recommendation on “credit usage %” in order to maintain excellent credit? Thank you!
January 7th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
They don’t run a credit check when switching to a new card do they?
January 7th, 2013 at 2:13 pm
Is there even a single merchant outside of the U.S. that will accept a Discover card?
January 7th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Seems to be missing one major perk .. signup bonus. No game changer!
January 7th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
I have this card. I took a 0% APR on free balance transfer to do some arbitrage. 2nd Discover I did that with in as many years.
January 7th, 2013 at 5:32 pm
Does anyone know what the minimum is for cash back? Is it $20 like Chase Ultimate Rewards?
January 7th, 2013 at 7:37 pm
I converted my Discover More to it. Figured earning 1% on those occasional accidental non-category purchases that previously were only earning 0.25% won’t hurt.
@Kevin – Nope, I asked that specifically, no hard pull when you switch.
@ Mike – until sometime in 2012 the minimum was $25 to ACH cashback to your bank account, but then they switched it to $50. However, you can redeem smaller amounts for some gift cards, and you can redeem any amount as cash toward Amazon purchases.
January 8th, 2013 at 9:06 am
Speaking of Discover card overseas: obviously no one here has traveled to China. But if you plan to, make sure to bring your Discover credit card.
Discover is accepted everywhere in China, from big department stores, to the street corner noodle shop, with zero transaction fees and using the favorable US$ exchange rate (in case you don’t know, there are two rates, the ones for cash $ exchange is worse). This is because in China there’s only one card system called UnionPay and its everywhere. You’ll find Visa/Mastercard/AMEX adoption to be fairly disappointing in comparison. However Discover has had an agreement with UnionPay that treats Discover cards as UnionPay with zero fees.
It’s one of my favorite hidden perks of the Discover card.
January 9th, 2013 at 5:57 am
You can also convert to the new it card quickly and easily by logging in to your account and doing a chat session with a representative. Took me about 3 minutes to convert, pretty sweet!
January 24th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
You guys can check the acceptance website.
https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/help-center/account/international-use.html
You can use it without foreign transaction fee at Japan and China and many others.
January 24th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
I did the online chat, thanks for the suggestion Matt!
March 18th, 2013 at 1:53 am
Kevin and Andrew – thanks for the posst. this is the most useful information. I was debating if I should close my Chase Sapphire since I wanted to keep a credit card with 0 international transaction fee…now I know the answer