Preview: Discover Card Increases Cashback Limit for 2012

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

I like to keep track of the rotating categories of the 5% cash back cards out there, but one of the more disappointing areas was always Discover’s low purchase limits of only a few hundred bucks. From October 1st to December 31st, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $300 spent in the following categories: department stores, clothing stores, and restaurants. Not bad for gift-giving purchases, but Chase Freedom even had a commercial specifically about it, as their quarterly limits were $1,500.

Discover® More® Card
From October 1 to December 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:

  • Online Shopping
  • Department Stores

You must enroll online to activate the rewards each quarter. Discover card has a tiered cashback rate on other purchases (1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%.).

Essentially, for any quarter you can now earn $75 in cashback at 5% for certain categories, and usually one of them is useful like gas, restaurants, and department stores. These are also areas that you should be able to not spend more subconsciously just because it’s 5% cashback.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


User Generated Content Disclosure: Comments and/or responses are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser. Comments and/or responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. It is not any advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Comments

  1. Not only that, but if you click on the link for more cashback options, they offer unlimited 2% cashback in 2012 on paying your cable/internet/phone bills with Discover.

  2. Good news for Discover cardholders like me! Now if only they didn’t have that annoying $3,000 tier to get 1% cash back on all other things…

  3. Can you post the link for the 2% on paying cable/internet/phone bills with Discover?

  4. @L:

    1. Log in to your account

    2. On the right under “My Cashback Bonus” next to “More Ways to Earn” click “View All Promotions”

    3. Scroll down to Rewards Options, look for “Double Cashback Bonus Phone, TV, Internet through 2012”

    I was able to do it for Verizon Wireless, but unfortunately Verizon Fios doesn’t offer Discover as a payment option. Dangit.

  5. Sofaking Nuts says

    I believe American Express offered something similar to this offer from Discover.
    I didn’t sign up because I’m not a fan of automatic payments unless there’s a significant reward, and the additional 1% (I automatically get 1% for all purchases with the AmEx) isn’t significant enough IMO.

  6. I’m glad to see Discover Card is finally getting back in the game. I’ve had their card for years and the Rewards have gone down-hill with every year while the other companies keep putting out great deals. It looks like they are really trying to compete with the Chase Freedom card on this one.

  7. Well, $1500 may sound attractive, but if you look at the 2012 calendar there is no groceries on the list and most categories, except gas, are not that useful. How often do you go to the movies or museums? As to gas purchases, I prefer getting 3% at Costco gas stations using my Costco AmEx card.

    I guess the truth is Discover actually reduced the benefits on their card even though they raised the limit. Chase Freedom is still the best – they have offered $1500 limit for a long time now. And they always include groceries for at least one quarter.

    I should give Discover credit for removing foreign transaction fee and adding Diners Club logo on the card. Although I’m not sure if this really expands its acceptance outside the US.

  8. If the “2% cashback on cable/interet/phone” is REALLY just DOUBLE cashback, then you may only end up getting 0.5% cashback if you are in their lowest spending tier of 0.25%.

    Discover has been a joke for years with their lousy tiered spending program. Why should I sacrifice getting a full 1% back from my other cards just so I can go through their spending tiers to ramp my level up from a paltry 0.25% to 1%. Wake up Discover. Even with your 5% back offers you are getting DESTROYED by the multitude of cards offering at least 1% and even MORE nowadays!

  9. @Batman – I thought of that too, so I called to check and was told by the Discover rep that it indeed means 2% cashback, even for people who haven’t hit the “1% on all other purchases” limit yet.

    I was also told that, while Verizon Wireless bills qualify, for whatever reason, Verizon.com bills do not. The provider must be on the (long) list they provide to qualify for the 2% cashback.

    I agree about the tiers. That’s why I only use Discover for the specific categories that get 5% (or in this case 2%) cashback. Or sketchy online places where I prefer to use Discover’s “Secure Online Account Numbers.” All the purchases that don’t fit in a specific cashback category I make on my Chase Freedom, which not only gives 1%, but you can also redeem as little as $25.

Leave a Reply to Dan Cancel reply

*