Discover’s Double Cashback Is the Deal of the Year
As you may have heard Discover has launched a new double cashback promotion for both new and existing cardholders of their Discover it product. (The promotion has been extended through September 30.) This is a pretty amazing deal because the earnings potential is astronomical in a few ways. Now that we have some confirmation on what cashback is doubled, I thought I would break this down.
Everyday Earning
The Discover it card (my review) normally earns 1% on everyday spending and 5% in rotating categories every quarter. Now under this promotion it earns:
- 2% on everyday spending
- 10% in rotating categories (up to $1,500 in spend each quarter.)
Lets take a look at that for a moment. The Discover it just became a 2% cashback card with even more opportunities in bonus categories. That is pretty amazing. None of the other 2% cards have the bonus categories, which puts the Discover It in a league of its own during the promo.
Portal Shopping
According to Doctor of Credit, Discover has confirmed that cashback earned through their Discover Deals portal will be doubled at the end of the year. Discover often has some of the best cashback rates around, so this has a huge potential. (Although I wouldn’t be surprised if they lower the rates somewhat to compensate.)
I’ll leave it up to you to search each store, but quite a few large merchants pay 5-10% back. Leaving out the potential double dip opportunities that Frequent Miler wrote about, you can still get 10-20% back for many fantastic merchants. This could be potentially huge for MSers and resellers.
Referrals
Discover also has a referral program. Every time you refer someone to the Discover it card, you earn $50 and they earn $50 for signing up. (Up to 10 referrals per year.) Guess what. If you are enrolled in that program, the $50 is DOUBLED! And the good news is that the $50 offer is currently the best around.
From time to time Discover does offer up to $150 as a sign-up bonus, but currently the best offers are either the $50 referral offer or an Amazon offer giving $50 in Amazon credit. I would personally rather take the cash. I’m not sure we will see a higher bonus soon, mainly because the double cashback is so generous and the Amazon offer was just lowered at the same time the Double Cashback promo went live.
I’m going to be leaving a referral link below if anyone wants to use it. I’ll also link to the Amazon offer. Those are the best two I am aware of if you are looking for the card. If anyone has found a better sign-up offer let me know and I’ll add it.
Should You Apply
As I always say, the decision as to whether or not to apply for a card really is a personal one. So many factors play into it so all I can do is tell you how I see this offer. From where I am sitting, it is pretty AMAZING. Keep in mind I am a huge fan of the Discover portal and thus my wife and I both have Discover it cards already. In other words, I find value in this product.
Related: Discover it Credit Card Review – Top to Bottom
Current Cardholders Timing for Adding the Offer
Update: Current cardholders are no longer eligible to add this offer to their account.
For existing cardholders, the double cashback begins on the statement date following when you add the offer. (Simply call Discover at 1-800-347-3085 to have them add it.) Some people may want to consider waiting until their statement closes in June to add the offer, so that it will begin in July. The main reason to do this would be to have access to the 3Q 2016 bonus categories.
I’m not sure what the right move is here, but I have decided to add the offer right away to my wife’s card and then I’ll wait until July for my card. That way I can take advantage of some of the great portal deals right now and still have some sort of access to 3Q 2016 bonus category doubling.
Best Promotion Ever?
Now to tackle the title of this article. Is this promotion too good to be true? Nope, it seems like it is better than expected. I cannot remember a time where a credit card company gave customers the potential for such a large bonus. For people who maximize portals and 5% categories, there should be a nice chunk of cash waiting for you in a year.
That is one thing to mention though. You do have to wait a year for your cashback, so take that into consideration. Some are also worried about Discover shutting down their accounts or implementing limits for people who hit the promo too hard. While I can’t speak to that, I’m sure most of you will be fine.
Conclusion
I am still sort of in shock that Discover is doubling all cashback including earnings from their portal and referral programs. With that said, the company is clearly trying to grab market share and is willing to spend to get it. That creates an amazing situation for us.
Do you have the card? What do you think about this promotion? When are you going to be adding it? Let me know in the comments!
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I just called the phone # Above to lineup double % bonuses I.e. 2% on everything & 10% on their rotating categories and was told that for existing customers this only could be obtained from June 1 through June 22, 2015!!!! I had already applied for the rotating category discount. I asked how one could know about this double discount and was told it was advertised on the TV and the radio. This really pisses me off That it’s only available now for new customers.
Hi Shawn,
I’m salivating over this deal’s double dip potential given that I’m shopping for a fridge. Can you give me your feedback on the likely success of the following:
Buy $1,500 Sears GC thru Discover It portal at 10% cash back (doubled!) then use the GC to purchase fridge 10% cashback (doubled!!) I can’t even get my head aroun the math… this is 40% cash back?? Dude does this make sense? Thanks for your feedback…
I am also in the market for all new appliances and while I am excited about this deal I am super nervous about doing the DD portal ->sears gc add paying with IT card-> DD portal -> applaince buy. If the portal holds 10% back during the 5% July/Aug/Sept bonus that work work out to be 47% off of my $4360 appliance bill which seems too good to be true. Even if we purchased now and didn’t wait for the 5% bonus it’s still is a discount of 41%.
I can get the appliances from ‘applianceconnection’ which comes out to be $3822 for the same stuff and not knowing whether or not this deal will work for 12 months is making me nervous!
Thanks Shawn – just used your referral link!
Do you need to use the Discover It card to make the purchase of stuff, for example, stuff at sears.com? This could be important for someone who has a card that earns 5% quarterly bonus at dept stores.
I have had success using the Discover portal with non-Discover cards, although if something goes wrong, Discover could deny your cashback claim since you didn’t pay with their card.
Shawn, I signed up using your link. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks Nate! I appreciate the support.
I just converted my DISCOVER More to “It” and really appreciate the tip! I did not want to close the old account and reapply. The “age” (10 years) of the old account transfers over as well as all of the earned Cash Back. If you convert, it becomes official at the start of the next billing cycle. You can still use your old card until then and earn the old program tiered normal cash back plus the 5% for restaurants. And if you do not receive the new card for awhile the old card then will function as a DISCOVER IT until you do. I couldn’t think of a single reason not to convert based on card features. You can go the referral route to max your earnings, but for some the conversion will function quite nicely. A good win-win: huge cashback payout to cardholders next summer, DISCOVER gets substantial card use increase from many (most) of us until then.
Called yesterday and easily converted my old Discover More card to a Discover It card and enrolled in the promotion. Logged in under my wife’s account today and did the same thing with hers via chat.
I too wonder how they can do this. Then I remember this promotion, like others, will bait plenty of others into buying stuff they shouldn’t and carrying balances, resulting in an overwhelming net win for Discover.
The discipline and organization required to be a successful churner/manufactured spender/reseller is rare. In the echo chamber of travel blogs, travel forums, and deal sites, it’s easy to forget we actually represent an incredibly small sliver of cc users.
I will pick this up in early July (I believe I have until 7/31?). I’m applying for the Freedom card this weekend to get my wife the referral points along with the increased bonus. So will wait 31 days.
I haven’t considered Discover cards much, although was intrigued by the 3x for the first year on the Miles card. Glad I waited for this, though.
Is this promotion applicable for Discover cashback card holders?
Unfortunately no, this promotion is only available to Discover IT cardholders. However, you can “upgrade” your Cashback card to Discover It and signup for the Double Cash promotion at the same time. This is what I did.
Only if you’re a Discover IT card holder. You can PC from Discover More if you still have that card (no bonus though) or apply for one of the IT cards. A Discover Rep informed me you can have 2 of the same product if you want to do a hard inquiry if you do want the bonus.
As the other commenters said, if you have an older Discover card you can either apply for a new Discover It or simply convert over your old card to an It.
One comment though – the earnings will appear on the 13th statement (after 12 cycles) – so even if we earn 10% now – all the earnings will not appear till June / July 2016. Not that it matters much – but a note.