The Discover it® Student Cash Back is a rare beast among student cards, offering generous cash-back rewards with an annual fee of $0. When charged, balance transfer fees range between 3% - 5%, which we grade accordingly. New to credit cards? The company will notify you if there is suspicious activity, and you’re never responsible for unauthorized charges, which are also standard features. The Discover it® Cash Back credit card offers 5% cash back in categories that rotate every three months, for no annual fee. Discover, as with many other card issuers, allows you to freeze and unfreeze your account as needed and to monitor your credit report online or through the mobile app. It’s one of the best credit cards for some of those expenses. You can earn rewards at a great rate for no annual fee, and you can plan out your spending for the whole year. Also, be vigilant about using the card for all other transactions during that year, since it’s unlikely you have another card that pays better than 2% (1% when you buy, the bonus 1% at year's end) on every purchase. From January through March, you can earn 5% cash back at: You can visit Discover’s website to activate your categories right now. The amount redeemed will just be credited to your card account, or sent to your bank account. The Discover it® Cash Back is one of the more popular and rewarding credit card offers, with 5% cash back in categories that rotate every three months (up to $1,500 spent per quarter, then 1%; activation required). See how these 5% rotating category cards stack up, Chase Freedom Flex vs. The card is also more forgiving than some others to people who miss a payment. These ratings and reviews are provided by our users. Content is not provided or commissioned by any credit card issuers. Earn 5% cash back in rotating categories each quarter. Discover it Cash Back Reward Categories: What Do You Need to Know? 5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined eligible net purchases ($100 per quarter) on two categories you choose. Getting the most out of this card begins with being organized enough yourself to take advantage of Discover's selection of rotating categories. Earn 2% on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases. Switching between Discover's high rate on rotating categories and using the flat-rate Citi Double Cash card for everything else could best amplify your cash back rewards. In excess of 50 % 1,000,000 students got Discover Cards from their mates’ recommendations. Plus, earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases. It’s got the same $1,500 quarterly limit, and you need to activate your categories. Discover will automatically match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year! This gives you some time to plan out your spending, and if you’re considering applying for the card, you can see how useful it will be in that first year. This scenario uses Discover's four quarterly bonus categories for 2020 (in turn, groceries; gas stations; restaurants; and Amazon.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com) and assumes your spending is that of an average household in each. The Discover it® Cash Back card is one of the best, if not the best, first credit cards available to students. An additional, potentially lucrative option is to exchange the cash back for a gift card at Discover partners. You must accrue at least $20 in rewards to redeem them for gift cards. We'll also assume you spend as much as the average consumer at gas stations and restaurants for the other two quarters. (Discover may send automatic emails as well.). Using 2020's rotating categories as a guide, we'll say that you're able to spend $1,500 in grocery stores during one quarter and purchases at Amazon.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com in another. There’s no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Advertiser relationships do not affect card ratings or our Best Card Picks. The Citi® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer (Review) is easy to recommend for general spending thanks to its flat 2% rate on every purchase (must pay at least the minimum due on time). To qualify for the bonus rate, you’ll need to activate the bonus each quarter. Credit Card Insider is an independent, advertising supported website. Again, those rewards totals don't take into account other purchases outside of rotating categories, which would earn an additional 1% in cash back. Discover cash back credit cards provide you with cash back on every purchase, with cards that let you earn more on qualifying purchases. All purchases outside the bonus categories will earn 1% back. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or evaluations provided here are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the Advertiser. You’ll get 5% cash back in quarterly rotating categories, up to $1,500 spent per quarter (then 1%; activation required). With its 0% APR on balance transfers, the card also has appeal if you’re laboring with a balance on another card on which you’re paying high interest. We’ll tell you when a card is good, we’ll tell you when a card is bad, and we’ll only call a card the best if we would recommend it to our friends or family members. EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE: The editorial content on this site is not provided by the companies whose products are featured. There’s no late fee on the first late payment and Discover imposes no penalty APR after you do so, a break that relatively few cards grant. The Discover it® Cash Back categories for rewards include a broad range of everyday spending, such as grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and online retailers like Amazon and Target.. Cash back categories are the types of purchases that cardholders can earn 5% cash back on, up to $1,500 spent per quarter. We utilize BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) income and average category spending data to calculate annual earnings rates for rewards cards that offer cash back, points or miles rewards at a set rate on all spending or in consideration of bonus rewards for certain spending categories, like gasoline, groceries, restaurants or travel. You need to activate your 5% categories ahead of time, and you’ll have to deal with a quarterly spending limit. Discover says its customer service is based in the United States. If you reached the $1,500 maximum on 5% rewards each quarter—hardly a given, admittedly—you would earn a $300 bonus for the year on top of your $300 in cash back rewards. DISCLAIMER: All information posted to this site was accurate at the time of its initial publication. Learn the difference between networks like Visa and issuing banks like Capital One, which banks are biggest, and more. From January through March 2021, the first quarter of the year, eligible. Earn 2X FunPoints for every dollar spent on any purchases with Carnival Cruise Lines and 1X FunPoints on all other purchases. $0. To earn cash back, pay at least the minimum due on time. Earn 1% in Disney Rewards Dollars on all card purchases. Rewards rate. Do you have a correction, tip, or suggestion for a new post? Home › Forums › Internet Predators/Things to watch for › discover it student cash back This topic is empty. A bonus of at least $5—it varies by the merchant—is added to the value of the gift card for every $20 you redeem. For complete details of any products mentioned, visit bank or issuer website. In the first year, including the cash back match, you'd have $296 that could be redeemed at the end of the year. Power Credit Card Customer Satisfaction survey, Discover is most satisfying card issuer out of 11 card companies surveyed. Partners include American Eagle, Banana Republic, Gap, L.L. The only downside to this offer is that you'll need to wait until the end of the year to get a credit on your account. Cards to Use With the Discover it Cash Back, Learn More About the Discover it Cash Back, gift cards for your favorite restaurants and retailers, Review of the Discover it® Cash Back Credit Card. Be aware, though, that to qualify for the 0% introductory rate on balance transfers you must initiate the transfer before April 10, 2021. When you click on any ‘Apply Now’ button, the most up-to-date terms and conditions, rates, and fee information will be presented by the issuer. That shouldn't be a problem for most households; indeed, if anything it’s likely you'll underspend on many or even most quarters—and so make less on these bonus categories than it might appear at first blush. The Discover it® Cash Back earns a massive cashback rate on rotating categories each quarter and lets you double your earned cash back at the end of your first year. Credit card benefits cover a range of offerings like concierge service, TSA Pre-check, auto rental coverage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage assistance and free credit scores. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by bank advertisers. All the 5% bonus category info here also applies to the student version, though we’ll refer to the non-student card for the most part in this post. January–March: Grocery stores, Walgreens, CVS, April–June: Gas stations, Uber, and Lyft and wholesale clubs, October–December: Amazon.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com, $0 fraud liability on unauthorized charges, Discover identity alerts and account monitoring, Freeze it on/off switch (from app) to prevent unauthorized charges. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information, though all credit card information is presented without warranty. Earn up to $550 cash back in the first year. Discover offers 5% cash back in bonus categories that change every three months. Be sure to read the terms and conditions to fully understand (and take advantage of) your card’s cash back rewards program. You’ll get 5% cash back in quarterly rotating categories, up to $1,500 spent per quarter (then 1%; activation required). Discover it® Cash Back. Discover will match all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year, automatically. Earn 5% cash back on rotating categories each quarter each time you activate. Other cards that deliver a cash or points bonus, like the Chase Freedom, give you the bonus within a few months of opening an account, provided you spend a certain amount within that time. Content is not provided or commissioned by any credit card issuers. Discover it® Cash Back cardholders, rejoice! Discover is good enough to release the entire calendar for the year, usually a bit before the previous year ends. Balance transfer fees are occasionally waived during introductory periods with certain cards, a factor which is heavily and positively weighted in our scoring model for cards offering this benefit. 2% cash back on your choice of one everyday category, like gas stations or grocery stores. Freeze it®. You’ll get a nice intro purchase APR in case you need to stretch out your spending a bit, along with a good balance transfer offer (but this card is meant mainly for earning rewards on purchases). 2 MyCruise points for every $1 spent on qualifying purchases with Celebrity Cruises® and our sister brands, Royal Caribbean® and Azamara®.1 MyCruise point per $1 on all other purchases. $150 bonus after spending $500 in eligible net purchases within the first 90 days of account opening. To rate credit cards we objectively assess, score and weight nearly 100 individual card features which roll up into five major feature sets: fees, interest, rewards, benefits and security/customer service. Earn 1 point per $1 for other eligible purchases. When compared among all rewards cards in our database: See how this card compares to similar cards, Investopedia Credit Card Rating Methodology. Earn 3x points on travel immediately after earning your $300 travel credit, 3X points on dining at restaurants, and 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases. Earn 2 points per $1 at US supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year. What you need to know Here are the details on the Discover it Cash Back: The Discover it Cash Back card is a cash back rewards card that touts a revolving 5% cash back bonus that changes spending categories approximately every three months. Categories must be activated before 5% cash back can be earned; only purchases made, You can set up email alerts with Discover to remind you to activate the categories, so you’ll be notified well ahead of time. It's available over the phone, on its website, or through the mobile app. Security and customer service features like lost or stolen card replacement, being able to lock one’s card from an issuer app and 24 hour customer support are becoming more standard across the card market and we provide a significant amount of weighting to features in this area. If you had both cards you would’ve had a wealth of 5% opportunities all year. The categories include some rare finds that Discover doesn’t usually cover, like electronics stores, streaming services, and department stores. For example, you might want to stock up on non-perishable foods and paper goods at the supermarket during a quarter when grocery stores are featured, and postpone purchases of electronic items and beauty supplies until Amazon.com is on the 5% list. We determine the maximum points value of rewards cards by dividing the points, cash back or miles required to exchange for the retail price of the most valuable redemption option (for example, in the case of a card that offers a domestic roundtrip airline ticket as a redemption option vs. another redemption option of lesser value that requires the same amount of points or miles to acquire, we would base the rewards value on the airline ticket). 1% on all other purchases. A Quick Overview of the Discover it Cash Back. And that's without considering the match on the 1% cash back you’d earn on all other purchases in your first year. That's potentially a very profitable bonus. Credit Card Insider has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. There are a myriad of reward and non-reward card options that charge no annual fee but for the many that do assess an annual fee the cost is often justified by their lucrative ongoing rewards and initial signup bonuses. You may even want to plan purchases that are flexible in their timing to take advantage of the bonus schedule. We rate both introductory APR percentage and length (in months) along with the midpoint of the variable regular APR interest rate range. But Discover will give cardmembers a bonus on gift card redemptions, making that the most valuable redemption method. All other purchases you make outside of the bonus categories earn 1% cash back. With Discover, you’re stuck with whatever they’ll give you; but the Cash+ lets you adjust as the year progresses, so you can set up the perfect categories to complement the Discover rewards calendar. 2021 Chase Freedom Flex Categories: Where Can You Earn 5% Back? This is Discover's calendar of rotating categories for 2020: You can receive your cash back as a credit to your account, where they can be applied to your balance at any time, or sent electronically to your bank account. But Chase only releases the Freedom Flex’s upcoming categories shortly before they’re available, making it difficult to plan. Advertiser relationships do not affect card evaluations. Credit Card Insider has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Outstanding cash-back rewards on select categories, Decent 0% introductory offer on purchases and eligible balance transfers. Earn 2x total points on up to $1,000 in grocery store purchases per month from November 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021. Travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards. There’s also a solid 0% introductory APR for purchases and balance transfers. Cards that are selected best overall in their respective categories generally feature most if not all of the following attributes: Credit card fees come in many forms but the primary ones involve those for annual card membership and balance transfer. For example, it could pair well with the Citi Double Cash card, which pays an unlimited 1% + 1% combined cash back on all purchases—1% when you buy, and another 1% when you pay the purchase off. The Discover it® Balance Transfer offer is not currently in market. The Discover It Cash Back offers handsome rewards, but you need to pay attention and put forth some effort in order to earn them. You’ll get at least $5 added to each gift card redemption, and sometimes $10 or even more. The Citi® Double Cash Card comes with a flat cashback rate on all purchases and … Cardholders earn 5% cash back on rotating categories and receive a dollar-for-dollar match on all the cash back they've earned by the end of the first year. A list of these issuers can be found on our Editorial Guidelines. The Discover it® Cash Back and Discover it® Student Chrome Cash Back card are two credit cards that have become staples in the wallets of college students across the United States. Your rewards never expire. So if you’re looking for easy cash back, statement credits or bank account deposits are probably the right moves. Credit Card Insider and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. When you click on any ‘Apply Now’ button, the most up-to-date terms and conditions, rates, and fee information will be presented by the issuer. Power Credit Card Customer Satisfaction survey. This scenario assumes higher-than-average spending, preferably to reach the $1,500 spending cap on bonus categories in as many quarters as possible. After the $1,500 spend threshold is reached, you’ll earn 1% back. Earn unlimited 1.5 miles for every dollar spent. We also assign value to sign-up bonus offers and their initial spending requirements, when present. You could turn $150 cash back into $300. You don't need to sign up and there's no limit on how much you can earn. Chart comparisons conducted by an independent research firm and based on competitor info compiled in December 2020. Discover offers four different credit cards that, upon activation, provide 5% cash back in various categories on up to $1,500 in quarterly purchases made each … Eligible Discover credit cardholders can now activate bonus 5% cash-back categories for the first quarter of 2021. The cash back you earn can be redeemed for statement credits or direct deposits, which are the easiest methods. 0% Intro APR* on balance transfers for 12 billing cycles. Contact us here. A major benefit of the Discover it Cash Back is the flexibility of the rewards you earn. It's also a beneficial choice if you have some major expenses coming up. For the other redemption methods, you can redeem rewards when you have earned as little as one cent. Such planning can help you reach—or at least get closer—to the $1,500 quarterly spending cap for spending in the bonus categories. ADVERTISER DISCLOSURE: Credit Card Insider is an independent, advertising supported website. The Discover it® Student Cash Back (Review) is very much like the regular Discover it Cash Back card. Banks, issuers and credit card companies do not endorse or guarantee this content, are not responsible for it, and may not even be aware of it. The Discover it Cash Back card offers top rewards, albeit in select categories, and a rich bonus. Credit Card Insider has not reviewed all available credit card offers in the marketplace. One definition that’s less generous is that of grocery store purchases; as with other card issuers, these omit those made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, discount stores, Walmart, and Target. The Discover it Cash Back has a set of features that matches most other Discover cards, with common benefits like the Credit Scorecard and SSN/new account alerts. Advertising partners do not edit or endorse our editorial content. But if a balance transfer is a high priority in your next card, there are other cards with longer introductory periods, such as the Citi Simplicity card, which offers 0% APR for 18 months on transfers made within 60 days of account opening. Set calendar reminders to activate the rotating category at the beginning of each quarter, and then use the card accordingly. See card detail. Given its unremarkable 1% cash back earnings on all other purchases, this card might best be considered as a supplement to another cash back card that pays more on all transactions. Those categories rotate, but they’ve recently included purchases at grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations, along with those from Uber, Lyft, PayPal, Amazon.com, Target, and Walmart. That adds up to $400 cash back! Earn cash back rewards for college and beyond while practicing responsible credit habits with this Discover it ® card for students. That's up to $75 cash back each quarter! Cash back credit cards may provide extra rewards on eligible purchases within an amount you can spend or a timeframe for your purchase. If your account is closed or if you haven't used your card in 18 months, Discover will credit your account with your cash back bonus. Includes eligible pick-up and delivery services. Discover ® Identity Alerts – Review Discover it® Cash Back. Citi is a Credit Card Insider advertiser. Discover’s cash back calendar usually includes categories such as groceries, gas and dining; these categories change every quarter and require activation. Apply now. Credit Card Insider receives compensation from some credit card issuers as advertisers. We rate cards on the number and level of over a dozen standard and upscale benefits and provide extra weighting emphasis for those travel-related perks that apply to premium travel cards when present. 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