Discover More Card Review – What You Need to Discover

I didn’t know this card is one of the oldest reward card in the market. Needless to say more than half of Discover card holder portfolio contains Discover® More® Card members.

I also didn’t know that Discover cards have an orange edge, which is there to assist you getting out the card from your wallet. Discover says that Orange symbolizes the care and commitment they have for the card members. They want to make sure you get the orange out from a stack of whites and blacks. Good thinking!

Now that you discovered two great facts about Discover, let’s try to find all about its flagship card, the Discover® More® Card.

This card is truly, all-in-one. So far we have seen Citi Diamond Preferred card as the best balance transfer card and Chase Freedom as one of the best rewards card. But, Discover More card offers best of both world.

Discover® More® Card Features

Let’s have a glance on the main features of the card.

• 0% intro APR on purchases for 6 months, then the variable standard purchase APR of 10.99% – 20.99%*
• 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months, then the variable standard purchase APR of 10.99% – 20.99%*
• 5% Cashback Bonus® in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
• Discover is ranked #1 in customer loyalty–16 years in row! (2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index report)
• 24/7 access to a U.S.-based Account Manager within 60 seconds
• $0 Fraud Liability plus automatic mobile and email fraud alert options
• Great rewards with no annual fee, no rewards redemption fee, and no additional card fee
• *Click apply to view rates, fees, rewards, limitations and other important information Apply Now!

No other card that I know off, have this many features in it. 15 months 0% balance transfer offer means a lot if you have a credit card loan. Suppose you want to repay $5,000 credit card loan in next year or two. But the high APR on your existing credit card makes is impossible to repay in 2 years.

How Discover More Card can reduce your debt

You can apply for this card and then transfer your entire credit card debt over this card. You need to pay up front 3% on your entire debt. But, for rest 15 months you can concentrate only on paying off the principal, not the interest.

Yo can be debt free a lot quickly. To show it in an example let’s take help of a credit card payoff calculator from CNN Money

To pay off $5,000 with 10.99% interest APR. You need 17 years to pay off with $100 payment every month. You will pay a total of $3,582.94 in interest.

Where as if you pay 3% fee up front and switch over to Discover, you need to pay $150 on the first month, and 0% APR for next 15 months. A back calculation reveals that if you pay $334 a month, it will take you 15 months to pay off your credit card debt.

How you can earn rewards using Discover® More® Card

Cardholders can earn 5% cash back on select purchases, and the categories of expenses that qualify for the 5% cash back offer rotates every quarter. Below are the current 5% cash back categories:

• Jan-Mar 2012: gas stations, museums and movies
• Apr-Jun 2012: restaurants and movies
• Jul-Sep 2012: gas stations, movies and theme parks
• Oct-Dec 2012: department stores, electronics stores and toy stores

When you start thinking this card is best for you, let’s take a closure look at their rewards program. As per their FAQ sheet – You automatically earn up to 1% Cash back Bonus on all your other purchases. You will earn 1% unlimited Cash back Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%. 

Warehouse purchases (those made at select warehouse clubs, wholesale distributors, discount stores and their affiliates) earn .25%.  Discover do not include warehouse purchases or 5% category purchases in calculating your total annual purchases.

My other cards do offer 1% cash back irrespective of a purchase threshold or category. Most of the rewards cards do offer 1% cash back these days. In this count we can’t give all thumbs up to the card which is otherwise attractive in every angle.

Other notable feature about this card is no annual fee and up to 20% cash back when you purchase from ShopDiscover online market place.

You may redeem Cash back Bonus for gift cards, merchandise, Discover gift cards or charitable donations starting at $20. You may redeem Cash back Bonus for cash in the form of a direct deposit to your bank account or a credit to your Discover card account in $50 increments, starting at $50. You may select more than one redemption method so long as each redemption is in one of the above amounts.

Conclusion 

This is perfect card for dual purpose, balance transfer and cash back rewards. But, if you are not an avid shopper who doesn’t want to spend $3,000 a year on credit card purchases and have no credit card debt to transfer, you may not switch over to this card. Over all we give the card “Apply” rating.

Share your thoughts and experiences with this card, readers.

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