I’ve been a member of the Discover Card family since 1999 when I first signed up and I have to say if used wisely you can really take advantage of the Discover Card 5% cash back bonus. Before I start though I would be remiss if I did not point out that using credit cards unwisely can land you in a world of debt faster than you can say “charge it” so if you can’t afford to pay bills with cash you shouldn’t be buying it with your Discover Card or any other card for that matter.
Anyway, enough public service, back to the Discover Card cash back bonus…
You’ve probably seen Discover commercials advertising a 5% cash back bonus on home improvement purchases so I decided to look in to it. Apparently the way it works is that Discover set up a schedule for the remainder of the year and in each group you can earn 5% cash back on a specific type of purpose. Below is a breakdown of what they are offering…
- January – March 2010 – 5% back on Travel purchases
- April – June 2010 – 5% back on Home Improvement, Department store and Clothing store purchases (up to $400)
- June 2010 – 5% cash back on Restaurant purchases (up to $200)
- July – September 2010 – 5% cash back on Gas, Hotels, Movies and Theme Park purchases (up to $300)
- October – December 2010 – 5% cash back on Restaurants, Department stores and clothing stores.
The reason I am bringing this up is that if you can take advantage of this and these are purchases you are thinking of buying any way with cash, you can use your Discover Card and get an additional 5% savings which can really add up. You can also earn up to 1% unlimited cash back on purchases just for using a Discover Card, which is one of the primary benefits of having the card. You can also get a $50 cash back bonus with certain restrictions (you have to spend a certain about of money before you get it). Of course in order to take advantage of this you need to pay it right off because if you don’t you will pay a lot in interest charges on your outstanding balance.
What are the interest rates you ask? Good question… On the Discover More Card is offering 0% APR on all purchases for 6 months with a variable rate after that (please visit the Discover Card page for more details on the rate as certain conditions apply). The Discover More card also offers 0% APR for 12 months on balance transfers and has no annual fee.
Overall I think the Discover Card cashback bonus program is a great one, if you know how to take advantage of it properly. I can’t stress enough that if you can’t afford to pay it with cash don’t use your card for it or you will find yourself in credit card debt, but if you can trust yourself I highly recommend you take advantage and sign up for a Discover More Card today.
