The Discover Open Road credit card, as the name suggests, is for those credit cardholders who want to get cash back on gas. Who isn’t looking for a good gas rewards card with the high gas prices we’re seeing these days?

Unfortunately, as gas prices have risen, the cash back rates on gas cards have fallen across the industry and the Discover Open Road card was hit as well.  Even though it’s not as easy as it used to be to earn as much cash back on gas purchases - if used correctly the Open Road card rebates can still pay off.

Spending Rebates
The Open Road card gives you 2% back on gas and restaurant purchases, as well as 1% cash back on other purchases once you’ve met the annual spending tier.  However, there is a monthly cap on earnings, we’ll talk about the spending tier and monthly cap in a minute.

The upside to the Discover Open Road card is that you can begin earning double cash back immediately on gas and eating out so it works even if you’re a low spender.  There’s no yearly limit on rebates and your rebates do not expire. You can also trade in your rebates for double Cashback Bonus with Discover partner merchants, like you can with the Discover More and Discover Miles cards.

To qualify for the gas rebate your purchases must be made at merchants classified as gas stations.  You won’t get the gas rebate if you buy fuel at warehouse club.  In terms of eating out, it’s considered a restaurant purchase if it falls under the classification of fast food, cafeterias, cafes, and formal restaurants.

Downside to the Open Road
The drawbacks to the Open Road card are the two I mentioned above, the monthly cap and the annual spending tier.

Open Road pays you 2% cashback on the first $250 you spend on fuel and eating out each month.  Once you hit that monthly cap, your gas purchases earn anywhere from .25% to 1% cash rebate.  If you’re wondering where the .25% comes from, it’s based on the annual spending tier.  Purchases on your card that aren’t for gas or restaurants earn .25% cash back until you’ve spent $3,000 for the year. Once you crosss that tier, all non-gas/restaurant spending earns you 1% cashback.

Since there are other rewards cards where you can earn higher cash rebates than .25% on your spending, this doesn’t make the Open Road card ideal for purchases other than gas.  However, if you use this card just for gasoline then you can earn some decent cash rewards.

Open Road Fees and APR
For a rebate card, the Discover Open Road card has a realitively competitive APR, with a 0% introductory offer for both purchases and balance transfers. Pay attention to the table at the bottom of this article for exact information on current offers.  Another nice thing about the card is that it doesn’t charge you an annual fee – so you can earn rewards without paying.

Credit Card Balances
The Open Road card is most recommended to applicants with good credit or better who are most likely to secure the card’s lower rate. The card does use the two-cycle balance to calculate finance charges, which is more expensive than calculating based on average daily balance. Because of that it’s best for people who choose not to carry a balance on their cards.

How to Use the Open Road Card
The wisest way to use this card is purely for gas and restaurant expenses, because if you use the card for general purchases, your cash back rebates won’t be as high.  It’s probably easiest to use it just for gas, once you’ve spent your $250 for the month you can switch over to one of the other top gas rewards cards or cash back cards.

The Discover® More credit card is best known for it’s 5% cash back rebate from Discover’s Get More merchants, making it one of the best cash back credit cards on the market.

In addition to having no annual fee, the Discover More card also allows you to exchange your cash rebates for gift cards worth more than the value of your cash back bonus. You can also earn cash back when you shop online with partner merchants through the Shop Discover website – the amount of savings varies across retailers but can be as high as 20% in some cases.

Cash Back Rates
The 5% cashback bonus for Get More partners covers categories such as travel, home improvement stores, department stores, gas, groceries, and restaurants.  As you can see below, the bonus categories rotate during the year, so the purchases that you earn 5% back on change depending on the season.

There aren’t many cards that pay 5% cashback for anything so the bonus categories are a great feature of the Discover More card.  As we’ll cover again later in the review, these earning categories do require you to opt-in during the period to earn the rewards.

For all other purchases on the More card you earn cash back on a tiered rewards structure. Purchases that are part of your first $1,500 earn .25% and purchases that are part of your second $1,500 earn .50%. After your total annual purchases exceed $3,000, you’ll earn 1% cash back on money you spend outside of the Get More partner stores.

Gift Card Rewards
Discover has teamed up with a list of stores that allow you to trade your cash back rewards for gift cards to those retailers. In many cases the value of the gift certificate you get is higher than the dollar value of your cash rewards.

For example, the Discover rewards program lets you redeem your cash rebates in $20 increments. In some instances you can turn a $20 statement credit into a $30 gift card for home improvement, restaurants, entertainment, or travel.   They call it turning your “Cashback bonus into bigger rewards” and it’s a pretty slick benefit that includes some pretty big retailers:

Of course, if they don’t have gift cards available for places that you visit regularly then this benefit isn’t all that spectacular.  However, they do have over 100 partner stores in their program so if you shop at any of them the gift card redemption option can help you get more out of your rewards.

Balance Transfer Offers
On top of the cash back features, the Discover More card offers some of the best balance transfer rates available. There have been times when it was possible to get 0% balance transfers for an extended period or to get a balance transfer with no fees. A quick review of the chart at the end of the review will tell you all about the current APR and offers on this credit card.

Customizable Cards
Nowadays we’re used to being able to customize products and services to our own individual tastes and Discover is well aware of that.

You can choose from over 150 different card designs when you apply for the Discover More card.

While choosing your design is cool it is the least important feature of the card. I’ve had a slick looking card for years (Blue Cash) and I’ve gotten lots of comments from store clerks and shop owners on it’s uniqueness, but that does nothing for my bottom line. I agree that it’s nice to be able to choose the design, to make it a little more personalized – but hopefully this isn’t your primary decision point when choosing a card.

Discover More Reviews 

It always helps to hear the experiences of other peple who have used a credit card.  That’s why I like a feature on the Discover website where customers can post a review of their card for everyone else to see.

Consumers score their card based on three different criteria: 1) Rewards program 2) Customer service and 3) Online Account Center.  They they can rate each of those criteria from 1-5 stars, then the three scores average out to give the card review an overall score.

To get some good value out of the reviews you’ll have to go through pages of them, most aren’t very extensive and few offer much valuable feedback.  A lot of the comments say something like “great card” or “not my favorite card” but without any detail behind their opinion.

However, if you read through them all you’ll get an idea of the main things people like and don’t like about their Discover card.  I think it’s great that Discover posts these customer reviews on their site; it’s probably kind of scary for them to do because they know they’re going to get negative comments but I think it’s a wonderful way for potential customers to get a feel for the pros and cons of the card.

Discover More Complaints

I spent quite a bit of time going through all the pages of comments, so you don’t have to do the thing, here’s a summary of what I noticed.  The positive comments about the card covered a pretty wide range but the majority of the complaints centered around one topic, the rules on the 5% cashback bonus categories.  

As I mentioned earlier you have to opt-in for the bonus categories every quarter.  There’s also a quarterly cap for the dollar amount of rewards you can earn from the 5% cashback bonus.  What this means is that once you reach the quarterly cap, or if you don’t opt in, then you earn 1% cash back on those purchases instead of 5%.  So most of the critiquies of the card were people asking Discover to increase the caps and not require them to opt-in to the bonus categories.

Interestingly enough, most of the people that left those comments still rated Discover More at least 4 stars, like you see here.  Seems like they do like the cashback rewards they’re getting, they just wish Discover would update the cashback bonus policy so they could earn more. Some of these customers commented that once they hit their bonus cap with Discover they switch over to another cash back card like Chase Freedom.  Their main point was that Discover would get more of their business if they’d raise the bonus cap.

The other complaint that occassionally came up was that Discover isn’t accepted by all merchants. I guess there’s not a whole lot that Discover can do about that. I run into something similar as well with my American Express cards, which is why I also carry a rewards Visa card.

Discover More Rewards & Customer Service

Although the positive comments covered a much wider range of topics, there were still a few that stood out

• Customer Service
• Gift Card Rewards
• Cashback Rewards Partners

Customer Service 

Many people referred to the customer service from Discover as friendly and efficient but there seemed to be something consumers liked even better than just fast and friendly – Discover’s fraud protection. Apparently Discover is very vigilant about suspicious transactions or large purchases and will call you up right away if anything seems out of the ordinary.  I read comments from a lot of people who had Discover catch unauthorized card use for them and squash potential identit theft situations.

Another big compliment Discover recieved was the speed with which they redeem your rewards once you request them.   One commenter had requested his cashback before bed one night and then saw the money deposited when he got home from work the next day.

Gift Card Rewards

As I mentioned earlier the gift cards can be a good deal if you already shop at some of the partner stores.  For example, one person uses their Discover rewards gift cards at Staples and combines it with the cartridge recycling discount to save even more. Another customer that sends flowers out over the holidays uses the FTD gift cards to save on the flowers.  A third lady who buys from CVS regularly takes advantage of the $50 gift card for $45.

Rewards Partners

Since the rewards partners discounts can be pretty high, some of the commmentors said they do a lot of their online shopping through Discover.  One person did point out that sometimes they’re actually able to find a better deal at online rebate sites, so they compare the ShopDiscover prices to other sites online first.

Conclusion
If you can take advantage of the bonus cash back categories, the gift card deals, or the rewards partners the Discover More card is one of the best cash back rewards cards on the market.  If you put a lot of purchases on your card, you might want to keep another cash back card around to take advantage of other offers once you hit the quarterly spending cap.

Another thing to consider, if you’re looking for a cash back card that is also a good balance transfer card then the More card could work for you.  This card is great for people who want flexibility when cashing in their rewards.

Which card you prefer kind of depends on how you view the money you earn with a cash back card.  If your goal is to just reduce your overall expenses a bit with the rebates, then your focus is probably on which card can get you the most money back the fastest.  On the other hand, if you see the rewards as a type of bonus that can get you some good deals on things you might not buy otherwise, then you’re probably more interested in a card that offers options in addition to cash rebates.

The other big question is how much do you generally charge on your card each year.  I’ll explain why these are important things to consider in the following sections.

Cash Back Rewards

Blue Cash® from American Express offers .5% cash back on the first $6,500 spent annually on the card and then increases this rate to 1.25%. Additionally there are some purchases that are eligible for an increased rewards rate of 1% for the first $6,500 spent on the card and 5% after that. If you’re not sure how your spending fits into this structure, American Express has a Blue Cash Calculator on their website where you select what you spend in a year on gas, grocery, drugstore, and all other purchases and they estimate how much cash back you’d earn.

The Discover® More Card gives you .25% cash back on the first $3000 in annual purchases. After that, the card rewards you with 1% cash back on all purchases. Additionally, there are rotating bonus categories on which you can earn 5% cash back. Finally, you can get up to an additional 20% cash back when using this credit card to shop online with select merchants. The Discover® More Card occasionally runs promotional deals. For example, recently it offered a bonus $100 cash back when you spent $500 on purchases in the first month after getting the card.

Annual Spending

Both of these rewards plans take a little bit of assessment to figure out since they aren’t entirely straightforward like some other cards are. Essentially you’ll want to look at whether or not you’re likely to spend $6500 per year or more on the card or if you’re more of a spender in the $3000 annual range.

The Discover More is nice because you can start earning 5% back on certain categories as soon as you start using the card.  You don’t have to wait to cross the spending tier like you do with the Blue Cash card.  However, since there’s a quarterly cap on the amount of bonus rewards you can earn with More card – if you put a lot of purchases on your credit card the Blue Cash could be a better option.  There’s no limit to the amount of cash back you can earn with Blue Cash and if you’re spending a lot annually then you’ll get into the higer earning tiers more quickly.

Spending Categories

Unfortunately, both cards limit your 5% cash back to certain categories of spending.  The upside to the Discover More approach is that you earn those bonus rewards on seasonal purchases, in categories where you might tend to spend more money at a certain time of year.

The downside is that you have to keep track of those categories and enroll in them every quarter to qualify for the bonus cash back.  Compare that to the Blue Cash that pays the 5% on things you buy all year round (gas, supermakets, pharmacies) and doesn’t ever require you to enroll your card – you automatically earn cash back each time you make a purchase.

Redeeming Cash Rebates

It used to be that Discover had the upper hand when it came to redeeming your cash back.  However, with the introduction of Blue Cash Reward Dollars, American Express now makes it possible to cash them in once you’ve accumulated $25 worth.  In the past you were only paid your earnings once a year but the new system AmEx put in place fixed that. 

Discover More does still have an advantage if you want your rewards in cold hard cash.  Once you’ve accumulated $50 Discover will send you the money electronically to your bank account (or if you only have $20 they’ll send a Discover gift card).  Although you can get your money sooner with American Express, it only comes across as a credit to your account, not as cash directly to you.  That’s not a big deal to me because we put most of our expenses on our card and pay it off once a month, so the credit just serves as a savings for us.  However, if you want cash it’s something to think about.

Another difference between the two cards is that Discover will also let you turn in your rewards for gift cards.  I’m not a huge fan of gift cards but Discover’s rewards program lets you buy gift cards at less than face value with your cash back rewards, so you can get anywhere from 2–10% additional savings when you redeem your earnings for gift cards at places you regularly shop.

Interest Rates

The rate and terms you’ll get from the Blue Cash card vary based on your credit history. You’ll need good credit to qualify for the card but excellent credit will get you lower interest rates and sometimes even longer terms on 0% interest intro APR offers.

The Discover More Card also requires that you have good credit and the interest rate you’ll pay on balances does depend on your credit history. However, the More card tends to have a lower APR on purchases and balance transfers than the Blue Cash card.

If you’re looking at a balance transfer you’ll also want to consider the balance transfer fee because the Blue Cash is usually lower by a percentage or two than Discover More. To do an accurate comparison of the rates on the two cards you can scroll down to the side-by-side information chart, which shows up-to-date APR and offers.

Summary

The bonus cash back rewards on the Discover® More Card definitely make it the stronger of the two competitors right now if you don’t spend a lot on your card. The lower APR and the offer of a 0% intro APR for balance transfers also make it an appealing choice if you carry a balance or are planning to transfer a balance.

However, the option to earn a higher cash back rate on purchases after the first $6500 each year make the Blue Cash® from American Express card an appealing option if you put lot on your card. Unlike the More card, the Blue Cash doesn’t have a limit on the amount of cash back you can earn so higher spenders truly benefit more from this card than from Discover More.  

The Miles by Discover® is a travel rewards card, as you can probably tell from the name. It allows you to earn double miles on purchases up to $3000 in travel-related purchases and one-point-per-dollar for general purchases. The miles you earn with Discover Miles don’t expire and there’s no cap on the number of miles that can be earned on the card.  The Miles card also has additional perks including the opportunity to amass numerous bonus rewards in the first year of card activation.

Flexible Travel Rewards

Similar to the Blue Sky card, Discover Miles lets you use your rewards across different airline carriers, hotel chains, and rental car companies.  Unless you always fly the same airline or stay in the same hotel, this is one of the top benefits of the card in my opinion.

There are other rewards programs that let you earn miles or points when booking travel but some of them require that you use a specific website to find and pay for your trip.  Of course the potential downside of being limited to a specific portal is that if you can find the ticket or hotel cheaper through some other site like Priceline or Kayak, then the rewards you earn don’t make up for the higher price of the ticket.

With the Discover Miles card you don’t have to worry about what airline you fly, which hotel you sleep in, or who you book your travel through – you still earn rewards regardless.

Discover Miles Rewards

You don’t get the most out of the Miles card by using it for everyday purchases.  You earn a mile for every dollar you put on the card, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary for a rewards card. The biggest benefits come from the double rewards categories and the card bonuses. 

The double rewards are in the travel and dining categories of purchases and earn you 2 miles for every dollar you spend in a year, up to $3000.  Although there is no limit on the amount of total annual rewards you can earn, after the first $3000 of purchases the double rewards categories go back to earning 1 mile per dollar.

There is one other way to earn double rewards on your spending, from purchases made through the ShopDiscover portal.  This may not mean a whole lot to you unless you regularly shop at one of the comapanies that’s part of their ShopDiscover program.  Members who login and shop online through this program earn 2 miles for each dollar put on the card.  Discover does have a big list of nationally know companies in their program, such as Sears, ACE Hardware, Apple, Gap, HP, Old Navy, Office Depot, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Home Depot, Kohls, JC Penney, and many others.

If you already shop at any of these stores then you could earn double miles on your purchases with the Miles card.

Card Bonus Offer

Unlike most other travel rewards cards, the Discover Miles Card offers 1,000 bonus miles a month if the card is used at least once a month, for the first year you have the card.  There are other Discover and Chase cards that will give you a cashback bonus just for using the card, but they usually require a minimum of $500–750 dollars of purchases in the first few months. 

With the Miles card you can get the bonus for a whole year, just by buying a pack of gum once a month. The only other card I know of with a bonus with such low requirements is the Discover Escape card, which actually makes a similar bonus offer but extends it for 2 years instead of 1.

Redeeming Discover Miles Rewards

For every 10,000 miles you earn Discover makes you eligible for a $100 travel credit on your Miles card.  So going back to the bonus I just mentioned, those 12,000 miles are worth $120 towards a flight or hotel.

Since you choose how to travel and how to buy your ticket, you don’t have to worry about blackout dates or other restrictions when you go to redeem your rewards.  If your purcase is travel related then it’s eligible to recieve the travel credit.  After you pay for the rental car, airline ticket, or hotel room you can call up Discover or go through their websiteto submit the purchase and have your travel credit applied to it. Make sure you redeem your miles within 3 months of making the purchase otherwise you’ll have to wait and use your rewards on the next travel you buy.

Discover does offer several other ways to redeem your rewards:

• Gift cards at over 90 merchants (minimum 1000) points
• $25 Discover Gift Card for every 5000 points earned
• Cash back starting at 5000 points
• Charitable donation starting at 5000 points

Although those options are avaibable to you, the best rewards for your money comes from using them on travel with this card.  If you’d like to get the cashback or gift cards instead then you’d probably be better off with a cash back card.

Discover Miles Benefits

In addition to rewards points, the Discover Miles Card offers $500,000 in travel accident insurance. This card also offers enhanced fraud protection with a $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee that promises you won’t be responsible for any unauthorized usage of your card. The fraud protection feature is on most cards these days but still something you should check for this era of frequent identity theft.

No Annual Fee

There is no annual fee on this credit card. The lack of an annual fee is significant, as most travel rewards cards do charge an annual fee – some of which can be very steep, offsetting the gains from a better rewards program. 

Discover Miles does offer an upgraded version of the card that charges an annual fee. What you get from the upgraded version is insurance coverage against:

• Rental car damage (no deductible)
• Lost or damaged luggage (Up to $2,500)
• Travel Delays ($150 daily lodging)
• Trip cancellation (Up to $2,500)

You’d have to compare the annual fee against the cost of buying travel insurance in a year to see if that version made sense for you.

Discover Miles APR

Like other Discover cards, the Miles Card typically has a lower APR than comparable cards and sometimes features a 0% introductory APR on purchases; see the chart below for details about current APR offers. Like many other credit cards the best rates will be available to the people with the best credit.

Conclusion

The Discover Miles Card is a good rewards credit card. The 1,000 a month bonus is only good for the first year of the card but it can kick into effect for very small purchases, which is definitely appealing.

You don’t need to spend $1000 to earn 1000 miles, so it is a good bet for frugal flyers. The card does have some unique travel rewards possibilities that frequent travelers will find attractive.

Finally, the fact that this card has no annual fee and is flexible about how you earn and redeem rewards adds to the appeal of the card. 

While the biggest difference between the two is probably how rewards are earned, remember there are more things to consider than just the rewards when researching cash back cards.

How Rewards Are Earned

The main difference between the Discover® More Card and the Chase Freedom® Visa is in the way that standard cash back rewards are earned. The Freedom card offers unlimited 1% cash back on all purchases with 5% cash back options on certain spending categories that rotate quarterly – also  an additional 10% back when you shop online with select merchants.

Discover More also offers a 5% cash back deal on rotating categories. However, the card only offers .25% cash back on the first $3000 in purchases each year before increasing to 1% cash back after that. Discover More offers 5% – 20% cash back when shopping online with select merchants.

Neither of these is necessarily a better deal than the other; it just depends on what type of shopper you are. If you prefer straightforward cash back rewards then Chase Freedom will be more appealing but if you do a significant amount of shopping online then you may find that you get more cash back with the Discover More card.

Rotating Spending Categories

One way to determine which of these two cards is the better one for you is to look at where they offer the most cash back – in their rotating spending categories. The 2011 spending categories for each card is as follows:

Chase Freedom

• April – June: Home Improvement, Home Furnishings and Lawn and Garden
• July – September: Gas, Airlines, and Hotels
• October – December: Dining, Department Stores, Movies and Charities

Discover More

• April – June: Home and Fashion
• July – September: Gas, Hotels, Movies and Theme Parks
• October – December: Restaurants and Fashion

As you can see, the cards have some similarities (like offering travel-related bonuses during the busy vacation months of summer) but also have their differences. For example, if you are more likely to spend money on fashion than charity then you would find the Discover More card more appealing.

Redeeming Rewards

Cash Back

Redeeming rewards with both the Freedom and More cards is pretty simple, but don’t forget to do it.  Both Chase and Discover have websites that members log into and request their rewards.  Unlike some rewards cards that automatically credit your card, you have to remember to request these periodically.

If you’re after cash back rewards, Chase does make it a little easier to get your money sooner.  With the Freedom card you can request to be paid your cash back once you’ve accumulated $20 worth. 

Discover More only sends you cash once you’ve hit the $50 mark, although they will send a Discover gift card for $20.  Discover does offer more payment options, they can send the money electronically to your bank account or credit your account. 

Chase is a little more limited, just offering check redemption.  They have a section in their Ultimate Rewards site where you can request a check be mailed out once you have at least $20.

Gift Cards 

Both Chase Freedom and Discover More let you redeem your rewards for gift cards but Discover has the upper hand in terms of the number of places you can get gift cards from and the savings you can get with the cards.  They both label the available merchants as partners but Discover’s options make them seem more like partners.  You can actually buy a gift card worth more than the amount of cash back you have on your More credit card.

For example, we like to eat at Chipotle one of the Discover partner merchants.  If you have $45 of cash back earned on your More card, you can buy a Chipotle gift card worth $50 – a nice boost to your rewards.  In addition to this bonus, Discover also has more merchant partners in most every category than Chase.  In our case, since Chipotle isn’t a partner for the Chase Freedom rewards, we’d have to settle for a restaurant that’s right across the street – Panera.

However, Chase does offer more redemption levels than Discover.  So if we wanted to eat at Panera, we could get a $10 gift card in return for 1,500 points.  You can see in the graphic some example levels, they can differ across merchants.  So you can get a bonus if you wait longer to get the gift card with Discover but Chase allows you to use your points for gift cards sooner.

Other Rewards

Although Discover More really does offer “more” in terms of gift card choices and bonuses, the Chase Freedom card actually gives you access to more rewards.  The points you earn with the Freedom card can be used in the Ultimate Rewards program, which has a lot of options.

Of course if you’re looking for a cash back card, like these two, then you might not care as much about the rewards options other than cash.

Card Payments

Neither one of these cards will let you earn cash back on your purchases if you haven’t paid your credit card bill.  Not only do you not earn rewards for periods when you don’t pay, you also can’t redeem rewards earned in the past when your account is delinquent.

The good thing is that your existing rewards don’t expire with either card so even if it takes a while for you to get back on track the rewards will still be there to claim.  Although the points don’t expire, if you request a redemption check and don’t cash it in time the check can expire.

One thing to consider in terms of payments is that the Freedom card participates in the Chase Blueprint program which can give you a variety of options when it comes to paying down and paying off your card balance. 

Promotional Deals

Both of these credit cards have offered promotional deals for new card members – ranging from a $25 bonus up to a $100 bonus. The criteria usually say that you have to use the card for a certain dollar amount in the first few months to be eligible for the bonus.  For example, they might give you $100 cash back if you spend $500 on purchases in the first month.

APR and Annual Fee

Both cards offer a 0% intro APR for balance transfers and purchases; see the table below for the length of the zero interest offers. Another bonus is that neither card has an annual fee. The balance transfer and cash advance fees tend to be higher on the Discover More card than the Chase Freedom card. However, Discover does occasionally run promotions where there is no balance transfer fee, for example, the Discover More – No Balance Transfer Fee card.

Conclusion

As you can see, these two cards are comparable in some areas to one another. Chase Freedom offers a more straightforward cash back policy and generally has a lower rate on balance transfers and cash advances. However, Discover More may offer more cash back on purchases made online and has better gift card redemption options. Either of these cards would make a solid cash back card for the discerning customer.  Be sure look carefully at their rotating spending categories and redemption options to help you make a final decision. 

College students are notorious for having problems with either no credit or bad credit. However, that’s not the case for all college students. Some students start young with establishing good credit and they should be rewarded for their efforts. That’s what the Discover Student Card is all about – rewarding college students who have established good credit by offering them cash back rewards.

How Cash is Earned: The number one reason that a student would opt to get the Discover Student Card is for the purpose of earning cash back rewards. Here’s how those rewards work:

• 0.25% cash back on all standard purchases up to $3000 annually
• 1% cash back on all standard purchases after the $3000 annual minimum has been met
• 5% cash back on rotating purchase categories including things students spend money on most like gas and groceries
• 5% – 20% cash back when shopping online with select merchants

Many young credit card users make the mistake of getting rewards credit cards that have a lot of limitations. However, the financially savvy student with good credit isn’t likely to make that mistake. The Discover Student Card stands up to the discerning eye of such a smart student by offering rewards that have no expiration date and no limits in the amount that can be earned annually.

Redeeming Rewards: Since the Discover Student Card is a cash back rewards card the best option for redeeming rewards is to get cash either in the form of a statement credit on the account or as a direct deposit into your personal bank account. Cash can be redeemed in increments of $50. If you want to start cashing in on your rewards before you’ve earned $50, you can opt to redeem your rewards for gift cards or merchandise starting at $20. If you happen to be a student with a passion for a specific cause then you can also donate your rewards to charity starting at $20.

Additional Discover® Student Card Benefits: What other perks are available to the student who opts to get this cash back credit card? Believe it or not this card has extensive perks even though it’s designed for students. These perks include car rental insurance, air travel accident insurance and fraud protection.

No Annual Fee: Unlike some other cash back rewards cards with lots of perks, the Discover® Student Card does not have an annual fee.

0% Introductory APR: This cash back student rewards card offers a 0% introductory APR on purchases after the account has been opened.  After the introductory period ends, the ongoing APR is reasonable in the market, with lower rates for the students with the best credit scores. See the chart below for exact APR details.

Conclusion: The Discover Student Card is designed for students that want to be rewarded for their efforts to establish and maintain good credit. The better your credit, the lower your ongoing APR with this card. More importantly, once you have this card you can take advantage of cash back rewards and other perks without paying an annual fee.

Are you looking for a travel rewards credit card that allows you to rapidly earn a large number of miles? That’s exactly what the Escape by Discover credit card is designed for. With the ability to earn 25,000 free miles in the first two years, this card provides ample opportunity to indulge your travel bug.

Escape by Discover® Fees

Let’s get this out of the way first; Escape by Discover does have an annual fee. However, the fee is only $60, which is pretty much par for the course in the market among travel rewards credit cards that charge an annual fee.   If a card with no annual fee is an important criteria for you then you might consider the Discover Miles card.   Discover Miles doesn’t have as much to offer in terms of rewards and perks but it doesn’t have an annual fee.

Escape by Discover® Rewards

No one likes paying an annual fee on a card but this one could be worth it if you cash in on the variety of rewards that the card offers. This is a travel rewards card that allows you to earn miles towards flights.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the rewards program is is that you can easily earn 25,000 bonus miles in the first two years of opening your account. That’s because you receive 1,000 bonus miles every single month for the first 25 months as long as you make at least one purchase on the card.

If you setup one of your automatic monthly bills to pay from this account, you’ll easily be earning those bonus miles. In addition to your bonus miles, you’ll be able to regularly earn miles on this card because you get 2 miles for every $1 that you spend. Many travel rewards cards only offer 1 mile per $1 so the Escape card gives you double the standard rewards offer.

Another good feature of the card is that there are virtually no restrictions on redeeming your miles. You can use them to fly on any airline with no blackout dates. There are no limits or expiration dates on the miles that you earn. And you can also choose to redeem the miles for hotels, rental cars, cruises, gift cards or merchandise instead of just for flights. In other words, it’s easy to earn rewards on this card and easy to redeem them as well.

This is something we’ve talked about before with the Blue Sky and Discover Miles card, having a card independent of a specific airline can insulate you a little from blackout dates.

Benefits of Escape by Discover

The travel rewards are probably the main reason that you’d look at this credit card – however, the card does have some other perks.

Balance Transfers

Escape offers a 0% APR on balance transfers and purchases after opening an account. The ongoing APR is competitive with better rates for customers with good credit (see the chart below for current rates and terms).  Because it does offer good intro rates for balance transfers it could be used as a short-term balance transfer credit card in addition to its function as a travel rewards credit card.  Just don’t forget that you pay a balance transfer fee and that it can take a few weeks to get your money.

Travel Perks

Since Escape by Discover is a travel rewards card, it makes sense that it also offers a number of ongoing travel perks. These perks include insurance coverage for a variety of troubles that you may encounter during travel such as lost luggage and travel delay costs. The card offers rental car insurance so you may not need additional insurance when you rent a car. Plus this card offers travel cancellation coverage in case something comes up and you need to be reimbursed for a trip that you can’t take after all. Basically you probably won’t worry as much during your travels when you use this card to book your trip.

Conclusion

Although Escape by Discover® does have an annual fee, it’s not outrageously high. Unlike many credit cards, that fee is unfortunately not waived during the first year of having the card. However, the card has a lot of potential to make that fee worth your while with easy-to-earn bonus miles and double earning points. If you use your card regularly, travel regularly and want to take advantage of restriction-free travel rewards then this card could be right for you.  

The Discover Student Card has one of the best cash back plans of any rewards card out there: 5% cash back at select merchants.  Most other rewards cards offer 2% cash back at most.  Cardholders can also double rebate points by trading them in for gift certificates or gift cards.  The card also has a lower APR than other credit cards for students.

Rebate Plan: In addition to 5% cash back for purchases at a number of different outlets, such as Office Depot, Lowes, the Gap, Marshall’s, Pier 1 Imports, and a host of other locations, the Discover Student Card has a tiered approach to cash rebates.  A 1% rebate on all purchases kicks in after the first $3000 in purchases.  Up until that point, cardholders will get .25% for the first $1500 spent on the card and .50% for the second $1500.  Cardholders can earn up to $500 in rebates a year.  To calculate that out: .25% of $1500 is $375, so the card would not be maxed out after the first $1500.

Double Cash Back Bonuses: One of the best features of the card is double cash back bonuses.  Cardholders can exchange rebates for gift cards at 60 different select merchants.  This averages out to 2% cash back for purchases – a very generous rate.  The best way to use the card is to cash in small amounts of rebates.  So, for example, if you have $20 in rebates built up after a small number of purchase, you can trade these in for a $40 gift card.  Select merchants include:

Shop Discover: The Discover Student Card is eligible for increased discounts at merchant partners that can be accessed from Discover’s website.  A number of these merchants are perfectly suited for student purchases: such as 7% cash back at Barnes and Noble or a 5% discount at Overstock.com.  Purchases at discount outlets earn an additional .25% cash back.

APR and Annual Fee: In addition to the above bonuses, the Discover Student Card has a lower APR than most other student cards – which usually have a steep APR.  There is also no annual fee for the card and a two-cycle average for determining balance.

Conclusion: Usually a card that has minimum payments before starting a cash rebate program is not all that positive.  The value of the Discover Student Card is not necessarily in the cash back percentages, but how each cardholder chooses to use the card.  If a cardholder never spends money at merchant partners, the cash back program is not all that impressive.  However, if the student adeptly makes purchases from affiliated merchants and trades in cash rewards for double rewards, the card is highly competitive when measured against other student cards.

The Discover Motiva credit card is a unique rewards-based credit card that combines a low introductory APR, rebate points, and a unique pay-on-time bonus if you pay your bills on time for six months straight. That can motivate you to avoid late payment fees while earning rewards. The card has other benefits as well, not the least of which is the fact that there is no annual fee for this card.

Rebate Percentages
The Motiva also has a unique formula for rebate percentages. Instead of a point-per-dollar for every dollar spent, as is common with nearly all rewards cards, the Motiva’s rebates are based on annual purchases. For the first $1500 in spending, you will earn .25% back. After $1500, you’ll receive .50% back and 1% back on all purchases over $3000. What this means is that you don’t have to be a huge spender to receive ample rewards. However it also means that you’ll see a boost in rewards as you begin to spend more on the card throughout the year. It’s a win-win bonus rewards situation.

Double Rebates
Along with general rebates, cardholders can double the amount of rebates by exchanging them for merchant-partner gift certificates. The Discover Motiva Card is teamed up with such partners as Bennigan’s, Chili’s, Red Lobster, Blockbuster, Bed Bath and Beyond, Staples, Pep Boys, and a long list of other outlets with names that you’ll recognize. Unlike some other rewards cards that have minimal partnerships, the Motiva card has partnerships at locations you’re more than likely to find in your town. In addition, Discover gives a 5%-25% cashback bonus at Discover’s own online shopping site. You save more when shopping with these places which is great if you already shop with such big brands.

The On Time Rewards
When you pay your Motiva credit card bill on time for six months in a row, you’ll receive an additional bonus of the card’s current finance charges. This benefit never goes away. Put simply, cardholders can expect to get back interest payments twice a year when bills are paid on time. Hopefully you are paying your bills on time anyway so you won’t have to do anything different to get these extra rewards. As many people carry a balance on their credit cards, this extra bonus twice a year makes the Motiva card very attractive to cardholders who don’t spend a huge amount on credit but carry a balance.

Other Discover Card Features
For a card with a unique rebate plan, you might think that the card makes up the difference with fees. You’d be wrong. The Discover Motiva card has no annual fee. You don’t have to pay anything to get something back with this card. Like other Discover cards, the Motiva has other benefits, such as travel insurance, car rental insurance, and the ability to change the bill due date to the same date as other bills or credit cards. It offers protection and convenience all in one rewards credit card. It is also important to note that this card often has a low introductory APR on both purchases and balance transfers; see the table below for additional information on current rates.

Conclusion

If you play your cards right, there are a lot of advantages with this card when compared to other cash back cards. You’ll be able to get discounts at the Discover store, along with rebates, which you can then trade in for merchant gift certificates. To top it off, you’ll receive interest payments back twice a year on the above payments – this can also help ensure timely payments, aiding a personal credit rating and guaranteeing that you won’t have to pay late fees. Since there is no annual fee on this credit card you’re getting a lot of bonuses without paying a price.