Category: Credit Cards

  • Must-Have highest 10% cash back credit card on categories (or 2%) and $50 Bonus

    discover card 23019Discover It Review 2019 – $50 Bonus Referral
    Now’s the best time to apply for a Discover card to earn the extra double cashback your first year! This not only includes double on 5% categories such as dining and gas (which would be 10%) but also double on everything else. You can go here to get a $50 bonus after first purchase plus double cash back. Important: It doesn’t show the $50 bonus at the application page, but rest assured, you will get the $50 bonus since it’s a referral link.

    What does Double Cash Back Mean?
    It means 2% cash back on everyday purchases and a whopping 10% cash back on rotating quarterly categories. You will also receive a $50 cash signup bonus upon approval.

    What’s the Catch?
    Discover It card is one of the most consumer-friendly cards on the market with absolutely no annual fee. They just want to keep you around as a loyal cardholder once you try out the card for a year getting double rewards. Most likely you will because the generous 5% back you’ll be getting for years to come on things such as gas, restaurants, rideshare, and purchases on Amazon will add up.

    5% Cash Back Rewards Categories
    The 5% cash back in select categories such as gas, travel, restaurants, etc, which change throughout the year. You’ll get 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases for each quarter. Anything over the set amount will automatically earn 1%. Here are the Cashback quarterly categories for this 2019 calendar year.

    Quarterly Dates 10% Bonus Category (5% if already a card holder)
    Q1 2019 (Jan. 1 – March 31) Grocery Stores
    Q2 2019 (April 1 – June 30) Gas Stations, Uber, and Lyft
    Q3 2019 (July 1 – Sept. 30) Restaurants
    Q4 2019 (Oct. 1 – Dec. 31) Amazon.com

    All cash back earned from the rotating 5% categories will be doubled in your first year of card ownership, effectively providing 10% cash back.

    Redeeming Your Cash Back
    As you earn cash back, Discover makes it easy to redeem your rewards.

    • Direct Deposit – You can redeem your cash back directly into your bank account.
    • Statement Credit – You can redeem as a credit on your monthly statement.
    • Direct Amazon Purchases – You can purchase items from Amazon and pay using the cash back you have earned.
    • Special Gift Card Redemptions – You can get another 10-25% discount when you redeem your cash back for gift cards from participating retailers through Discover. For example, Discover offers many $25 restaurant gift cards for $20 and offers $30 Staples gift cards for just $25. There are physical and e-gift card options available, and the e-gift options are delivered instantly and available for immediate use.

    Discover it Credit Card Features

    • Fraud Protection – If there are any unknown or wrongful charges on your Discover card, you won’t pay a dime. They take care of everything for you.
    • Free FICO Credit Score – You can now check your real FICO credit score for free each month through your online account, mobile app, or printed monthly statement.
    • Free Credit Monitoring – Free alerts let you know when any new credit card, mortgage, car loan or other account shows up on your Experian® credit report.
    • Free Card Replacement – Receive free overnight shipping when you request a card replacement to any U.S. address.
    • Freeze Your Discover Account – prevent new purchases, cash advances, and balance transfers if your account is compromised. Freeze or unfreeze your account in seconds via the website or mobile app.
    • U.S Based, 24-Hour Customer Support – Call anytime and be able to speak with a real human being. All Discover call centers are in the United States, which means English is the language of choice.

    Discover it Credit Card Fees

    Type of Fee Fee Amount
    Annual Fee $0
    Cash Advance Fee Either $10 or 5% of the amount
    (whichever is greater)
    Balance Transfer Fee 3% of the transfer amount
    Foreign Transaction Fee $0
    First Late Payment $0
    Additional Late Payments up to $37
    Over-the-limit Fee
    (when your purchases exceed your credit limit)
    $0

    Discover it Credit Card Summary

    We have been a strong advocate of Discover Cards since they first appeared and were an innovator of cash back. We’ve earned a significant amount of cash back from the 5% rotating categories over the years and continue to hold two cards each because we normally max out the restaurant category. We have told all of our friends and family to sign up for this card at least for the first year bonus and doubling of rewards.

    The generous cash back, robust features, and excellent fee schedule have made the Discover it Credit Card an outstanding option. If you are interested in applying, you will likely need a credit score greater than 650 to be approved. You can find the complete application and earn a $50 cash bonus when you go here to apply.

    One More Thing
    You will no longer experience the frustration of calling a customer service hotline that you can barely understand with their 100 percent US-based support staff. Many cards outsource their call support to India and such. With no annual fee and a generous cash back rewards program, I personally give the Discover It Card a 5 Stars rating and highly recommend for all my readers to sign-up.

  • Future of all credit cards is Echo

    There are many new apps coming out that work as a credit card the only big problem is that you have to use some type of signal from the card to the register. For instance, the Wallaby app which is basically worthless because it really does not know half of the rewards cards out there nor their current promotions and does not yet have a separate card to use for physical purchases.

    Echo is certainly help to an overstuffed wallet. It can work as a debit, credit, loyalty, and prepaid card. It even works as a student ID and combines all of your rewards cards into one elegant black card. Echo fits neatly into a money clip and keeps you from forgetting your rewards cards at home.

    The average American owns 6 or more payment cards. 13 percent of Americans own 10 or more credit or credit cards. How many do you own? I know I have around 15 in total for rewards and 2 debit cards.

    Echo has a miniaturized computer inside of it that mimics ordinary cards and syncs with your mobile phone. Their mobile app enables you to convert Echo into the card of your choice with the tap of your phone. Once you select a card for echo to mimic, you can swipe Echo as you would any other card.

    This is a really exciting service that will take off once businesses are not freaked out about the potential person using it being a fraudster. It will cost from $80 to $100 but well worth it if you save that amount on rewards cards you left at home on accident. The service and card from Protean should come out sometime later this year!

  • Spring Credit Card Application Party

    It is that time again for a roundup of the credit cards I plan to apply for in the next few days. It has been over three months since the last credit card application party I threw for myself. It really is not a party it is more of a night that I set aside to find the best cards that give me the most benefits or rewards in the upcoming spending season.

    I plan on canceling a Chase Marriott Card that renews with an annual fee and a Starwood Preferred Guest from American Express that also has an annual fee the second year once these apps go through. I have had the Chase Sapphire Card before as a Visa. I am hoping to get that card as a MasterCard this time since it has been a few years and get the bonus offering.

    I have decided to apply for two Barclayscards since they seem to have some of the best offerings right now for immediate gratification of points or miles. One card which is a US Airways card I found with no annual fee gives me 35,000 AAdvantage miles basically before the merger is completed and they get rid of US Airways branded cards. American Airlines will most likely discontinue their relationship with Barclayscard then move the US Airways customers over to a new card with Citi. It could go either way though and both of the banks lose out. They have a longer relationship with Citi so it is best you act on this now. I need all the American AAdvantage miles I can get.

    CitiBusiness card was straightforward when I was approved it was instant and said my card will be in the mail within two weeks. This card is a card I have previously held and churned now but I believe I had the Visa version of it. This will be the MasterCard version and will give me 30,000 AAdvantage miles after I spend $1,000 on anything. I am hoping to use this card to just book rental car travel such as Hertz, Avis, or Budget because it pays 2x on these purchases.
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  • Commerce Bank Rewards Visa Card Cash Back Review

    I signed up for the Commerce Bank Rewards Visa Card just one year ago this week so now that I have paid off my balance I am looking over the reward program. This card started out as a 0% Balance transfer card for 12 months with no fee if done by February 24th of last year. I took advantage of that offer as I do many 0% offers with no transfer fees. These are hard to come by so you have to move fast. There are only a few of them out right now and those are from Chase Slate and possibly this card. It is rare when they come along but they do from time to time.

    The 0% APR was fine I just paid it month to month the minimum payment so I would get no interest or fees then paid off the final amount owed before the last bill was due. The exciting part about this card is when I signed up I thought it might offer some rewards program worth using but you have to accrue interest to the 3x rewards points. You do get 1 point per dollar spent on purchases then 3 points per dollar on interest accrued on monthly balances. Basically this card pays you to spend money at 1 point per dollar then wants you to earn money off of the interest you owe. This can be tricky and something I really do not want to mess with since I pay off my credit cards before they accrue interest each month.

    I did however get a special bonus of 1,500 points in the mail which advertised their new enhanced rewards program. It enabled me to look inside the program and see what reward I could get for 1,500 points. Keep in mind that most rewards programs 1,500 points means you get $15 worth of rewards because it means 1% of %1,500 in purchases.

    However, with this rewards program at Commerce Bank you only get a $5 gift certificate for spending $1,500 which is really not 1% per dollar spent and not worth your time at all. We were also disappointed with the cash back redemption which really takes no effort for the credit card company to do a statement credit. This was 5,000 points redemption at only $25. So you are getting half a percent per dollar spent with this?
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  • Discover to revamp their cards with the Discover IT Card

    The Discover it Card is a “revolutionary” CashBack Bonus rewards card that will be available to both regular consumers and college students. There will be two Discover it™ Cards available to consumers and one for Students. As you can see below the main difference in the two customer cards is the purchase APR and the length of the introductory 0% APR offer from 14 to 18 months. We see no difference in the cash back or the annual fee remaining at zero. We see lots more flexibility compared to older versions or current Discover cards but still no mention of when you can redeem your cash back which is a major problem with Discover. They make you wait until you get to $50 in Cash before you can get a credit statement so we are hoping they change this also to compete with Chase Ultimate Rewards where you can redeem with any amount of points. The 1% cash back on all other purchases with an asterisk may be the only real change we see in this new card besides the IT name and perhaps the design. We will wait to see if they bring out something more “revolutionary” than these bullet points because this so far is nothing THAT or “IT” new.

    he new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards.
    Fair…No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And we won’t increase your APR for paying late.*
    Generous…5% cash back at restaurants and movies right now through March on up to $1,500 in purchases with free and easy sign-up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*
    Plus a Cashback Concierge who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card.
    Flexible…Choose your own due date and pay up to midnight ET online or by phone.
    Human…talk to a real person any time with 100% U.S.-based service.
    Safe…Because you’ll never pay for unauthorized purchases with our $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee.
    0% Intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 14 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% – 20.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.
    Introductory 0% APR Offer: 14 months on purchases and balance transfers.

    Discover it™ Card Discover IT Card
    The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards.
    Fair…No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And we won’t increase your APR for paying late.*
    Generous…5% cash back at restaurants and movies right now through March on up to $1,500 in purchases with free and easy sign-up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*
    Plus a Cashback ConcerigeSM who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card.
    Flexible…Choose your own due date and pay up to midnight ET online or by phone.
    Human…talk to a real person any time with 100% U.S.-based service.
    0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% – 20.99%.*
    0% Intro APR on purchases for 6 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% – 20.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.

    Introductory 0% APR Offer: 18 months on balance transfers and 6 months on purchases
    Regular Purchase APR: 10.99 – 20.99% (V)*
    Annual Fee: $0

    Discover® it for StudentsDiscover IT Card for students

    Marketing Bullets:

    The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards.
    Fair…No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee.
    No late fee on your first late payment. And we won’t increase your APR for paying late.*
    Generous…5% cash back at restaurants and movies right now through March on up to $1,500 in purchases with free and easy sign-up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*
    Plus a Cashback ConcerigeSM who guides a free, personalized online tour to help you get the most rewards for how you use your card.
    Flexible…Choose your own due date and pay up to midnight ET online or by phone.
    Human…talk to a real person any time with 100% U.S.-based service.
    Safe…Because you’ll never pay for unauthorized purchases with our $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee.
    0% Intro APR on purchases for 6 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 12.99% – 18.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.

    Introductory 0% APR:

    6 Months on purchases.

    Regular Purchase APR:

    12.99%- 18.99 V

    Annual Fee:

    $0