Discover Q1 2024 5% Categories: Restaurants and Drugstores

Discover has released their rotating 5% categories for the first quarter of 2024:

  • Restaurants
  • Drugstores

Not the most exciting categories.
    William Charles
  • On November 30, 2023, 16:09

View Comments (51)

  • Heads up to any banks monitoring this website and considering potential quarterly offers: any card that will offer 5% back on Apple Pay and other mobile payments will receive top priority.

  • Nice, I can give my Citi CustomCash a break for restaurants and put that towards 5% gas.

    • Except that you have to wait until the CustomCash statement rolls over, because its timing is for most people different than the quarter-change-date (Jan 1, Apr 1, etc). And you only get one category at 5x on CustomCash per billing cycle. So you either have to stop using it for restaurants early, or wait until the next statement cycle to start using it for gas.

    • Unfortunately, that wouldn't work for me because I almost always fill up at Costco, and Citi Custom Cash is an MC :-(

    • Think they caught on to how they get free publicity on websites and youtube if they release it quarter year compared to a couple of years ago when the whole calendar got released. Personally say it disincentivizes if you do not know the whole calendar to sign up with the cash back match and all.

  • Already got Amex gold.... 4X MR in restaurants should be more valuable than 5-6 (redeeming gift cards) % cash back.

      • If $20 of monthly credits is used ($10 uber & $10 Grubhub etc) then the card is only $10 to keep.
        Then spend additional $250 a year in restaurant / supermarket category to breakeven.

        • Well you're giving 100% valuation to the Uber and Grubhub credits, and that's far too generous.

          Even if you do only pickup orders, there are still many places that charge an inflated price on those two platforms. At best, the $240 credits should be valued at 70%, and that's being extremely generous. So that makes the "real" AF $250 - $240 x 0.7 = $82

          Now of course the $1,000,000 question is whether the $82 AF is worth keeping the card. IMHO unless you consistently get a 20k MR retention offer every 2 years (10k MR per year), the answer is a resounding NO.
          '
          Full disclosure: I follow a very simple rule of thumb: if net AF > usable benefits, there is absolutely no point in keeping the card, as "ROI" is negative

          • I take out from local rest. (Upstate ny) we pick it up in person. No middleman or inflated prices. Same price in rest or p/u.

          • Just because many places doesn't mean that all places do. You should check the INDIVIDUAL place, not do a blank 70% valuation. I've definitely seen some places where the prices on UberEats or GrubHub are exactly the same as online ordering through the restaurant's website.

            Many restaurants simply charge differently for online ordering, no matter how those orders are done, than for in-person orders. So you have to compare online orders through the restaurant directly with orders through UberEats or GrubHub/Seamless.

            And the other thing is, does it makes sense to compare to what you would pay at the restaurant if you would never go there without an UberEats or GrubHub/Seamless credit, or should you compare it to where you would have gone ELSEWHERE if you hadn't had that credit to use.

            So it's MUCH MORE COMPLICATED than one single value.

          • I feel like you ignored one very important thing here: when I do pickup orders, I'd like to actually you know, ENJOY my meal. Ordering from a restaurant for the singular reason that they don't upcharge is a fool's game. At that point, much better to just cancel the card, because your returns are negative.

          • I DO order from restaurants where I enjoy the meal. That's why I often re-order from the same restaurant, which only gives me a $1 markup at GrubHub on a nearly $20 item.

            I check whether and how much they markup only for long-term reasons, like frequent re-ordering. If they markup 50%, I might look for a different restaurant that I'd like just as much. But if they only markup 5% like this one, since I like the meal so much, I keep re-ordering.

          • As my sister's husband says, "Are we eating here because we like it, or because we have a coupon?"

          • You're going to have a harder time finding a restaurant that DOESN'T upcharge you in these apps. 70% valuation is a bit aggressive, but anywhere from 5-20% upcharge is common, so 80-95% valuation.

            The problem is a lot of people get the Gold and then START using the services while still claiming 100% credit valuation, which just isn't true. They end up spending more via these services, potentially changing their behaviors entirely, and using these services even more frequently, thereby increasing their overall dining spend.

            All this is done to justify the shiny metal card that gives a super high earning rate on food, when in reality the Citi Premier or Capital One Savor One would be a better deal for low and moderate spenders. Very easy trap to fall into

          • Well, the restaurant I order pickup from most often only has a 5% upcharge at GrubHub: $19.99 at GrubHub for the combo I buy which is $18.99 on the restaurant's website. How big a deal is 95%?

            Meanwhile, GrubHub has an offer on that same restaurant, which I don't see on the restaurant's website, for $8 off for $80 total orders at the restaurant, and yesterday it just triggered that credit, presumably on my 5th order since that offer went into effect. It only took 5 orders at just under $20 before tax to trigger that, so for those 5 orders at least, I made more in GrubHub credit ($8 for 5 orders) than I lost ($5 for 5 orders) in GrubHub markup!

            So like I said, it's complicated, even with a single restaurant, it's not going to be a single value if promotions sometimes come into play only at GrubHub but not the restaurant's website.

          • DING DING DING DING DING

            What people need to realize/understand is, you're PREPAID for the credits via the AF, and so you're doing your best to not go under, and not actually gaining any net credits.

            And in doing so, some people fall into the trap of spaving, others change their habits entirely, and many others end up wasting time and energy trying to figure out ways to break even -- I've a friend who sells two Dell monitors a year just to recoup the Dell credits on the biz plat LOL

          • Very true valuations on the GH and Uber, but I am able to buy MC GCs and convert them to MOs, at least 12k a year (48k points) with a acquisition cost of about $125 a year. So a net of $523 (x2 with P2).

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