Discover has released their rotating 5% categories for the second quarter of 2024, up to $1,500 in purchases:
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Will this for public transportation in Japan? Have a trip coming up.
Prolly but you’d prolly be better off with a card without foreign transaction fees
Discover doesn’t have foreign transaction fees.
Nope. Unfortunately not. The very next line in the terms (that wasn’t copy and pasted over into the article) states:
”Purchases must be made with merchants in the U.S.”
Almost all (or maybe actually all) of Discover’s rotating category offers will have the “with merchants in the U.S.” language.
Since you are a tourist coming over to Japan, you might want to look into the rail passes that are exclusive to foreign tourists. If you plan on traveling often and great distances, an all-you-can-travel type rail pass could be a tremendous savings for you.
Although if you are going to simply be spending all of your time in one city or so (and/or only for a few days), you maybe wouldn’t get enough value out of a rail pass. In that case paying normally might be the better option.
Edit: Opps. I replied to myself instead of to Josh, lol.
This is bad advice.
Rail passes (JR Pass) in Japan are ridiculously expensive and overpriced. You’re also only limited to the Hikari trains (Tokyo region) which are the 2nd fastest. Instead of doing what Stan suggests, register on the Smart EX website (managed by JR) and register your Discover credit card (accepted, many US cards won’t be accepted), and then book all the Nozomi (fastest) trains you like. If you book 3- 21- or 28- days advance, while you’re booking you’ll see something called “Hayatoku” (For instance, Hayatoku-3-wide NOZOMI) which are discounted fares. So if you know when you’re traveling you can save an extra 20%. Better than the 3% you’ll get from some credit card.
That’s a little bit harsh, lol. (Even naming yourself “Better Advice” of all things, lol.)
I did caveat my advice by saying “if you travel often and great distances” and if not “you maybe wouldn’t get enough value out a rail pass”. I think I was being fairly-clear in what circumstances it would be a good/bad idea. I guess I could have been more clear. But, sure. Okay. Yours is better advice, Better Advice-san.
You could have been a little bit more polite about it though. Although I understand the DoC comments section isn’t exactly the place to go for politeness, haha.
Looks like my Citi Custom Cash and Discover It are swapping places. This quarter Discover has restaurants and I’ve been using CC for home improvement. Nice to see that the rotating category cards generally include gas and EV charging together these days. However, public charging spend is low for most EV drivers unless road tripping.
*cries in apartment living*
I like the EV charging and Home Improvement Stores.
My Home Depot has gift cards to plenty of other stores. This likely extends the 5% off to a restaurant or grocery store via buying a gift card for 5% off at Home Depot.
(of course not applicable if you have another current card with rewards for grocery or restaurants >= 5%)
In Jan, i finally closed my 8 years old discover account.. No longer used it for anything.. Have specific cards for year round use in specific categories making the rotation thing useless and inconvenience
The point?
I have specific cards for pretty much everything but once in awhile the categories or promos will put Discover back in my wallet.
Frey said it pretty much right but 5% off at Home Depot isn’t a regular recurring discount at cards I have, have had, or will have. Being a DIYer I’ll be stocking up on gift cards. IIRC max benefit is on $750 purchases = $37.5 return.
Correction, 5% on $1500 in purchases.
$1500
I hate HD or Lowe’s gift card, especially when your order get canceled or you have to return something. You can get 5% back up to $500 per billing statement with citi custom cash.
I’ve a Citi best buy credit card which lets me select home improvement stores for 5% cash back year round .. similarly usbank card lets me select home utilities bill pay for 5% cash back year round .. for online shopping amex card gives me 3% cash back year round and a PNC card gives me 4% cash back on gas year round .. amex blue gives me 6% on groceries and streaming services year round .. The difference is way less to keep switching cards every quarter
We were using the Amex 6% back card for groceries. But, after factoring in the annual fee, it actually comes out to less than 5% back. We couldn’t find enough good deals to offset the fee. Now we use the 5% Citi Custom Cash and rotating 5% categories on Chase and Discover.
Just wanted to flag the AAA credit card for 5% back on up to $10K of groceries as another option in case some folks hadn’t heard of it yet.
https://www.ace.aaa.com/financial/aaa-credit-card/daily-advantage-card.html
How good are they with the categories? Looks like the AAA card only lists groceries though locally that would be very few and far stores. Does it include supermarkets such as Meijer (they do have one grocery “market store” format around though parking is a hassle in that one and only regional of that location plus you can not do curbside – the rest are in the area are considered supermarkets and can do curbside and have more regular parking).
I got the morgan stanley amex blue.. First year fee was waived and i got $300 bonus after 2k spend.. So for me this card is fee free for 4 years and the 6% cashback adds up so quickly I made $300 in last calendar year
Lowes card 5% back
Should have held onto it and asked for a retention offer. Surprisingly they have them. They gave me 3% bonus ontop of the 5% for up to $2,500 in spend. Did this during the mobile wallet quarter
It is 1500 and not 2500 on discover quarter spendings.. With my us bank altitude reserve i get 4.5% cash back year round with no limits for mobile wallet
Congrats on lowering your credit score
Yeah, I’m not sure why anyone would close a no-fee oldish credit card.
Seriously.
Its not like it’s taking a lot of effort to manage. On the other hand, some folks just struggle to manage as is, let alone manage with a credit card.
It is not about managing is an effort.. Point is my other cards give me the same benefits year round which discover gives me only one quarter per year
Someone who don’t use it and don’t intend to use it in future
That’s mumbo jumbo.
It will remain on their FICO AAoA for 10 years. By then I’m sure their other cards will have aged for a minimal if any score impact.
Correct.. Congratulations are in order.. My score went up by 2 points
I mostly keep mine open in the rare event I might find the category useful, but it also nets me $24 a year in small balance wavers (I charge $2 to it each month)
I used to do it for apple icloud 50GB until I blew my storage and now subscribing their 200gb plan which is $3 🙁
i sometimes see people mention this, can you fill me in, how this actually works please.
See this post: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/small-balance-waiver-a-k-a-lots-of-free-99-cent-amazon-gcs/.
Lol. What’s the point of closing a no-fee credit card? Just lock it or shred it if you’re concerned about it being compromised or something. You’re just lowering your credit score and overall credit limit.
LOL
I’m not concerned abt compromising the card.. Discover is very good with tracking suspicious transactions and saved me $30 in past.. My credit score went up by 2 points.. Point is it is useless to me and maybe after 24 months I might be eligible for new account offer which doubles ur cashback at end of first year
You can open a new Discover card every year,
SleepyScroller.
Do you close 1 of your 2 cards (assuming that you have 2) every year and then apply for a new one? How many have you received bonuses for in total?
I am managing my credit score and hard pulls for a couple of other cards I would like to get, so I have not applied for a new Discover recently. I only have two and I’m not sure how many you can get in total. I bookmarked these discussions (go to my comment, because I’m going to add several links):
https://new.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/165pam6/discover_it_second_card_one_year_later/
https://new.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/mnsc0p/reminder_you_can_get_two_discover_its/
https://new.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/ee0y2i/second_discover_it_5_card/
https://new.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/vrgiet/still_possible_to_get_2_discover_it_cards/
https://new.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/p03xpc/you_can_get_two_discover_it_cards/
I saw your reply by email but it didn’t end up appearing on the site so I couldn’t reply directly to it. Did the comment end up going to moderation?
Anyway, I don’t actually have any interest in closing either of my accounts at this time as I get decent value from them. I was more curious than anything.
Yup. I added five Reddit links – almost certainly went to Spam. I don’t know if this comment will even go through. The gist was that I have only two Discover cards. I am managing my credit score and hard pulls for a couple of other cards which I am interested in applying. I am not sure how many Discover cards one can get, but I think it is only two.
Eric 🔗
That’s odd. I only saw 1 Reddit link in the email version. Did you add the other 4 links with an edit? If so, that would explain why it went to Spam.
As far as I know, 2 is the limit to hold at one time.
I actually applied for my 2nd Discover when the Apple Pay deal came out years ago. Did you participate in that?
Yes, I added additional links via edit => spam.
Yeah, I think two is the limit (but I’m not sure).
No, I didn’t do the Apple Pay deal. I applied the first time without even using a referral. Dumb, I know. That was before my DoC/churning days.
Not sure why people are so upset about you choosing to close YOUR card. I’m considering closing one of my 8 yo cards bc I’m looking to simplify my finances/life. That’s a good enough reason.
DoC comments gonna DoC comment
Didn’t think my one comment will be so controversial
I think you’re projecting. No one is upset. If you’re going to post that in a public space, you’re open to criticism. It’s a trash reason to close a card with no fees.
What is trash reason? I’ve no scenario to use it.. And switching primary cards to use every quarter is a big annoyance to me.. And i overcame it by getting cards which gets me similar cash back year round.. Guess u r still novice in cc churning and only use fee free cards
I’ve kept mine open, but I also struggle to find a use for my Discover It since I now get 5% cash back (or more) in most categories year around. I find myself hoping that the Capital One merger will go through and that the merged entity will refresh this card or at least offer good alternatives to product change it into.
5% on Amazon 1x a year is good enough for me to keep my discover card active. That’s a few iPads shipped to one of the buying groups and the cashback is mine to keep. +5% more if you choose an Amazon GC as the cashout option.
I spent more effort just typing this here, than I do getting that 5% back back with a few purchases on Amazon once a year.
You sell iPads you bought on Amazon and break even or better? Are you in a no-sales-tax state? About all I use Discover for is the Q4 Target category in combination with the 10% off deal on Target gift cards.
Discover’s 2023 Q3 digital wallet category, which was 10% for first-year Discover cardholders, made for some incredible deals.
Lol.. I use amex 3% cashback year round to buy and sell to those buying groups year round
Just wanted to mention the Affinity Federal Credit Union credit card with 5% back on up to $1000 per month at Amazon year round (included in bookstore category) in case some folks might not have heard about it:
https://www.affinityfcu.com/personal-banking/banking/credit-card/cash-rewards-visa
Good for you for ruining your credit history. Congrats idiot!
My score went up by 2 points, idiot
Last time I closed a free cc my credit score dropped 300 points, the bank foreclosed on my house, I had to sell a kidney to pay for food, and now the only job I can find is barenuckle boxing under a bridge.
Discover recently sent out a targeted offer of 5% cashback on anything, up to $2,000 for Q1. That’s reason enough for me to use it on everything I don’t already have 5% cashback, especially insurance.
[Targeted] Discover Card: Get 4% Extra Cashback On Up To $2,000 In Spend
Firstly i never received it.. Secondly my home insurance gets paid via escrow and auto insurance gets paid every 6months gets deducted ACH as my auto insurance agent applied some code which gets me lower premium on ach as compared to credit card payment so cashback can’t cover that difference
I have the 4% promo… That’s 9% on gas. Going back in wallet now.
Lucky you.. I never got such promos
I from time to time call in. (don’t ask for promos – just ask for customer service twice on the automated system) then when you get an agent / account manager ask about promotions and they will transfer you to that team. Usually I have gotten extra 3% on up-to $1,500 spend in 6 months. Have seen others get offers that spend in 3 months or up-to $3,000 spend. Also have gotten $10 no spend for taking time to check for offers when there where none available. A few times I have gotten nothing though being in this community I try fairly often. They sometimes have additional offer that is not shown to you. Usually take less than five minutes call.
It’s a free personal card. No point to close.
Closing it will probably make me eligible for their new account promo
Discover is once in a lifetime bonus for its products.
Unless something has changed, that is not accurate. I have 2 Discover cards and received a bonus on each. Are you thinking of Discover bank bonuses, which do have lifetime language?
Have heard of people churning the Miles card. Closing it down and opening a new account and getting with the cash back match unlimited 3%. Though like Eric said unless something has changed on the credit side.
I love the (almost) yearly 12 month 0% APR that I get by a couple of minutes chat.
By God’s grace my finances are in order that I don’t usually need them and also I always put that money in stock market and greed gets better of me so I try to stay away from 0% apr unless a new card gives it by default the first year
You can leverage the 0%. I’ve been doing it with Chase Ink Cards for months. Filled up some high interest savings accounts.
Which banks or cu accounts would u suggest
OnPath FCU 7% on checking up to $10K. DCU is 6% only up to $1K though.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/
This is one of my favorite features. If you understand how to leverage the 0% you can make money. I have two Discover cards and both get 0% yearly for the last three or so years.
Last I knew you can churn accounts so you can open a new account and get the cash back match. Have heard of one churning the Miles card for unlimited 3%. Another said they had two 5% IT cards. They do however limit you to two active cards at one time.