This was originally posted on December 2nd, 2017. Discover is now communicating this directly to cardholders on login.
Discover has announced that they will to remove the following credit card benefits after February 28th, 2018:
- Extended Product Warranty
- Return Guarantee
- Purchase Protection
- Auto Rental Insurance
- Flight Accident Insurance
Official Statement
Discover has made the following official statement:
Regarding cardmember benefits changes:
We regularly evaluate our cardmember benefits to ensure that we are meeting or exceeding our cardmembers’ current needs and expectations. We recently notified Discover cardmembers that due to prolonged low usage, effective February 28, 2018, we will discontinue Extended Product Warranty, Return Guarantee, Purchase Protection, Auto Rental Insurance and Flight Accident Insurance.
We will continue to offer and invest in the many free benefits in which Discover cardmembers find the most use and value, including Price Protection, 24/7 account monitoring, our $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee on unauthorized purchases made with a Discover Card, FICO® Credit Scorecard, and our recently launched Social Security Number Alerts, where, for cardmembers who activate, we monitor thousands of risky websites and alert them if their Social Security Number is found.
For more information about these and our many other cardmember benefits, visit Discover.com/benefits.
Our Verdict
In the conversations I’ve had with Discover it seems like the reason they are removing these benefits is that they are under utilized and they want to introduce benefits more cardholders use. Reading between the lines I’d say that the benefits being removed are overused by a small minority of cardholders and they want to replace those with benefits used by a majority of cardholders. I think the biggest loss is probably purchase protection, but that will vary from cardholder to cardholder. Obviously losing benefits like this is never good, but it will be interesting to see what if any benefits Discover will add instead.
Learned this March morning that Discover also removed all car rentals from their cash back e-certificates. Using $20 of cash back I would acquire a $40 off enterprise rental. For me using one of these on a rental was a best value sometimes giving me a car for the day for almost free. According to history, did this 13 times over 24 months. Beat having to go through coupon sites with expired or non-applicable codes & links.
Removing auto rental insurance will put them at a major disadvantage with their competitors… seems like a half-thought-out plan.
And ill stop using my discover card now.
I’m 100% fine with Discover doing this if it protects the viability of their 5% card and other perks like Discover Deals.
That said, cmon Discover, don’t BS us with “low usage.” Just tell us it was not being used as intended by a small percentage of customers and it’s in our and Discovers best interest to provide benefits that benefits everyone.
I’ll continue to use the card as long as they keep the cashover feature even though I hardly ever use it.
Discover will finally have 5% on groceries again in the 2nd quarter of 2018. Not having groceries on the calendar for a few years was ticking me off and I probably wasn’t the only one, so they got their act together.
I went ahead and called Discover about this as well – the agent was very enthusiastic that the higher-ups do read the feedback when people call in about this, so I’d recommend calling in about this as well and make sure to mention which of these benefits matter the most to you.
Personally, I don’t use my Discover for travel with all the better travel cards out there, so in my phone call I focused more on how much I’d miss the Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection benefits. I emphasized that sure, they may not have been used that much, but it’s important that they are available in case you need them.
Wow, this sucks. I recently purchased an expensive laptop using my Discover card because I wanted to have it covered under the extended warranty, “just in case”. I hopefully won’t have to use it, but at least I had some peace of mind knowing I was covered.
They might not have had the most flashy cards, but they had decent cashback and benefits and really good customer service.
Maybe the Price Protection insurance claims were getting too expensive for them so they are trying to cut costs elsewhere? Maybe they’re planning to introduce some new benefits soon? I have no idea.
Your laptop will still be covered
Yeah my laptop purchase is covered because I bought it before the Feb 28th cutoff. Still very surprised they removed these benefits though.
Discover is a good company. I think they genuinely care about their customers and it reflects in their 100% US-based customer service. I got my first credit card in college from Discover. They started me with a $500 CL that today grew to almost 30K. That was 15 years ago. They didn’t jack up my APR over the years “because they can” but it went up/down with the Prime rate. I believe they have always been pioneers in developing new card incentives that people want, with the least gimmicks. I don’t mind the changes, as the cash back is the biggest thing for me. I have and have had cards with every major bank in the U.S. and one thing I can say is Discover plays fair. They are not turning out new exotic cards every few years, they are focused other aspects of business that gives them consistent high ratings.
For me, they are worth keeping.
*They didn’t jack up my APR over the years “because they can” but it went up/down with the Prime rate.*
You’re making a good point. I was kind of out of touch with CC interest rates before applying for a couple of new cards this year. The rates were appalling, so I looked at my older cards to compare them. And, yes, Discover doesn’t up theirs just because they can.
Not that it’s important to me, but it’s still disappointing news and most likely this will be a trend. I mean, the trend is for everything to get worse and worse in every area of our lives, so I don’t expect this change to be an exception.
I love Discover. I’ve had them for 20 years and they have the best, US-based, customer service, hands down! They pick up on first ring even at a location geographically close to you! Haven’t had problems with anybody not accepting Discover in the US for at least 15 years. Granted, it’s likely not accepted abroad, but most people have more than one credit card, so it’s not some enormous hardship.
Discover is just not as competitive as it used to be and I hardly use mine anymore, but I’ll never cancel it. Any time I make a purchase that may have potential iffy consequences, I always use Discover because they stand by you, unlike everybody else. In fact, I even feel a bit guilty “cheating” on Discover for a few more bucks now. When everybody’s cash back was 1%, I used it exclusively.
I have used Discover abroad. I imagine it depends on which country you go to as to how well Discover is accepted.