Discover has released their Q1 2016 category and it’s good news: Gas and Ground Transportation.
Get 5% back on up to $1500 of gas purchases made during January, February, and March of 2016. For those who are enrolled in the double-cashback offer from Discover, that means 10%.
10% is very good for gas. You can also pay for other ground transportation which probably means things like Amtrak or  Greyhound, and possibly taxis, subways, or Uber.
And, of course, you can max out the $1500 by purchasing gift cards at gas stations. I don’t always max out the 5% gas category since I don’t have a convenient gas station to deal with, but at 10% – I’m a buyer. I’ll make sure to work it out somehow.
We still don’t know what the rest of the year from Discover will look like, nor do we have the Freedom or Dividend categories yet.
HT: milestomemories
Does EasypayXpress Metro card plan count as 5%? The transaction shows that NYCT EASYPAY PROGRAM. I am not sure its category.But it’s for the subway and bus.
Does Ground Transportation include tolls?
normally, gas purchase means paid at the pump (at least for our visa cc). if you go and pay inside (7-11, convenience stores, etc), it’s coded differently. not sure if discover includes in-store gas station purchases…..
Which Visa cc do you have? My Chase Freedom included purchases inside of gas stations for the 5%.
Last year, ground transportation included Local & Suburban Public Transportation. So this could be a money-maker for people who commute via an expensive bus or train to work.
If Q1 on Freedom includes Gas I think I’d rather take a guaranteed 5X UR than MAYBE getting 5% Discover and MAYBE getting that doubled someday. Perhaps if I max out the Freedoms I’ll put actual gas spend on Discover but that won’t be very much if anything. Assuming I even remember to dig the card out the drawer.
Damn, why the Discover hate?
simple, Glenn, cuz Discover has had a series of bloggers (e.g frequent miler) hawking its glories for months, even as the DD portal and the cash-back are realms of immense uncertainty.
Nothing “hateful” about it. In concept, sure, Discover looks very promising…. and yes, for next quarter, I’ll likely buy my gas with the discover card. (Can they screw that up too?) Simple fact (one I too much lament) is that Discover’s tracking process is a crap shoot…. your transactions via discover MIGHT get the various promos promised, or they might not…. and that’s even if you use their card, via their portal….
Discover needs to clean up their act. (and those bloggers who have been pushing them to hard need to be a little more candid about just how poorly/maddening the Discover tracking process is — compared to the competitors)
Discover claims they get #1 on customer satisfaction surveys. Nobody ever surveyed me. (and when they do, no doubt discover’s survey company will find a way to null out my response)
How can I know that Discover won’t find out that I spend $504.95 at gas station? I doubt if Discover will honor the cash back of any order of more than $500.
In the past they did for 7-11 before they shut down credit as an option for VGCs. This AP fiasco may have them on alert now. Then again their exposure here is much less and options for buying are limited at gas stations. Max $1500 per card and most gas stations don’t sell high dollar VGC’s and won’t accept credit even if they do.
Parkerthon is right on the money. This is a much more difficult category to exploit given the relative difficulty of buying GCs on credit at gas stations and their liability is capped at 10% (maybe 12%? I can’t remember if the quarterly stacks with the normal CB) of $1500. Even assuming it’s 12% of $1500, that’s $180. Much different than the potential $2200 payout for the Apple Pay promotion, which was super easy to take advantage of at WG, etc.
It’s 10% as you don’t earn the normal 1% on 5% items.