Discover offers a variety of different credit cards such as the Discover it, Discover it Miles, Discover it Chrome & Discover it Secured. One card that most people aren’t familiar with is the Discover Premium & Discover Premium Plus, these are Discover’s premium product offerings and are only available by invitation. These cards were released in late 2011.
Contents
Discover Premium Benefits
- No pre-set spending limit
- 24/7 live customer service with a team that caters to Premium Plus cardholders
- 24/7 MyConcierge service
Discover Premium Plus Benefits
There is no annual fee on the Discover Premium Plus, which is in keeping with all of the Discover cards which are also no annual fee. It also comes with the following benefits:
- Access to over 350 airline lounges
- MyConcierge Plus (Access to VIP events and special experiences. For example, special seating at events like the Kentucky Derby, sailing events on Lake Michigan and “meet the chef” tours) and also regular Concierge services (e.g booking restaurants)
- Enhancements to existing benefits, for example roadside assistant costs $49.95 instead of $69.95
Requirements
To be eligible for the Premium Plus you need to:
- Spend more than $40,000 within a card member year on your existing Discover it/More card (I don’t believe this upgrade is currently available for Discover it Miles or Chrome cardholders – but both cards have been released within the past twelve months – so it’s possible upgrades will be made available)
Spending $40,000 or more in a single card member year does not guarantee you an invitation though, there are other factors that come into play such as: your credit score, income and presumably your profitability for Discover. The Premium card has a similar, but lower (and unknown but probably $20,000+ – although there is at least one report of somebody being bumped up to Premium with only $5,000 in spend) spending requirement and also no guarantee of an invitation.
Why Does Discover Offer These Increased Benefits?
Discover are able to offer these increased benefits because they charge merchants a higher rate to accept Discover Premium & Discover Premium Plus cards (this is usually the standard with all higher end cards and most merchants are happy to pay these increased fees due to purchases usually being larger and more profitable from these lucrative cardholders).
Helcim shows the following chart:
Final Thoughts
I don’t think the benefits of the Premium Plus warrant spending $40,000 on the card, although I suspect quite a lot of people will hit that spending threshold due to the Double Cash promotion, as earning 2% cash back on base purchases, 10% on rotating categories and double Discover deals is quite a good deal. I don’t think the airport lounge access is completely free, but rather a Priority Pass membership.
If you’ve received an upgrade, then please let us know more about it in the comments below.
DISCOVER, can you please send me a invitation to the Premium Plus card? I love having the Discover card, my credit score is in the high 800 and I make a decent salary. Reading the comments I think I meet the criteria for the card, I’ve spent about 40,000 last year doing upgrades to my home.
Best Regards,
Ed
I agree with Pressley. People don’t realize what a great card company Discover is. I’ve been with them for almost 10 years and it’s been a great relationship. I’ve got a great low APR rate and have managed to raise my limit to a very generous amount in a short period of time. I’ve never had an issue with Discover and they have the best customer service I’ve experienced anywhere. The only thing I’d improve upon is to have Discover bring back the perks we lost a couple of years ago.
I love Discover and choose this card over all the rest hands down including American Express, my Black card and hope they are considering me for this invitation. My credit limit is not at all low and I’ve maxed out the card several times over to pay it off. I am the first to tell all my wealthy friends don’t sleep on DISCOVER!
I don’t see why one would spend that much on the It card. I could see it in year 1 on the Miles card.
“With higher-than-average household incomes and less sensitivity to market fluctuations, premium cardholders perform twice the number of transactions as non-premium.”
http://www.discovernetwork.com/financial-institutions/payment-solutions/solutions.html
I can’t even find a picture of a real Discover Premium Plus card, which you have to admit is a bit weird, right? Even the Octave or the Palladium or whatever cards have been photographed.
It seems you just get a letter saying that you are now a Premium Plus member. You don’t get a new credit card. It all stays the same, except the benefits.
Oh OK. Since the article starts with “these cards were released in 2011” thet sounded like cards instead of a status level. Makes more sense.Do we know how long stays at the tier if they don’t continue that heavy spending?
Meh. MyConcierge Plus is about only thing that looks interesting. Everything else has little to no value really.
Spending $40,000 would be a challenge based on Discover’s issued credit limits alone!
LOl. Exactly.
Have a 18k credit limit with them.
Discover must have seen my comment here. I just got an email that they’ve increased my limit!
Not at all my Discover It credit limit is $36000.00