Today Discover has added the ability for Discover it Miles cardholders to redeem points against gas & restaurant purchase charges, this is in addition to already being able to redeem points against travel charges. This is more or less a useless addition as you can already redeem points for cash back.
Some people like the process off applying points against specific charges as it makes those charges feel ‘free’ and you can see the real utility of your points. Would be cool if Discover offered a small bonus for redeeming against these charges, but I don’t see that ever happening.
Hat tip to reader arch & FM
No only have they have been reducing the gift cards they offer ( CVS is gone for example), they have been reducing the discounts. For example, staples used to be $25 for $20 about a year ago and is now $21.25. for $25. A $30 is $25.5. Just a little while ago it was $25.
I loved the note “useless addition” added to the title, gives me an incentive to not read it, and write this thank you post instead 🙂
Please keep adding these and/or other notes to your posts.
Can someone please tell me why anyone wants to redeem points on purchases without any incentives?
Also, why anyone wants to use points to buy gift cards without any discounts on Chase or Discover?
Almost every gift card is discounted on Discover though
I suppose this is directed at those customers who carry a balance on their accounts, need to pay interest and have a general mentality to use the points to make further purchases than try to pay off their account.
You could get it transferred to bank account, but it’ll take a few days to post and it’s not as exciting as having immediate “free money” to spend.
Didn’t Chase just do an addition to their Freedom cards? Maybe it’s supposed to compete against that?
I have so much built up in my account, I’ve started using it for statement credits anyway for Discover IT. I agree though that it’d be nice if they had some sort of incentive.
The gift cards are 10% off. Just buy ones you’ll use.
Problem is you never know which companies might go under. Case in point – I have a bunch of discounted Regal GCs that I haven’t been able to use for 4 months now and who knows if I’ll ever be able to use them.