Discover has quietly announced a new benefit for new (after July 23rd, 2015) Discover it for Students & Discover it Chrome for Students cardholders called “Good Grades Cash Back”. If your grade point average is 3.0 or higher each year you’re enrolled in school, you’ll receive a $20 bonus (for a maximum of five years). This is in addition to the rewards programs each of these cards currently offer:
Discover it Student (same rewards structure as regular Discover it card):
- 5% cash back on rotating categories
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
- Free FICO score
Discover it Chrome for Students (same rewards structure as regular Discover it Chrome card):
- 2% cash back in gas and grocery stores (up to $1,000 per month)
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
- Free FICO score
At the moment neither of these cards have a cash sign up bonus, but they do both receive double rewards for the first twelve months. It’s unclear if the $20 bonus will also be doubled, but I suspect it will making the bonus worth $40 the first year.
This isn’t the first time Discover has rewarded students with good grades, they also offer up to 1% cash back on loans where the student has a GPA of 3.0 or higher as well. I love card benefits like this, it encourages cardholders to study hard (a positive) and also rewards them for doing so (another positive) kudos to Discover. Unfortunately Discover recently removed a lot of benefits for cardholders, so hopefully this is a sign of them being replaced with more useful benefits instead.
Is this feature available now? I don’t see it in my account.
Also got a Discover It student referral here if anyone still needs one XD.
http://bit.ly/1IB6xZF @Unclesam- Yes you should be able to get the 5% cash back. Just click on the “card info” part on the screen. I checked Evan’s and my own link and it both says 5% on it. New users can still take advantage of the double cash back promotion by the way (5x categories becomes 10x etc.)!
The Discover IT for Student link in the main article leads to a blank page. The link provided by Evan does not show the rotating 5% quarterly cashback categories as a feature of the card. If I apply through that link will I get 5% cash back benefit.
When click the link, just below the image of the card you can click on the terms and conditions, which clearly include the 5% cb rotating categories plus all the bonuses (sign up, good grades, double cb in first year). If you consider using my link, I would really appreciate it.
I have a question regarding the discover cashback redemption. if redeemed for car rental certificate, can we use those certificates while picking up the car, when the reservation was actually made through another website, say costco? Thanks for any insight into this.
It is tricky to use it. i’ve done it withe Enterprise twice. you have to book it on enterprise’s website using the discover customer number, then put it certificate number. when you go pick up the car at the counter you show it to them.
I’m a student currently but have a Discover IT, not the Discover IT student version
I assume I won’t be eligible for this good grades thing right? Any chance?
I would assume so. But it seems they did not explicitly note in the terms that it needs to be a ‘student’ version, although the page has ‘XXX for student’ in the promo picture. However, it never hurts to log in and chat to make sure. Your can re-read the following:
Students with a Discover it® or Discover it® chrome card who have a GPA of 3.0 (or equivalent) during a School Year (September – August) may apply at Discover.com for a $20 Cashback Bonus (‘Good Grade Reward’). One Good Grade Reward per School Year, per account, up to a maximum of five (5) consecutive years from the date your account is opened. Good Grade Reward only available to new cardmembers as of 07/23/15 who indicate on their application that they are currently enrolled in college, and whose accounts remain open when Good Grade Reward is requested. Terms of Good Grade Offer are subject to change
If you apply through Discover’s page for the Student card, you will get 0% purchase APR for 6 months, but no sign up bonus. If you’d rather get a sign up bonus you can use my referral link http://bit.ly/1IZxN5z. You’ll get $50 after first purchase (and I get $50 too) which will be doubled at the end of first year.
DoC, if sharing a link is not ok, you can take it down.
No it’s fine, wasn’t sure if there were referrals for Discover student and like you said it’s a better bonus.
How do they actually verify you’ve gotten good grades?
i have a college age daughter looking to create a credit history. Is this a card you would recommend starting out with or is there a Visa or Mastercard which might be a better alternative?
I’d recommend start out with Discover and Chase Freedom.
Those were what I started out with. Had to call reconsideration for both applications, but it worked out perfectly fine for me.
Check out the Capital One Journey.
Yes, it’s a good starting out card in my opinion. Good rewards program and also very appealing with the current double cash back promotion. If you can get approved for the Chase Freedom as well that’s another good option. But remember, no rush! Start slow.