The Tool
Discover Card has an online product change (card conversion) tool.
The Details
The Discover Card conversion tool should allow you to switch between various flavors (reward programs) of the Discover IT Card with no application (and no credit inquiry).
Discover IT Conversion Options:
- Discover IT
- Rotating 5% categories, up to $1,500 per quarter
- Discover IT Chrome [Discover IT Gas & Restaurants]
- 2% on gas and restaurants up to $1,000 per quarter
- Discover IT Miles [Discover IT Travel]
- 1.5% cash back (don’t believe the first year doubling would apply to a product conversion)
It appears that the tool only allows product changes among the three cards listed above, but Discover does have additional cards options: secured, student, …, business.
Conversion Timeline:
- The conversion is not instantaneous, it happens at the end/close of your statement/billing cycle.
Our Verdict
The card conversion tool actually didn’t work for me 🙂 [I needed to call in to perform the product change (Discover IT Miles -> Discover IT)].
The issue was probably caused by the tool improperly handling two credit cards attached to one login (it was only allowing me to change one of my two cards). [Update: It looks like Travel with Grant was able to find a work around for this problem, by freezing the card that he did not want to product change].
But if the tool is valuable to you, we would be interested in your data points.
A few things to keep in mind:
- The common wisdom is that you can only hold 2 Discover Credit Cards
- The Discover IT Miles Card (1.5% doubled after the first year [3%]) is considered churnable with a new signup (not a product conversion).
A full collection of Discover rules is available in 17 Things Everybody Should Know About Discover Credit Cards, and here’s a post specifically on Discover IT Miles to Discover IT product changes.
Well, this is annoying. When I opened my It Miles card last year, my plan was to use it as my “everything else” card because of the effective 3% cashback rate for one year (1.5x miles/$1 + match at end of year), and then to switch to the It Cashback. I was given a date of 7/21/20 to be able to convert, and would periodically check back in to make sure that was the case. Same date was always given to me by the online system.
Today is 7/21/20. Attempting to convert online yielded an “ineligible” message. I called in and they told me that my conversion date was now 10/20/20. No previous notice or anything. When pressed, they said that this wasn’t a change but had been policy for a while in order to let all matched rewards finish processing.
Somebody dropped the ball at some point and now this card is gonna continue to sit idle in the sock drawer for three more months.
UPDATE: Today was the new date for me to be able to product change. Attempted to do so and the date had been pushed back yet another month. Calling again.
does converting your card count as a new account under 5/24?
It should not
A word of warning, the conversion is not instantaneous, and actually takes place the at end of your current statement period. I missed out on the 5% bonus for this quarter as a result of leaving it too late (I assumed it would be an instant conversion).
Thanks for the warning on the Discover IT conversion timeline, I’ve added a note in the post above.
Does anyone know what credit bureau discover usually checks when applying? just checking to find out what I should unfreeze
Success and thanks for posting went from chrome to it new card on the way took 1 sec
Thanks, an old guy literally 🙂
Just amazingly unproductive, like a man of 200 years old 🙂
Hah, I was really confused till I searched some of DoC’s old posts and saw you referenced a few times. For an old guy you’ve got some new tricks 😀
Great post, keep up the good work Don!
Don has been around for awhile, thanks for encouraging him as his posts are always great we just need him to do more of it =)
Of course!
Do you still get the first year match on a conversion?
I believe not. I think the first year match is only available on new card signups.
Mine won’t work either. Every time I try, it keeps pushing the date back. First they said, I had to wait until 2/21. Then 2/26. Now 2/28. I have the Discover “more” that I’m trying to convert. I have the Discover IT as well. Although perhaps I should just keep it and try to max out the 5% on both cards, LOL
I’m thinking of opening a IT miles business version for the 1 year match. I still have the original personal card with high credit limit. Has anyone been able to transfer over limits between personal and business? It sucks that they always seem to start you off with tiny CL which makes it hard to maximize the match promo.
FYI I think they report biz cards on personal credit report. Doc has an article about it.
You can also close your Discover It Miles and get a second Discover It that would provide the 1st year doubling on the 5% rotating categories. I did this myself and received a letter confirming the doubling. Why would you PC when that would only get you 5%?