In June 2015, Discover introduced their double rewards promotion. Both the Discover IT Cash Back and the Discover IT Miles offer double rewards on the entire first year’s earnings.
In the case of the Cash Back card that means getting 2% cash back everywhere and 10% cash back on category spend, as well as double the cash back on portal, referral, and signup bonus earnings. In the case of the Discover IT Miles it means getting 3% cash back on all purchases.
Is the double cashback promo churnable? If I got it on the Discover Cash Back card, can I get it again on the Discover IT Miles card? Maybe I can even get it again on another Cash Back card? Discover allows us to have two cards total – which can even be two of the same version – so long as you wait a year between applications.
In our List of Churnable Credit Cards we note that Discover signup bonuses are churnable. Typically, the question was applicable to earning the occasional small cash back bonus offered with signup. Now we need to know if it’s true for the double cash back promo as well.
As far as data points go, it won’t be impossible to know until sometime towards the end in 2017. Remember, the double cash back promo only started in June 2015. Later in the year, we might get data points from people who applied for a Discover card in June 2015 and got their doubling in mid-2016, then applied for another Discover card in mid-2016 and got their doubling in mid-2017.
The closest we have to a data point is for those people who enrolled in the double cash back offer while it was available for existing cardholders at initial rollout. If you recall, when Discover rolled out the double cash back promotion, they allowed existing cardholders to enroll as well. That ended a month later. Now, many people enrolled their existing card in the double cash back offer, and subsequently opened a new Discover card. As far as I know, they all got the double cash back on both cards. Please chime in if you have a data point, especially if both of your cards are of the same version.
That’s certainly encouraging, but once Discover limited the promo to new cardholders, it’s possible that existing cardholders are not eligible, even when signing up for a completely new account.
The Discover Cashback Match terms state:
This exclusive offer is available only to new cardmembers.
It’s unclear if they mean to exclude existing cardholders from enrolling (as had been the case previously), or if they mean to exclude someone from getting a second card. It’s even possible that they’ll deny the double cash back for a different version of the card since you aren’t technically a new cardholder.
There is one report on Slickdeals of a Discover rep saying that you can not get it if you already have a card. Interestingly, the gist of that reported conversation indicates that separate card versions (e.g. one Cash Back card and one Miles card) are eligible for separate bonuses. Of course, take this all with a grain of salt.
Another question is if you close all your Discover cards and then apply for a new card a month later, are you called a “new cardmember”? I’d think so, but we don’t know for sure.
Lots of questions.
For best odds, try to stagger the card type: if you have the Cash Back card – apply for the Miles card, and vice versa. If you want a second Cash Back card, try applying for the NHL version of the Cash Back card in the hopes that it’s considered a separate product (although the above-mentioned rep indicated otherwise).
Updates based on the comments: Multiple reports confirm that those who got the existing-cardholder doubling were able to get another doubling getting a second card, even the same version. As for new card applicants, a couple data points make it look very likely that you can get the bonus a second time, even for two new cards, and even for two of the same version. We won’t know for certain until the cash back actually posts, but those who have tried this see verbiage in the login and have gotten emails indicating that they’re earnings will be doubled.
