Discover has made some changes to redeeming your cashback bonus for gift cards. Previously the lowest value gift card you could redeem for was $25. The lowest is now $5 and you can redeem in increments of $5 (previously you could only redeem for fixed value gift cards such as $25 or $50). Not all gift cards will be available at $5.
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So is this good news overall, or did the discount amounts go down pretty much across the board? Because lower threshold for redemption is great, but only if it doesn’t also devalue the discounts they gave before.
It might depend on which gift card brand or denomination, since they could have different discounts. But someone gave an example of Staples being $25 for $30 in the past (16.7% discount). Now it’s $25.50 for $30 (15% discount). So a little worse in that case.
The discounts have gone down across the board, at least for the brands I used to buy. For example, Home depot used to be 10%, now it’s 5%. Pottery Barn used to be 20%, now it’s 10%. I dont remember what Ace Hardware used to be, but I could have sworn it was more than 10%. I think TJ Maxx used to be 20% ($40 for a $50 GC), now it’s 10%.
The best Discover Cashback redemption by far is using one cent when Amazon runs a 20% promo – that one cent saves you $50!
But you spend $250 lol.
Though, I agree.
Not in my wallet. This card is sockdrawer.
I only keep Discover cash in my account for the occasional gift card, especially Staples ($30 for $25) since it can be delivered instantly and works out better for the little amounts over my ink reward redemptions than Ink.
Can you please clarify re: Staples?
Not sure what you mean but I use the ink rewards each month, $40, to purchase items on staples.com. Usually works out to maybe $5 or more if I am using a good coupon. I then go to Discover, buy a $30 e-gift card for $25 in Discover points and use that to pay the balance of my Staples order.
I don’t use it all at once of course, so maybe if the smaller denominations have the same roughly 15% discount, I’d go with those.
No bonus? Why not just take cash back?
They do have a bonus/discount. e.g., Staples $5 for $4.25, $10 for $8.50, $100 for $85, etc (discount percentage doesn’t seem to change for different amounts). For other brands the discount is different, e.g., Starbucks $5 for $4.75
You’d be surprised how many people will stockpile cashback only to use it all on one amazon or a gift card so that way it’s “free” (and forgo cashback that would have been earned on that purchase)
Yes. Looking at you mom and dad, who didn’t teach me jack monkey about MS/Churning/CC/Banks.
i cash out each month as soon as it’s available
Keep a few cents on the card in case Amazon runs a promo requiring you to use your points. I used to do what you do and got bit when there was a “Use 1 point and get 20% off” offer a few weeks ago.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amazon-get-20-off-when-you-use-1-discover-point-50-maximum-discount/