Interesting Discover Tidbits: Q&A, EMV Chip, Baggage Benefit & More

Questions & Answers

I asked a number of questions to the Discover media team (I also asked for your questions on Twitter. If you’re not already follow me there so you can join in next time).

Question: Discover it Miles earns miles, yet at the moment it’s only possible to convert these to cash (either through statement credit or against a purchase). Does Discover have any plans to add any travel partners? If so, can you disclose any information regarding this? What prompted the decision to call these miles, rather than just calling it a straight cash back card?

Discover it Miles is for consumers who do not want to be restricted to a particular airline or mode of travel; its unique features will allow our cardmembers great flexibility as they plan their vacations.

Question:  I understand that currently Discover is not allowing product changes to this product, is this likely to change in the future? Are people able to product change from this product to the Discover it?

At this time, we are only accepting new account applications for Miles

EMV Chip

I asked if Discover cardholders are able to request an EMV chip. There is more information about Discover EMV chips which can be found here. Discover is gradually rolling these cards out to all cardholders, if you have an upcoming trip you can call and request an EMV card. Tomorrow we will have a few tips on using your card internationally.

I’ve had multiple readers report that they were able to make this request successfully. Keep in mind your credit card number will stay the same but the expiration date and 3 digit security code might change. Below is an image of @walletswallet new Discover it EMV chip card.

 

Discover Credit Card Limits

I also asked if there was a limit to how many Discover credit cards one individual could hold (something we’ve speculated on before). Their response was fitting with what others have been told by front line customer service representatives:

A cardmember can be the primary cardholder on two Discover accounts, and can only be considered for a second account once they have had the first account for at least a year.

[Read: Credit Card Limits For Each Card Issuer]

Scrapped Benefits & Mock Designs

I came across a couple of mock designs that Discover commissioned for the Discover it Miles card. It should be noted that these were just mock ups and these benefits are not offered on the Discover it Miles card (these were also not provided by the media team, I found these independently). There were a couple of things that were particularly interesting to me:

• They were thinking about offering a $50 annual baggage fee benefit
• The WiFi benefit was $50 (now it’s $30)
• There were some other designs for the Discover it Miles card (with EMV chips, as mentioned above)

It looks like they went for a lower WiFi benefit, no baggage benefit and instead are offering double miles for the first year. I think that’s a much more compelling product, but it really depends on how much you’re able to spend in that first year. I’ve included some of these images below:

 

 

 

 

I think I also much prefer the solid colors that Discover went with rather than these action cards they were toying with in the past as well.

Final Thoughts

I asked a few other questions that couldn’t/wouldn’t be answered, but my thanks goes out to Discover for getting back to me promptly as usual. I’m in regular contact with the majority of credit card issuers, so if you have any specific questions that you’d like answered let me know in the comments.