Discover it Miles Credit Card Review (2019.9 Update: $50 bonus for adding AU [TARGETED])

Discover it Miles Credit Card Review

2019.9 Update: Discover has sent out a promotional offer where you receive a $50 statement credit for adding an authorized user and spending $3k on the authorized user card by December 31, 2019. I received this offer on my Discover IT card that is in the first year and receiving 3% back on all purchases, so an extra $50 bonus equates to a 4.6% return on the $3k spend. The subject line for the email is “$50 cash back – don’t miss out.”

2019.7 Update: The sign-up bonus and referral bonus are both $100 now (previously $50).

Application Link

Benefits

  1. $100 offer: earn $100 statement credit after making one purchase within 3 months.
  2. Earn 1.5 Miles per $1 spent on all purchases. 1 Mile worth 1 cent if you redeem for travel statement credit. So it’s equivalent to 1.5% cash back on everything.
  3. Double all Miles you’ve earned at the end of your first year, including Discover Deals. In other words, this card is 3% cash back on everything for the first year. Starting from 2018, the sign-up bonus and referral bonus will be granted as statement credit instead of cash back, so the they will not be doubled.
  4. $30 credit for in-flight Wi-Fi purchases each year.
  5. There are some pretty good discounts if you shop online through Discover Deals, such as 5% cash back at Apple Store. [Expired]
  6. Refer a friend: You can earn $100 for every approved account you refer, up to a maximum of $500 per calendar year. The sign-up bonus from these referral links is $100.
  7. No foreign transaction fee.
  8. No annual fee.

Disadvantages

  1. This is a Discover card, which is not as widely accepted as Visa or MasterCard.
  2. The reward point is called “mile”, but don’t be fooled, it cannot be transferred to any airlines mile; instead, the “mile” can only be used to redeem for travel statement credit at 1 cent/point.

Recommended Application Time

  1. You must wait for a year before apply for a second Discover card.
  2. You can only have at most 2 Discover credit cards.
  3. We recommend you apply when you have a credit history of one year.

Summary

Discover it Miles is very useful in the first year because of the 3% cash back on everything. Besides, cash back earned from Discover Deals is also doubled makes this card even better in the first year. However, after the first year, 1.5% cash back on everything is not impressive compared to Citi Double Cash (DC) which earns 2% cash back everywhere with no annual fee. On the other hand, some credit cards offer more than $500 sign-up bonus (see Top Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus), which makes Discover it Miles not as valuable in the first year as them if you do not have a lot of spending.

Historical Offers Chart

Application Link


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