Swiping the Discover Card Clean of Shame

Admit it.  Back in the day, the Discover card kind of used to be considered the Geo Metro of the credit world.  Barely any merchants accepted it, and whipping it out in public was an embarrassing proclamation of poor credit.  That all seemed to change somewhere between 1995 and the present, and the benefits of a Discover card are now pretty sick:

• No annual fee.  Unless you are signing up for a Frequent Flyer Credit Card in order to top off your mileage balance with a particular airline in order to be eligible for a free flight, I see no reason to ever pay an annual fee on any credit card.

• Unless you’re trying to swipe it at a bodega (or… Europe), Discover should now be accepted in the majority of the places you shop, and cashiers and servers shouldn’t really give you the stank eye anymore.   It’s not as ubiquitous as MasterCard and Visa yet, but I’d venture to say it’s on par with AmEx as far as percentage of merchants that will accept it.

• Cash back:  Not only (as of this writing) do you get $100 just for signing up for the card, but you can also earn up to 5% cash back on various purchases.  Each quarter (and sometimes each month) there are “bonus categories” (i.e. grocery stores, travel, gas, etc.) that are eligible for 5% cash back.  As a member, all you have to do is sign up for that category (with a few clicks of the mouse at Discover), and you get 5% back when you make a relevant purchase.  You can even get an additional 5-20% back when you make online purchases with participating partners of Discover, such as Orbitz and JR.com.

• Direct Deposit. No trip to the corner Check Cashing store necessary!  Once you accrue $50 in cash back, Discover directly deposits the money into your account.  Oh, the technology.

You’ll find that all other Discover purchases can earn you between .25% and 1% cash back, which isn’t too shabby either — though The Frugal Bachelor suggests that you’d be better off using a Chase Freedom card for regular purchases, as Chase gives 3% cash back on everything.

In short, don’t be stupid.  Get a Discover card and start earning money back on all those damn drinks and late night tacos you’re buying.