When shopping with one of the over 150 top online retailers, you can earn 5% to 20% cashback bonus when you use the Classic Card from Discover. Purchases at all other merchants earn up to 1% cash back automatically.
The categories of merchants that pay the highest cash back percentages changes with offers for travel, gas, groceries, restaurants and more offered throughout the year.
Advantages
One consumer complaint about rewards credit cards that have changing special offers is the need to read statement inserts and all mail from the lender to know when a special offer is in effect.
This credit card solves that consumer problem as Discover provides a calendar that clearly displays months when the special offers are in place for various categories.
From January to May you can earn high cash rewards for travel and restaurant charges and in March there are high percentages at grocery and drug stores.
Home and fashion purchases made from April through June earn extra cash. Late summer is the traditional time for family vacations.
The cashback bonus gives you an incentive to use the Discover card on your vacation with special deals on as, hotels, movies and theme parks offered from July through September.
There are other rewards as well for the Discover Classic Cashback Bonus credit account. A 0% introductory interest rate for twelve months is followed by an APR of 12.99% to 19.99% based on your credit score. This is a variable interest rate.
No Annual Fee But…
The introductory 0% APR applies to transferred balances as well as purchases on your new Discover card. There is no annual fee but a 4% balance transfer fee is applied if the balance transfer is requested when you apply for a new account.
Transferring balances after the Discover card account is established carries a 5% balance transfer fee. For cash advances or foreign currency transactions, there is a 2% fee assessed on each transaction.
Disadvantages
Cash advances should be avoided if possible. The 2% fee for a cash advance may not seem excessive.
However, you will also pay a higher interest rate for the funds accessed through a cash advance. This classic card has a 23.99% APR variable rate for cash advances.
This is not a credit account to use for those who make payments late. Today, most credit lenders have a penalty APR that applies for a specific period of time if a payment is late.
The most common penalty is to increase the APR until you have paid six months of timely payments. After that, the APR may return to the previous, lower rate.
The Penalty
This card lists a penalty APR of 17.99% to 24.99%. In other words, if you are late on one monthly payment any future charges to your credit card will be billed at an interest rate 5% higher than the ARP on your card.
With Discover, there is no listed six month period to overcome a penalty interest fee as the Penalty APR will apply indefinitely. Late payment fees and over limit fees are $35 which appears to be the average charge for lenders today
In addition, the cashback bounus has some restrictions and terms in the fine print that can greatly affect your ability to earn and use the cashback offers.
Before choosing this credit card, read the fine print carefully so you will know if this rewards card will truly be a useful addition for you and your family.
Summary
Discover classic cards are trusted by consumers. However, Discover does add quite a few restrictions in the small print of their credit applications.
The Cashback Bonus card offers some excellent benefits but to utilize the account to the fullest you must read and understand how to apply qualify for the cashback benefits.
