Originally Posted by
thehawk75
There's risk with Discover in that if it doesn't qualify as 5%, then due to their tiered reward structure it will only qualify for 0.25% (unless you've hit the $3500 or so spending for the next tier, that is still less than 1%).
On the other hand, if you try it on days running those 2% promotions (which can be stacked), the reward can be significant. For example last month (Aug 17th to be precise) it was earning 9% on the first $250 spent at gas stations, 7% for the next $1250. I'd try on a day when one of those additional promotions can be stacked (assuming there is a promotion some time like that next quarter).
I got a great targeted promo in July good for August to December for $50 cash back with 50 uses of the card. I figured if I used the card 50 times between 8/1 and 12/31 I would get $50 extra cash back, but when I called to enroll the agent told me every calander month I used the card 50 times I got $50 back, so that is $250 for the rest of the year. I was using it for small things like coffee and gas store soda purchases (5% gas station cash back this quarter) and if I was buying a few small items at the grocery at the self serve lane ringing an item, scanning the card, and repeating. Maybe if I do a bunch of $1 AP payments on discover I can reach the 50 uses a month faster?
I hate the return on discover so I only use it for 5% bonus purchases and promos like this one.