msp3

I've had them call me up and ask what I bought at Best Buy (it was some VGCs), then card frozen until I faxed in a recent pay stub proving I was still gainfully employed before they would let me use the card again. Told I was being "monitored". They really are hardasses about things like this...

Boraxo

My flyer came in yesterday's mail. Hard to top a 10% ROI with any card (really 13% if you count the 3% I would normally get) ^

I generally don't do GCs, so $1k in 15 days is pretty challenging unless I have auto repairs (my local indy shop takes JCB). However I put Mrs. B to work on it, and have no doubt she will succeed

Addendum: Amazon is your friend! Just purchased $350 in gift cards (for actual gifts, not MS), so far no alerts.

HGHUA

Just saw the flyer posted to DoC. Sure why not. Lets go for the 300 reward. Still 10% back... plus, i still think its the prettyest card in my wallet


Edit: plus the 2% back! Never did hit the 3k level lol....

yugi

Got the flyer also.
Last year I was trying to reach $5000, and was purchasing GCs in Walmart. I got one transaction declined, after successful one (back to back). They called me and asked what did I buy there. And they asked if it was a gift card. I said that yes, I bought a gift card. After that I bought more gift cards ($500 each day, for 3 days in a row, in order not to trigger fraud alert), and reached $5k. No calls.
This year I only did 2 transactions on a card (both refunded back later). First one was with Marriott for around $800. Got a call next day asking if I did the transaction. Next one was with Alaska for ~ $200, no call.
I will try to head to Simon and buy 2x$500 GCs and see what happens. Last time I tried purchasing GCs in Simon with JCB, was not able to buy anything, because they didn't accept JCB, but this was few years ago, not sure if they accept it now. If they don't I'll head out to Walmart, and buy 2 GCs there. I paid the annual fee this year, without using this card.

yugi

So far charged ~$400 2 times on a different days, no calls. $200 to go.
Simon still don't accept JCB.

yugi

Spent another $200, no calls. Was taking advantage of OD/OM deal.

surffnutt3000

This card is a complete waste of time. I got it several years ago as a novelty (which is likely the reason most of us get it) and, other than for promotions such as the current one, it sits on the bottom of the credit card pile.

The problem, a major one, as evidenced by this thread? Very limited acceptance. They claim it's accepted everywhere the Discover is, but that couldn't be further from the truth. (Maybe the network processes it, but this has very little to do with its actual acceptance.) I recently had a sushi bar (yes, a sushi bar!) ask if I could give them another card instead. The transaction, in this case, went through without a hitch, but no one there had any familiarity with it. (When I noted that it's processed as a Discover, they said the latter logo should appear on the card - a reasonable argument.)

The EMV chip may very well never show-up on the US-based version of the card. (When I asked about it, I was simply reminded my card didn't expire for a couple years.)

I'll probably get to the $300 purchase threshold for this promotion, and simply call it a day. It just isn't worth the time and effort.

billatq

It's definitely not everywhere Discover is accepted, but I've had good luck with acceptance, at least in Seattle. At a restaurant in particular, I'll generally put in two cards and say to use the other one if there is a problem. Most of the time it works. I have considered making a Discover sticker to put on the back. There simply isn't another card that gives 3% cashback for everything that is still available to new applicants.

tmiw

In a way, that might actually be a good thing. The new ICBC UnionPay card, for instance, has problems in the US precisely because terminals have no idea how to handle UnionPay chip. Not to mention that chip in the US in general is way slower than in most other countries.

That said, I've been holding off on applying for this card until it gets EMV because I want to see if the card ends up being "true" chip and PIN like Diners Club/UNFCU/First Tech. Last time I emailed JCB about it they promised some time this year, but as we've seen they completely missed that entirely.

jpdx

I'm probably an outlier, but I use the Marukai card as my primary card. I've put some $40k on it this year, and had very minor problems with acceptance. Many merchants don't know it, but are generally happy to run it, and it usually works. I've had it rejected at a couple sushi places in the US and some mom and pop stores in Japan, but overall, problems have been minimal. JCB monitors usage closely, and I've gotten a number of phone calls after international use or a purchase that's outside their comfort zone. I earned 3% cashback plus another $300 from various Japan offers (e.g., limousine bus) and the current $1k offer ... very hard to beat IMO. Plus, the card is like a cute puppy; I keep having people compliment me on how good it looks.

bocastephen

Similar analysis for us - when the card first arrived and was rejected everywhere which was very frustrating, but over time we figured out where it works and where it doesn't and just got a rhythm going and have been using is successfully and earning great rewards ever since. Ironically, it's the Japanese restaurants in the US where we have the least difficulty and we never had a problem with acceptance in Japan.

patrick.barnes

Is the 1.1% FTF actually applied on this card?

jpdx

I typed my response thinking about the post above who describes the card as "complete waste of time." The card certainly isn't that, IME. I can think of 4 Japanese restaurants in the Pacific Northwest where I was told outright that they don't take JCB. I think if they'd tried, it might well have worked, but they probably had issues with Japanese-issued cards in the past. In Japan, I saw a handful of Visa/MC only signs at small stores, and quite a few merchants are cash only or impose a minimum purchase; the important point about travel to Japan is that there's absolutely no need to get a JCB card (because Visa/MC are widely accepted). In parts of Europe (e.g., my hometown Munich), JCB seems to be more welcome than AMEX.

jpdx

I haven't seen this fee charged explicitly for my international purchases in a while, and I don't think it's reflected in a less favorable exchange rate.

HGHUA

Actually I think acceptance is getting better. I just stopped by a local cafe and noted it ran it as a JCB card, not thru the discover network.