Doctor of Credit

Discover has launched a new credit card called Discover it Miles: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/miles/index.html

• 1.5x miles on all purchases
• Double miles for the first year (3x miles on all purchases)
• An annual credit up to $30 for in-flight Wi-Fi charges
• No foreign transaction fees
• No annual fee
• Free FICO Score
• 0% purchase APR for first twelve months

Double miles are paid out at the end of card member year. Discuss. Originally posted on my blog.

Note this post contains a link to my website, all relevant information was added to this post and is compliant with the Flyertalk rules.

adschnei

I was about to apply for the Discover It CB for its rotating categories, but this Mileage version has me interested.

Seems smart to use this for everyday spend (non-bonus categories) and maximize 3x for the first year, then sock drawer it for future years (No AF!) And better than than the 2.2% CB on Arrival+...

kiwinuked

Does Discover allow product changes? Change the card to one with 5% rotating after the first year

millervt

The fine print talks about redeeming miles for travel credits at 1 cent/mile..but when you close the account or don't use it for 18 months they will credit it back to your account...implying that you would effectively get the cash even if you don't have enough travel to redeem (at some point anyway).

biggestbopper

No bonus.

Pretend miles--not real airline miles.

Famously bad customer service. (don't get me started on my own personal Discover problems ). Discover's roots in the Sears credit card are still showing.

I get a Discover solicitation just about twice a week. They go in the shredder. @:-)

LiarsDice

It's an effective 3% cash back card on all spending, what is there to not like here?

WheelsFirst

The lack of a signup bonus. They compare it to the CSP which gives 40,000 points after $4,000 in spending, assuming none of that was dining or travel you spend $4,000 and have 44,000 points (more if you redeem for travel or transfer but that's beside the point).

Redeeming 44,000 points for cash is $440. In order to earn that same $440 on this Discover card you'd have to spend $14,667.

millervt

on the plus side, however, those of us who just applied for several chase cards and don't think we'd be approved for another like the CSP, for example, might find a discover card attractive.

TheChallenge

Anyone know if they'll allow a PC from the regular Discover IT card to the miles version and still receive the promo 3x offer?

amitnj

As of now, they are not allowing to convert existing Discover It card to the new miles card.

Carl Christensen

Applied. Had to call in. Seems if you have an existing card, you will have to call in to see if you want your old discover card canceled or if you want both.

I said both. At that point they were not willing to extend more credit, but required transferring credit line from existing card (15k) to new one. I left 5k on the old and 10k on the new.

Asked the rep and he said he believed “any miles earned even if from discover deals” count for doubling at the end of the year. This could be potentially lucrative if we find some good discover deals.

He said they just launched today and there phones have been off the hook approving the cards and “working out some snags” in the process.

Carl Christensen

I had stopped spending my regular discover card that I have had for 15 years. I had been averaging 3k per month and then a year ago discovered miles and churning etc.

They sent me a targeted offer: spend 3k per month for six months and earn $500 bonus to account.

So right now, I�m already MS more than normal for that 3k per month in addition to the sign ups for other cards.

If there are no bonus categories then my calculations go like this:

2 * 500 VGC + 2+4.94 fee +0.70 for WM MO = 11.28 per 1000 of MS on this new Discover card. Initial 1.5% back on card =15.17. Minus the MS costs of 11.28 = Profit of 3.89 per 1 MO.

At the end of the year, add in another 15.17 per MO.

Thus if you do 2 MO per day, 5 days a week 48 weeks a year (a few weeks of bora bora and hawaii travel right?) then when all is said and done you have bought 480 MO:

Initial profit accumulated through the year: 1867.2
At the end of 1 year added as a bonus: 7281.6

Total return = 9148.8

That is assuming you can move 2 MO per day and deposit in your credit union/bank without problems etc.

9k is pretty nice.

PlyrStar93

Terms regarding reward redeeming options:
If I understood correctly, you can redeem miles for cash for 1 cent per mile, working just like a cash back card, not necessarily for travel purchases. That being said, it works either like a "travel credit" card (like Capital One Venture) or a plain cash back card (like QuickSilver). So why do they emphasize so much on miles?

DaveInLA

I have the IT card now. If I get the Miles card as well, will I have separate awards for cash back and "miles"? The main question I think needs answering is how the Miles card fits in with Discover Deals? For example, Apple Store is 5% cash back via DD. So if I don't have the regular IT card and go through DD portal to buy an iPad, will I get 5x "miles", or just 5% cash back? Right now when I log on to my Discover account, they separate the cash back earned via CC from the cash back earned via DD. My guess is that they'll do the same if you have the Miles card. We're all hoping that Discover will double the DD earnings at the end of the year (5 "miles" from DD + 1.5 from CC, doubled to 13 "miles"), but I think that's highly unlikely. More realistically, buying an iPad will get 5% cash back and 1.5 "miles" that doubles to 3 "miles" after 12 months.

adobe

"After the first 12 consecutive billing periods that your new account is open, we will double all the Miles you've earned and apply them to your account in the next billing cycle. You will not receive Double Miles if your account is closed or is no longer in the Miles reward program as of the award date."

After all the MS, what if Discover close your acct right before the 12th billing statement?

Bait and Switch?