ILUVCITIBANK

Ran into a friend who manages a local Sam's Club and he raved about their Sam's Club Discover 2% cash-back card. WHen all said and done, I was convinced this might be a very unique "hidden gem" of a cashback card.

Truly, Sam's does a poor job of making this card known as it has been out for about a year according to my friend. They have this link buried in business services on their web site. Go figure.

The first typical gotcha of "cash-backs" is caps. Cap ? yep, at $1,000,000 per year ($20K cashback refund if you can max it out). He confirmed several of their large volume customers were getting their near-$20K refund checks this month (apparently Feb is when Sam's cuts the refund check).

Technically, there is a TIER through the first $5000, but after $5K, cashback rebate goes to the full 2% and ends at $1MM annual charges.

Folks - this is a powerful cashback program for high-volume chargers and is arguably the "holy grail" since the cap is so high. Also, unlike the AMEX cash-back program, this one will CUT A CHECK and mail it to you. AMEX only applies the rebate against your bill or puts it on your account as a credit.

Yes, Discover can be a bit funky (difficult) to use in large volume relative to V/MC and AMEX, but its out there if you dig around.

Other "gotchas" about this program that I believe apply:
A) in my experience, Discover is a pain to get a decent credit line issued.
B) One has to become a SAMs CLUB "PLUS-level" member to get the full 2% (they have a lesser membership level which provides for a 1% cashback bonus), and I believe the "PLUS" level is a $99 annual fee. So while the card itself is advertised to be fee-free, indirectly the annual fee at Sams has some impact. However, at the PLUS level, you are at the highest level of Sams Club membership and there are some perks that are so-called "value-add" which mitigate the annual fee.

Comments ? My sense is as traditional affinity programs get diluted (capital One's), devalued (AA and milesaver) and neutered (AMEX Centurion and Membership Rewards in general), its time to abandon ship on pure point and mile collecting and seriously consider CASH BACK strategies. Then take the cash and using priceline.com, kayak.com, and orbitze.com- style site maximize your leverage on the SPEND side. These affinity programs are really in "take back" mode as their respective economies (hotels, airlines) strengthen, so the value proposition or points and miles is diminishing.

Read more here:
https://www.onlinecreditcenter6.com/...tType=dualcard

mia

Interesting find

<<CUT A CHECK and mail it to you>>

Although the check is made payable to Sam's Club, not to the cardholder, and you have to trek down to the store to cash it. Not really a problem if you shop there anyway, I suppose. Evidently Costco has the same system on their Amex card. No doubt they are both anticipating that most cardholders with "spend" the check rather than "cash" it, but I wonder if they actually pay out currency even if the amount exceeds $10,000?

dennis

SOhp101

Costco's offers 3% cash back for spending at restaurants, 2% cash back in travel, 1% back elsewhere.

Solution:

Use VISA/MC Citi/Chase cashback card(s) for supermarket/gas/drugstore purchases.
Use AMEX Costco for eating out.
Use DISCOVER Sam's Club for everything else.

maulah

Then you need memberships in both Cosctco and Sams club at the same time?

newportgambler

We've had the card since it came out... pretty nice program overall. Only part that detracts from the card is the online payment options, but its a good card still. Can make payments inside sams club or walmart stores as well... haven't gotten that 2% back yet...

SOhp101

Yes, that would be true. But if you're going to be spending close to $1 million/yr on your cards, spending an extra $50 for that Costco membership would stretch your cash back on restaurants one hundredfold.

If your budget is a lot smaller than that, it's probably better to go with the Costco card, since that doesn't require the premium membership. Ultimately it all depends on what club you prefer and where you typically charge your card.

Alcibiades

Much superior to the $100 annual fee CostCo Executive Gold Star program which earns 2% cashback but ONLY on all CostCo purchases.

SOhp101

That is their premium membership only. The Costco AMEX card (which is available to both regular and premium members) has no annual fee (with a costco membership) and it offers 3% back in restaurants, 2% back in travel, and 1% everywhere else.

Mind you, Sam's club Discover with the 2% cash back requires the premium membership as well (which also costs $100 annually). Regular Sam's club members only get 1% cash back in their spending.

toomanybooks

Yes, but we have found it worthwhile to be members of both. At least around here (southern Chicago suburbs), they carry enough different stuff from each other to make it sensible for us.

As for Sam's making it hard to find out about this CC, not in our store. There are flyers all over the place including by each register and you can't miss them. I think they mailed one to me, too.

Another wrinkle with Costco $100 business membership is that you can sign other people up (your COUGH "employees") and they can save a little on the annual fee. Something like $35 instead of $45. As a business member in addition to the 2% back, you get extra discounts, like on credit card processing fees, that may make it worthwhile.

I always easily save more than the annual $100 fee on the rebates (e.g. $5.50 per case of Pilsner Urquell, limit 2) and the two-for-one offers that run all the time.

A pretty much unpublicized monster deal is available from certain Costcos: Free delivery! If that ever comes here, it would save me a ton of time and trouble.

http://www.costco.com/Service/Featur...uctNo=10166073

If you want to sign up with Costco, please let me refer you. I think I get $10 or something.

toomanybooks

After originally being turned down for a Sam's Club Discover Card, for what reason I cannot possibly imagine, I complained in writing to Discover and Sam's and they relented. One thing you need to watch: if you get turned down for the Discover, they may automatically sign you up for a Sam's Club card, which you may not want.

Something I had not known makes the Sam's Discover even a little better deal.

At Sam's, when you check out and use the Discover Card, it gives you the option to take out up to $60 in cash and have that added to your charge.

This codes not as a cash advance, but as a purchase.

$60 a day limit, but what the heck, as long as you have to get some cash anyway, you get the rebate and some float. Every little bit helps.

If you worked at Sam's, you could pull out an extra $60 a day, maybe $15,000 a year, and get a few hundred dollars' value annually without much work. It would quickly get you up to the $5000 spend needed for the top rebate tier, and help your credit score, too, I assume.

Don't know if this works at Wal-Mart, too, but will find out soon.

Alcibiades

You can get the $60 cashback with no cash advance fee upon checkout at many other grocery stores that accept Discover, Kroger for example. I believe Discover has fixed their system to not reward cashback when you get the extra $60, but I could have miscalculated.

In the past at least, you are not limited to $60 per day. I have gotten over $600 in a day.

toomanybooks

Yes, it seems reasonable not to get cashback on this $60. I guess I'll know after the first of the year.

The CC system came up with only $20, $40, and $60 as options at Sam's. Nothing higher. And in the flyer I got with the card, it specifically mentions "up to $60 a day." So who knows?

zlc

The old Costco Amex card, which I still have, gives 0.5% first $5000 and 1.5% thereafter. Also, if you carry a balance, there is an extra 0.5% on top.

Just wondering if Discover is doing the same thing.

frcabot

One needs to spend 10K, not 5K, to unlock 2%:
"SAM'S CLUB® BUSINESS PLUS MEMBERS

Amount of Year-to-Date Purchases Percentage of Purchase
(including the current Purchase) Eligible for Rebate
Up to $1,500 0.25%
$1,500.01 - $3,000 0.50%
$3,000.01 - $5,000 1.00%
$5,000.01 - $10,000 1.75%
$10,000.01 - $1,000,000 2.00%"

"However, Year-to-Date Purchases over $1,000,000 will not be eligible for a rebate."

The maximum rebate is not 20K, but slightly less:
$3500*.005+$2000*.01+$5000*.0175+$990000*.02=17.5+ 20+87.5+19800=
$19925

And, with anything less than well over $10000 you are actually losing money due to less cash back as compared with fidelity 1.5% cash back, gas/drug/supermarket 5% cash back, etc AND $99 fee.

So go with the Fidelity 1.5% cash back, no annual fee.

Steffo

Thanks for sharing info on this card. We hate Sams and dropped our membership and just have Costco. I really like how the employees at Costco act--they are so much nicer to us than Sams or Wal-Mart employees.

I do charge nearly a million a year for business, and could be tempted on this, until I realized that I would need a 200K limit in order to do all my charges on this and maintain nearly the same level of float I have now. It would actually be a good deal less float since with multiple cards you can work the closing dates to always get at least 45 days of float and often close to 60. I'd have to calculate the cost of the lost float but I am too tired right now to do that accurately. I've never had Discover and not sure how hard it would be to use. So I might give it a try. I think even at $250,000 a year in spending it would be worthwhile to do. Of course maxing it and getting a check for nearly $20K is a very attractive thought! Does anyone know if these type of rewards are taxable?