Discover it Cash Back Credit Card Review: 5% Rotating Cash Back

Explore Cash Back Overview

Discover Cash Back offers 5% cash back on the first $1,500 in purchases you make each quarter at select merchants. Eligible merchants rotate quarterly and require sign-up. You’ll earn 1% cash back on all other purchases, and the card has no annual fee. There’s no traditional sign-up bonus, but Discover will match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year. Card Rating*: ⭐⭐⭐

Explore the Pros and Cons of Cash Back

Explore Cashback Welcome Offer

Discover it Cash Back doesn’t offer the usual sign-up bonus, but it does offer a unique earning opportunity for new cardholders.

Discover will match all the cash back you earn in the first 12 consecutive pay periods your new account is opened. The full-year match occurs at the end of the 12th pay period. That means the earning rate on this card is doubled in the first year, creating a potentially lucrative opportunity if you use this card regularly in those first 12 months.

Discover the cashback benefits

The Discover it Cash Back card has benefits and perks that are suitable for first-time or inexperienced cardholders. Earning and redeeming cash back is simple and easy — but we’ll spend the following sections of this review talking about earning and redeeming.

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First, let’s look at the other benefits of the card:

• No foreign transaction fees
• Free overnight shipping for card replacements to any street address in the United States
• Freeze your account for a few seconds to prevent new purchases with an on/off switch available on both the mobile app and website
• Free credit scorecard includes your credit score, number of recent inquiries, and more
• Free alerts you can enable to notify you if your Social Security number is found on any of thousands of dark web sites

These may not sound like much if you’re used to lavish travel benefits, but this is a pretty comprehensive list of standard benefits for a no-annual-fee cash-back card.

Earn Cash Back with Discover it Cash Back

Discover it Cash Back will help you earn 5% cash back from different merchants every quarter when you sign up, such as gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Amazon.com, etc.

You need to activate the 5% off categories before you make a purchase in the bonus category each quarter—but Discover makes it easier to do this online, and you can activate up to two months before each quarter starts.

However, you will only earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter at eligible merchants. Let’s say you spend $1,500 on purchases in the 5% category in a quarter in which you trigger the bonus, you will earn $75 in cash back on those purchases.

You’ll also earn 1% cash back on all other purchases with the Discover it Cash Back. You may want to increase your cash back rate on other purchases by using another card with better fixed earnings or increased earnings in select categories. One example is the Discover it Miles, which also matches the cash back you earn in the first year.

Redeem cash back with Discover it Cash Back

Some cards offer cash back rewards but then make it difficult for you to actually get the money back. This is where the Discover it Cash Back card excels. There are many options and most will allow you to get at least a cent in cash back.

These options include:

• Instant Gift Card or eCertificate, starting at $20
• Charitable donations to selected charities, starting at a penny
• Credit to your account, starting from one cent
• Deposit crypto to any account you specify, starting from one cent
• Pay with Cashback Rewards at select stores, starting at one cent

For all but one of these options, your cash back has an actual value. Gift cards are an exception — some come with a bonus. For example, you might find some merchants offering a $25 or $30 gift card for $20 cash back.

What cards compete with Discover it Cash Back?

Is the Discover it Cash Back program worth it?

If you’re just starting out or looking to add more rewards to your cash back strategy, Discover it Cash Back is a great choice. However, if you’re looking for more consistent rewards or a longer list of benefits, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Last line

The Discover it Cash Back offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter in rotating categories. The card has no annual fee, so it’s a relatively easy option to add to your wallet to use in these categories each quarter—especially if you’ve maxed out your Chase 5/24 slots.

However, the potential cash back in these 5% categories is limited to the first $1,500 in purchases each quarter, and you’ll only earn 1% cash back on all other purchases, so this isn’t the kind of card you’ll use every day.