Discover it® Student Cash Back review: Earn 5% in popular categories

WHAT DISCOVER SAYS ABOUT THIS CARD

FEATURED CARD

 

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• Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months.
• $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
• Buy Now, Pay Later: Enjoy $0 intro plan fees when you use Plan It® to split up large purchases into monthly installments. Pay $0 intro plan fees on plans created during the first 12 months from the date of account opening. Plans created after that will have a monthly plan fee up to 1.33% of each eligible purchase amount moved into a plan based on the plan duration, the APR that would otherwise apply to the purchase, and other factors.
• Low Intro APR: 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months from the date of account opening. After that, your APR will be a variable APR of 19.24% - 29.99%. Variable APRs will not exceed 29.99%.
• 6% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%).
• 6% Cash Back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions.
• 3% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations.
• 3% Cash Back on transit (including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more).
• 1% Cash Back on other purchases.
• Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or at Amazon.com checkout.
• Get up to $120 in statement credits annually when you pay for an auto-renewing subscription to Equinox+ at equinoxplus.com with your Blue Cash Preferred® Card. That's $10 in statement credits each month. Enrollment required.
• Thinking about getting the Disney Bundle which can include Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+? Your decision made easy with $7/month back in the form of a statement credit after you spend $9.99 or more each month on an eligible subscription (subject to auto renewal) with your Blue Cash Preferred® Card. Enrollment required.
• Terms Apply.

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See Rates and Fees

Terms and Limitations Apply

Credit Needed:

Good, Excellent

CardName REWARDS

The CardName card has a lot to offer a young person trying to build their credit history and learn the ropes of using a rewards credit card at the same time.

As the name suggests, it is multiple cash-back opportunities that make CardName a great addition to the wallet of any financially responsible young adult. You have the chance to earn 5% cash back in rotating categories on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter you activate. Plus, you'll also earn 1% cash back on all other purchases and the bonus category purchases once you've met the quarterly spending maximum.

Here's where this reward structure gets even better: As an introductory welcome bonus, Discover will MATCH, dollar-for-dollar, all the cash back you have accumulated during your first year as a card member. This can easily add up to hundreds of dollars. Think about it: If you max out the spending in the quarterly 5% categories, you'll earn $75 cash back just on those purchases each quarter for a total of $300 cash back for the whole year. That means that with Discover's match at the end of your first year you will have earned $600 cash back after your first year - and we haven't even mentioned the 1% cash back you'll be earning on all your other purchases that will also be matched after your first year.

CardName offers tools to help you manage your credit, including free credit score updates with each statement, fraud monitoring and the ability to quickly turn your card "off" if you think it's been lost or stolen and then back "on" again if you find it.

CardName CREDIT LIMIT

Credit limits on the CardName vary. While you cannot request a specific credit line when you apply, Discover says credit lines start at $500. In some cases, credit limits may be higher depending on a combination of information provided in your application and consumer report used to determine your creditworthiness.

POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES OF CardName

To maximize your cash back rewards you need to keep track of the rotating categories, which change each quarter. If you aren't good at keeping up with schedules, you could miss out on opportunities to maximize your rewards.

As is the case with all student credit cards, getting the CardName card is not as easy as it used to be. Discover no longer allows co-signers, so you are on your own with the application. And the federal government has tightened its regulations on marketing and issuing cards, particularly to students.

Lastly, if you do a fair amount of traveling overseas or are planning to participate in a study abroad program, you might want to have other options in your wallet. On the plus side, Discover doesn't charge fees for foreign transactions but, on the downside, Discover cards are not usually as widely accepted internationally as Visa or Mastercard.

CardName CARDHOLDER SCORES

CardRatings conducts a survey annually to learn what actual cardholders think of their cards. Here are the results:

*Scores above reflect the results of surveys with actual cardholders. Full methodology below.

HOW CardName COMPARES TO OTHER CARDS

CardName vs. CardName

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CardName is best described as a scaled-back, simplified version of the CardName card. Rather than rotating quarterly rewards categories, CardName offers a straight 2% cash back for gas and restaurant purchases, on up to $1,000 in combined purchases per quarter with no need to sign up each quarter to take advantage; you'll also earn an unlimited 1% on all other purchases. This type of cash-back card is called a tiered-rewards card. CardName does also offer the end-of-the-first-year cash-back matching bonus, so you'll enjoy a match of every dollar you've earned at the end of your first year.

It also offers a $0 annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Overall, CardName could be a better fit for the student who already has enough on their plate (and who could blame you?) and doesn't want to keep up with rotating categories. Furthermore, if you know you spend the bulk of your money on restaurant and gas purchases, you could end up earning more cash back in the long run with CardName.

CardName vs. CardName

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What's nice about the CardName is that cardholders can earn a flat 1.5% cash back on ALL purchases - plus 10% cash back on purchases made through Uber & Uber Eats, and complimentary Uber One membership statement credits through 11/14/2024. This is a good card for those who have expenses all over the place as it rewards you no matter what you're buying - and not just in certain categories. And then of course that limited time Uber bonus is nice for those who regularly use the Uber apps.

The 1.5% rate is much lower than what you can expect with the Discover card, but depending on how you use your card, in the long run it may profit you more rewards overall. However, if you regularly make purchases in select categories, the Discover card may be the better fit.

As far as welcome bonuses go, new CardName cardholders can earn an early spend bonus of $50 once spending $100 in the first three months. That's a valuable - and easy to earn - reward to pocket.

Finally, there are no annual fees or foreign transaction fees to worry about.

CardName vs. CardName

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There is no annual fee with either card and both offer 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in certain purchase categories that rotate each quarter (activation required). With both cards, cardholders also earn 1% cash back on all other purchases. The unlimited dollar-for-dollar cash match rewards are also the same. For all new cardmembers, Discover will match all earned cash back rewards on both cards from the day your account is approved through your first 12 consecutive billing periods or 365 days (whichever is longer).

It's in the rates and details where both cards differ. The CardName has a 0% introductory APR for 15 months on both purchases and balance transfers (then, RegAPR). The CardName also has a 0% introductory APR offer but it's only for six months on purchases (then RegAPR).

As the CardName is designed with students in mind, the credit scores required for each differ as well. The CardName is meant for those with fair credit or who are new to building credit, while the CardName is for those with good to excellent credit.

WHO SHOULD GET THE CardName CARD?

CardName is a great fit for the wallet of any financially responsible college student. The combination of ongoing cash-back rewards and an end-of-the-first-year cash back matching bonus can put several hundred dollars into your pocket.

This is also a strong card for a young person looking to build their credit rating. The card offers credit management tools such as monthly credit score updates on your statements and fraud monitoring, to help you avoid pitfalls.

Survey Methodology: CardRatings commissioned Op4G in September 2023 to conduct surveys among 1,869 cardholders nationwide. CardRatings website analytics from Jan. 1, 2023-Aug. 31, 2023 were used to determine a selection of the most popular cards and additional cards were included to add survey breadth. Responses to each of nine questions were given on a scale of 1-10 and respondents' scores were then averaged under broad topics. To determine the overall score, responses from questions 1-8 were summed and the answer to "How likely are you to recommend this card to a friend, coworker or family member?" was double weighted. “Current Scores” reflect scores from the most recent survey (2023); "Past Scores" reflect scores from the 2022 survey.