EDIT: My understanding of the program has been corrected. If you sign in after joining in to the offer, you’ll have access to a dashboard that tracks your progress. This boils down to a 3 points per dollar offer if you don’t take advantage of the Shop Discover of 5% category bonus, and 8% if you combine the two. It does top 10% when you combine all three – the $75, 5%, and Shop Discover. I’ve edited the post accordingly to reflect the full term length of the program and didn’t maintain the original bad math since it’s only been live about 12 hours.
I’ve only recently started using my Discover card again, but I will be using it in cooperation with my Chase Freedom for the summer. I signed in to schedule a payment and found the following promotion:
$75 Cashback Bonus Offer
Spend $500 every month 05/01/2014 – 09/30/2014 and then get $75 Cashback Bonus
Simple math here. $75/($500*5) = 3%. Go find the offer and sign up for it!
Your Decision
OK, remember those books where you had to choose one of two options and flip to different pages based on that decision…some times you’d end up in a pit of venomous snakes, other times you were heroically flying the skies in a hot air balloon.
Here’s your decision. Keep reading for the complicated method, whereby you can earn upwards of 10% back. Or, scroll down to the big “STOP!” and I’ll give you a nice and easy way to take advantage of this offer.
Discover also is offering 5% back currently at home improvement stores. The two big ones, of course, are Lowe’s and Home Depot. Visit either and you’ll find they carry gift cards for BP, Southwest, Shell, Macy’s, etc. Connect the dots here, people – buy gas cards here, earn 5% back. Spend $500, earn another 3% back. Your target should be to spend exactly $500.
5% of $500 is going to be $25. Do this for five months.
$75 + $25*5 = $200
$200/$2500 = 8%! If you’re buying gas for $4.00/gallon, you could be saving about a quarter per gallon.
If you’re planning to fly any time soon, you could save a bit of money this way – but please note that Southwest limits the redemption of three (or four?) gift cards per purchase. So, you could just book your outbound and return separately.
This deal gets even better when you take advantage of Shop Discover. I am going to make a LivingSocial purchase, which gets me another 10% back. If you actually had something to purchase at Home Depot, go online and buy online with in-store pickup; you’ll net another 5%. Macy’s is currently offering a 10% bonus. The list goes on! Land’s End is 10%. I’ve previously talked about using Land’s End gift cards at Sears to buy gift cards (BP, Shell, Southwest).
You get the picture. Now…what to do with that $200 CashBack credit? Redeem it for gift cards! A Land’s End gift card valued at $100 can be purchased with $80 in CashBack. …rinse and repeat, go get a gas card with it. $40 in CashBack is worth a $50 Express gift card. Lots of options. Though not a super deal, you can get a $75 Shell for $70.
How about a final tally?
- Let’s pretend I spend a quarter of the $2500 online, earning a 10% bonus, and the rest at Lowe’s/Home Depot stocking up on gas cards and the like (there is a way to liquidate those cards, but I will not make it that easy for you!). That’s $62.50 from online and $93.75 from in-store. $156.25.
- I get $75 for hitting $500. Total with bonus above is $231.25.
- I feel like shopping at Land’s End (Sears) and redeem two $80 to get a two $100 gift certificate.
- I still feel like shopping at Land’s End. I redeem three $20 for three $25.
- You earn the standard 1% back, so that’s another $25.
My total out of pocket was $2,500. I could have called back my $156.25 + 75 + 5 = $236.25 as a credit to my statement/bank account (9.45% back) but I’m going to go a little bit further and rack up an extra $40 + $15 worth of value, or $236.25 + $55 = $291.25, that divided by $2500…11.65%!
Go and be creative! I think you should be able to accumulate at LEAST 8% back on the first $500 you put on your Discover card this month. If you’ve got a Chase Freedom card, use that for restaurants up to $1,500 – don’t use your Discover for restaurants unless you really only spend $500/mo.
Don’t have a Discover card? Here’s a link to get you $50 just for signing up and using the card ONCE. I’ll get $50, too – so thanks! I opened a Discover card a few years ago to take advantage of the 0% APR on the balance transfer from my flight school expenses, and it has turned out to be a great card to hang on to.
Let me know if any of this is unclear – I know it sounds complicated, but you can do it!
STOP!
Oh, hi. You skipped all the math, huh? No worries – some day you’ll go back and get the details.
Our simple goal here is to spend $2,500 (in $500 monthly increments) and cash in on a $75 credit, right? Well, one way to do that is by front loading on gift cards, such as gas cards, restaurant gift cards, etc – things you will use later on. I have a better idea.
Check your balance just prior to the end of the month (or your billing cycle – I gotta clarify which it is). Maybe you’ve only spent $200 this month (how? I envy you). Go visit Staples, Office Depot, the grocery store – whatever! Find the gift card rack, where you’ll be able to locate such gems as Visa or Mastercard Prepaid Debit Cards in denominations of $100 or $200 with a $5 or $6 fee. Buy however many you need to hit the $500 mark. If you need to spend the full $500, you might end up buying five $100 cards and paying $6*5 = $30 in fees. Not good! You’re only going to get $15 back monthly. Try not to put more than one $100 card (or one $200 if you can find it), and only do this if you’re sure you’re going to spend it the next month…and pay off the statement1
If you have come up just shy of $500, just buy what you need. A simple $25 gas card doesn’t come with a fee, and you know you’ll use it eventually. Maybe in the following month you’ll burn through gift cards or those debit cards (I don’t recommend running up an unnecessary credit card balance).
Be smart about this and you can save yourself a chunk of money on the expenses you’ll incur on a monthly basis. If you’re like me, you spend $75/week at the grocery store and $100/mo on cable, internet, cell phone – if not more, I’m shocked. This will be $400 of the $500 and you haven’t even turned the electricity on to use your gadgets and cook your food.
Just in case you missed the link…
Don’t have a Discover card? Here’s a link to get you $50 just for signing up and using the card ONCE. I’ll get $50, too – so thanks! I opened a Discover card a few years ago to take advantage of the 0% APR on the balance transfer from my flight school expenses, and it has turned out to be a great card to hang on to.
wingtips 
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