An exciting new change has quietly taken place over at Discover. Now cardholders who earn cash back can redeem any amount, even as little as a penny.
In the past, Discover only allowed cashback redemptions of $50 even (exact amount) via direct deposit or statement credit, making it difficult to actually use all the cash back you earned via Discover it and their other rewards credit cards.
Even I grappled with this, often redeeming $50 at a time, but wondering what I’d do with the remaining odd amounts. It created a never-ending cycle where I’d need to earn even more cash back so I could again reach the magic $50 milestone and redeem.
I actually stumbled upon the change my accident. I was on my couch tinkering around with the Discover app for iPhone and made my way over to my seemingly untouchable reward balance.
Somewhat mindlessly, I noticed that I could redeem the random $29.53 I had remaining in my account.
I actually assumed it was a glitch or something that I could only achieve via the app, but I later realized Discover changed their terms.
This is great news for all Discover cardholders. All those odd cashback amounts can finally be redeemed. And you’ll no longer need to keep swiping to reach $50 milestones, only to repeat the process over and over again.
Kudos to Discover for making this change…if they want to be the leader in customer satisfaction, this is certainly a good way to do it.
Many other credit card companies still require minimums like $25 or $50 redemptions, which is clearly annoying and somewhat unfair.
For example, my Old Blue Cash from Amex (as seen above) only allows cash back redemptions in $25 increments. And the Barclaycard Arrival Plus only offers travel redemptions starting at 2,500 points. So Discover wins if you actually want to get all your cash back.
Be sure to keep an eye on Discover’s cash back calendar to see where you can earn 5% each quarter. At the moment, you can earn 5% on all online shopping and at department stores (on up to $1,500 in purchases) until December 31st.
And now that entire $75 can be redeemed in one fell swoop, instead of having to redeem $50 and build back up to $50 to take advantage of the remaining $25.
For the record, Discover still requires a minimum redemption amount of $20 if you use the cashback bonus to buy gift cards.
However, you can typically squeeze an extra $5 out of gift cards because Discover offers $50 cards for $45. But the option to redeem for gift cards is going away on April 1, 2015. Unless it’s a bad April Fool’s joke.
Tip: Discover cashback can also be redeemed into your bank account or as a charitable donation.