If you’re a good student in need of a credit card, you can get awarded simply for maintaining a solid GPA.
Discover Good Grades Reward
- Credit card issuer Discover wants to reward students who study hard
- By giving them a “Good Grades Reward” of $20 each year
- In which they maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher
- You can claim it for 5 years for a total of $100 free cash!
It’s part of the new “Good Grades Reward” promotion from Discover, which gives students a $20 Cashback Bonus for each school year in which they maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
The $20 bonus is available for up to five years, meaning students enrolled in the program for their entire college tenure can earn $100.
Additionally, because new Discover it cardholders are now earning double cash back for their first year, students can snag $40 via the Good Grades Reward during year one.
Discover Student Credit Cards Are Better Than Most
- Most student credit cards don’t even come with a sign-up bonus
- The Discover student credit card comes with $50 just for making a purchase
- And when combined with the Good Grades Reward of $20
- And the Cashback Match the first year you can get $140
At the moment, there’s a $50 sign-up bonus (find the right offer link or look for a referral) after you make your first purchase with the Discover it Student card, so it can be a pretty lucrative offer, especially for a student credit card.
Typically, student credit cards don’t come with any sign-up bonuses to speak of other than a Snickers bar or a lousy t-shirt.
With either the Discover it Student Cash Back or Discover it Chrome for Students card, you can get $50 just for making your first purchase, assuming you use the right link to sign up.
And thanks to Cashback Match, which doubles ALL your cash back during the first year of cardmembership, you can earn $100 as a sign-up bonus.
Once you factor in the Good Grades Reward, assuming you have good grades, it’s $140 total in year one. That’s $20×2 plus the aforementioned $100. But you already knew that because you’re a good student.
Qualifying for the Discover Good Grades Reward
- Simply apply for the Discover it Student Cash Back
- Or Discover it Chrome for Students card
- Indicate that you’re a student (undergrad or graduate school)
- Maintain a B average then claim your $20 via the Discover website
In order to be eligible for the promotion, you need to apply for either the Discover it Student Cash Back or Discover it Chrome for Students card and indicate that you are currently enrolled in college (undergrad or graduate school).
This should be auto-populated in the application (as your employment status) if you apply for a student version of the cards mentioned. You’ll see “not a student” text in the application to indicate you’re in the right place.
A Discover online chat representative told me, “You do have to have to be approved for a student version to qualify for this.”
So be careful to apply for the correct version of the card to ensure you actually receive the bonus.
As stated, you also need a GPA of 3.0 (or equivalent) during a given school year (September – August).
That equates to a “B” average or 85% or higher if it’s based on a 0-100% scoring range.
Redeeming Your Good Grades Reward
Once you’ve signed up for one of these cards (it only applies to new cardmembers of as July 23, 2015), you have to log into your Discover account online and enter your GPA or equivalent grade for any term during the school year.
You can find this under the “Good Grades Reward” link once you click on your credit card summary. If not, you may want to call Discover to ensure they know you’re a student and registered for the promotion.
It should show your current school details, along with radio buttons for grading scale and GPA. Then it’s as easy as entering the scale and your GPA.
Discover may request additional documentation, such as transcripts, but this isn’t a necessity.
Within 1-2 billing periods, you’ll receive the $20 Good Grades Reward in your Cashback Bonus account.
As far as verifying your GPA, Discover said it may request additional documentation to verify that you did indeed maintain the grades necessary for the bonus.
Your account also has to be open and in good standing at the time of requesting the bonus, meaning no late payments!
For the record, the student versions of Discover it also come with the rotating 5% cash back categories, along with 1% cash back elsewhere.
And as noted, new cardmembers get double cash back the first year, which also applies to the $20 Good Grades Reward.
All in all, this is a great offer for a student credit card because most offer little to no cash back bonus.
However, if you’ve got good credit and can apply for a traditional credit card you might be able to get your hands on a much better opening bonus.
Either way, study hard and get good grades!