Do you take Discover?
Written: Jun 26 '01 (Updated Jun 26 '01)
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Pros: Cash back.
Cons: New math finance charge calculations.
The Bottom Line: Not the one to have if you're having only one.
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| bceaglesfan's Full Review: Discover Card |
I’ve had a Discover card since 1988. I’ve had good and bad experiences with it.
I like Discover’s Cash Back:
Cash back works like this:
If you spend up to $1000.00, you get ¼ of 1% or a whopping $2.50;
For the second $1000.00, you get ½ of 1% or an extra value meal $5.00;
For the third $1000.00 per year, you get ¾ of 1% or $7.50;
For your purchases that exceed $3,000.00, you get the maximum rebate of 1% or $10.00 per each additional $1000.00.
If you have a Platinum Card, you can double your cash back on your anniversary date – but not by getting twice as much cash – no, you can apply double your rebate to some gift certificates or products. I take the cash.
I hate Discover’s finance charges
I try to pay my bill in full each month. Sometimes, as you know, it’s just not possible. Two months ago, I paid all but $400.00. I figured I’d get a finance charge of approximately $6.00 on my next bill. Using some simple math, $6.00 would be about 1.5% per month or 18% per year. The actual finance charge was about $43.00. I called Discover and said “what the?”
If you don’t have a doctorate in math, I think it’d be difficult to understand how they calculate the finance charge. It goes something like this: they go back 2 months and calculate it based on the average daily balance of your sister’s IRA times your father’s shoe size and then they subtract the square root of the number of trees in your back yard. If they don’t think that comes out to a high enough number, they send an accountant to Walmart to count the cars in the parking lot and they add that number to the total.
In any event, I thought the finance charge too high. I could have gone to Uncle Guido on the corner and gotten equivalent rates.
Their customer service is okay
Discover credited my account in full for a purchase I made over the Internet from which the product was never received. This was done with minimal painfulness for me.
I like the Online stuff
You can check your balance, see your statements, view recent transactions and even pay your bill on-line.
Other stuff
There is no annual fee.
In sum, I like the Discover Card because of the cash back and the decent customer service.
I strongly recommend that you pay your balance in full each month. The finance charges will eat up any rebate in a hurry.
If you only plan to have one credit card, Discover might not be the best choice. It is not accepted everywhere that Mastercard and Visa are.
Thanks for reading.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bceaglesfan
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Member: Mike S
Location: 25 miles Northwest of Boston
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 108 members
About Me:
Enjoy epinions, family, friends, not in that order, ok maybe in that order.
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