Discover one of the better cards . . .
Written: Jul 26 '02
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Pros: Rewards, excellent conflict resolution, special promotions.
Cons: Some customer service issues, not the most widely accepted, rebate rate lower at certain merchants.
The Bottom Line: If you don't typically use credit cards for credit, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better choice than Discover Platinum.
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| tizzo's Full Review: Discover Card |
Let me start with some background information on how and why I use credit cards. I believe that I am atypical, and therefore some of the information in this review may not be useful to everyone (and more importantly, some information that might be of prime importance will not be found here).
I'm one of those people, reviled by card issuers, that never carries a balance on a credit card. When I was in graduate school, I started using credit cards to establish a credit history. During this time, I did in fact carry a balance occasionally when money was tight (I was only paid for my assistantship monthly, but food and housing fees were due up front at the beginning each semester). Later, credit cards became simply a convenient way to spend money that I already had, while continuing to build a credit history. With the advent of the check card, I no longer needed a credit card for this kind of convenience. This left me with only three main benefits that serve as differentiators between credit cards, and those are the ones that I will discuss in this Epinion. Note that I fully appreciate that the typical credit card user will be interested in things like finance charges, cash advance fees, and the like. While I cannot address these issues, because I don't have any personal experience, I would refer anyone looking for more information to the review by Bryan Carey located at http://www.epinions.com/content_65649282692
Credit Card Differentiators
As I mentioned, there are three criteria that I use to differentiate between credit cards. These are:
o Rewards/No Annual Fee
o Customer Service
o Conflict Resolution
I will discuss these, and how Discover Card rates on each, in the remainder of this Epinion.
Rewards/No Annual Fee
First, I won't even consider carrying a card with an annual fee. Card issuers charge merchants for every use of a credit card, a cost which is passed on to me in the price of the products I buy. I see no reason to pay twice for the same service. Furthermore, because I represent essentially zero cost to the issuer, I expect to get a little something back, and therefore I won't carry a card that won't pay me some kind of reward.
Credit card rewards usually take one of two forms. You will either earn a cash back rebate (generally a fixed or tiered percentage of your purchases), or points that you accumulate towards the purchase of merchandise. Discover is a cash rebate card with a tiered rebate rate. Discover Platinum is a hybrid, in that you get the same tiered rebates as with a normal Discover card, but with the option of using your rebates to purchase merchandise from their rewards catalog in lieu of cash. By opting to spend your rebate in the rewards catalog, you double the amount of your rebate. In other words, you can buy something from the catalog that would normally cost $40 for just $20 in rebates, for example.
In addition to the normal rebates, Discover has some pretty nice partnership deals in their online "Shop Center". A good example (and my favorite) is a whopping 7% cashback bonus on purchases from Barnes & Noble's online bookstore. They also advertise free shipping on orders of two or more items, as if it was an exclusive Discover card member benefit, but this is BN's standard policy, available to all online shoppers.
About the only "con" I can identify here is that at certain merchants, most notably the warehouse clubs like Sam's and BJ's (which I shop frequently), the rebate is limited to 0.25% of the purchase, no matter where you are in the tiered rebate structure. Discover is by no means unique in this respect, by the way. Other rewards cards I carry pay NO rebate at wholesale clubs, if they're accepted at all. For example, Discover is the ONLY credit card accepted as some Sam's Club locations.
Customer Service
Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Discover is the way they handle payments, which I'll lump into the customer service area. As another reviewer indicates, Discover's late fee is fairly high. The problem I've had is that they seem to hold payment longer and longer before posting it to my account. I use online banking (thankfully) to pay my bills, which provides me with a verification on when my payment is actually transferred from the bank to Discover. I am always very careful to schedule payment so the transfer happens at least a couple of business days before the payment is due, so that there can be no chance of it being late. Nevertheless, twice in the past year Discover has delayed posting of my payment to my account sufficiently that the payment appeared after the due date, even though funds were electronically transferred out of my bank account (and into Discover's possession) several days before the due date, and fees and interest were charged to my account.
In both instances the issue was resolved by telephone. However, the first time the customer service rep was almost hostile with me, initially blaming the error on me and telling me I'd just have to pay earlier next time. I ended up calling my bank to verify transfer date. The bank offered to conference me in with a Discover customer service representative and plead my case. After some continued resistance, Discover finally agreed to remove the charges from my account. But they still insisted that the two days lead time I was allowing for my payment to clear was insufficient. Both Discover and my bank recommended that I increase the lead time to four days in the future, which I did.
In spite of this, a second incident occurred more recently. However, I did get better service this time, including an apology and an immediate reversal of the charges. Although, believe it or not, they also recommended that I further increase my payment lead time to even longer than four business days.
In summary, although everything worked out in the end, in this area Discover left me feeling like I'd had to do their job for them. This remains my one area of dissatisfaction with Discover.
Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is the term I use for the way a credit card company handles a dispute between a customer and a merchant. If you ever have a problem with a merchant, such as ordering something and then not receiving it, being overcharged for something, or buying something and finding it defective, and negotiations with the merchant leave you unsatisfied, most credit card companies will act as a mediator between the customer and the merchant, and will back the result of their findings by crediting the customer and withholding payment from the merchant, if appropriate.
While this is a fairly typical service, every card company I've dealt with (other than Discover) has required me to submit a form, in writing, detailing my complaint; has told me I'd have to wait several months for them to investigate; and has even discouraged me from even trying to use the process. My experience with Discover was quite different, however.
In the first case, the merchant was CDNow.com. I ordered a CD from them, and they inadvertently sent me two copies in two different shipments, charging me for both. I called them to find out what I should do, and they said send back the extra copy (which I did, at my own expense) and they'd credit my card. Several weeks went by with no credit, so I called them to see what was going on. They claimed not to have received the return, and told me that I should have sent it registered mail, and I'd have to pay for it. I tried to explain that, since I had never even ordered it, they were obligated to refund my money, and that I was not even required to return the CD in the first place. They did not see it that way. I contacted Discover about the matter, they credited my account for the extra charge, and that was the last I ever heard about the matter.
Where they most impressed me, however, was in one more recent incident. The merchant was a limousine company that I hired to take my wife and me to and from the airport for our honeymoon. The trip to the airport went fine, and I paid the driver with my Discover card. The return trip, however, was a different story, as the driver did not even show up! The short version is that I called them from the airport, and was assured that they were within minutes of my location and I should just wait for them. But several phone calls and an hour and a half later they still had not arrived. So I called another limo service from the airport's list of on-call car services, thinking that was the end of it. When I got my Discover card statement a couple of weeks later, I was flabbergasted to find that the original limo company had charged my card for both trips, including the one for which they did not show up! I ended up calling Discover, and after taking all the details down over the phone, they immediately credited my account for the disputed charge, instructed me to omit it from my payment, and said they would take it up with the merchant. That was the last I ever heard of the matter, and I remain impressed to this day.
There are many shady businesses out there, especially if you're a bargain hunter like me. Unfortunately, law enforcement authorities usually have bigger fish to fry, and the civil justice system is not exactly accessible to the average person with a $50 gripe against someone like my infamous limo company. That's when it's nice to have someone like Discover in your corner.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tizzo
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Location: Melbourne, FL, USA
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 28 members
About Me:
I'm a Software Engineer from NJ, now living in Melbourne, FL.
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