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Ouch! This Card’s Profitable Perk Gets Restricted

  • Million Mile Secrets

    • Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

    Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers. This page includes information about the Discover it® Cash Back that is not currently available on Million Mile Secrets and may be out of date. 

    Via Frequent Miler, the Discover it Cash Back is losing a very lucrative element of its most valuable perk!

    Starting January 1, 2018, Discover will no longer match the referral bonuses and resulting sign-up bonuses from the Discover it Cash Back at the end of your first cardmember year.  Which means those bonuses will be much less profitable!  I’ll explain.

    Referral Bonuses (and the Resulting Welcome Offers) Will Become Half as Valuable Starting January 1, 2018

    Discover It Loses Part of Its Charm

    Link:  Discover it® Cash Back

    For new Discover it Cash Back cardmembers, Discover will match the cashback bonuses you’ve earned at the end of your first 12 billing cycles.  So, for example, enroll every quarter to earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases made in various categories throughout the year.

    This generous policy also applies to the $50 sign-up bonus, as well as the $50 bonus you receive for referring a friend to the card.  So you’re effectively receiving $100 from the sign-up bonus and $100 from each referral bonus!

    However, beginning January 1, 2018, your referral bonus and your friend’s sign-up bonus will no longer qualify for Discover’s cashback bonus match.  That’s because Discover will begin giving the bonuses as statement credits instead of depositing them into your cashback bonus account.

    Referral bonuses will also be capped at $500 per calendar year.

    This is a bummer.  But it won’t be the end of the world for most folks!

    Bottom Line

    It’s a shame to see Discover disqualify the referral bonus and resulting sign-up bonus from the Discover it Cashback Match.

    That said, it’s still an incredibly valuable perk!  If you prefer to earn cash back over miles & points, I highly recommend the Discover it Cash Back.  Because the cashback bonus match turns the card’s rotating categories into 10% cash back for the first year!

    Emily and I don’t earn a commission from this card, but we’ll ALWAYS tell you about a good deal!

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)