OMG no one takes Discover!!!....myth?

[Anonymous]

I have always been curious of this. Has Discover grown in such a way where this is a thing of the past, where you dont have to ask "Do you take Discover?"

Or is there a significant lower amount of merchants that shy away from accepting Discover. And is there a specific reason for this?

[Anonymous]

I think Discover is definitely growing, but it's definitely got progress to make. There's an extremely popular local restaurant in my area that takes everything but Discover (even Amex). There's also a smaller take-out restaurant in my area that wouldn't take it either. I also am not able to pay my water bill with Discover (not that I would).

[Discover2016]

So far, I haven't found a restaurant or store that doesn't take Discover, although I do live in NYC so maybe it's less of an issue here?

[Anonymous]

I've found a couple that don't take it, but it is fairly rare. I've also found a couple that say they don't take it, but sometime they forget to mention it, and the card goes through.

[SunriseEarth]

My biggest issues with acceptance have been smaller online merchants.   However, they usually accept PayPal, so I'll just use that and fund with Discover.   I've also had some issues with Discover acceptance at local restaurants.   I still wouldn't rely Discover as my only card at this point.  

[longtimelurker]

Some very minor things, such as parking meters and ticket parking in my area only take V/MC, and at least some machines at the airport (which is more significant as this can be hundreds of dollars) don't take Discover.

But in the US, by number of establishments, Discover is nearly equal with V/MC and exceeds Amex

[iv]

The only "brick and mortar" locations that I've noticed not accepting Discover around here in the last decade were the DMV and a local hibatchi restaurant.

Sometimes run into online payment processors that only accept a seemingly-random subset of card networks. (Visa but not MC... that sort of thing.)

That's in the US, of course.  Outside the US, Discover still has less coverage.

[Anonymous]

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@Discover2016 wrote:

So far, I haven't found a restaurant or store that doesn't take Discover, although I do live in NYC so maybe it's less of an issue here?

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Another New Yorker here, and I'm constantly finding places that don't take Discover. Mostly restaurants and smaller local stores, but if it's not a large chain I always ask.

[Anonymous]

I can only think of Costco and a parking garage as merchants that took Amex but not Discover.

Quite a few places just take Visa and MC, though.

[Anonymous]

Let's remember: Not every card is accepted everywhere. A vending machine wouldn't take Amex, a dollar store wouldn't take a MasterCard, my school library wouldn't take VISA.