topic Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores in Credit Cards

Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 06:47:14 GMT

I have a new Discover IT (my first time ever with Discover), and I have a couple of questions about how the 5% Cashback category works for Groceries.

1. Are taxable non-food items excluded? I often buy cleaning supplies, pet food, personal care stuff, flowers, etc at grocery stores.

2. Are a grocery store's own gift cards excluded? For several years I've been buying a $300 gift card at Whole Foods, on the 1st of each month, and using that card and my receipt balance as a way to keep on budget throughout the month.

The other day I bought strawberries together with a new $10 Whole Foods gift card at the WF store and paid with my Disco IT, as a test to see how it would break down on my online statement. The transaction at WF shows up, but no specific break-down of items.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 07:13:08 GMT

I don't have an It card (yet) but there should be a way to review your rewards balance. If it doesn't show you how much a specific transaction earned, it should at least show your total. From there do a small transaction and pay attention to the change in the CB total.

But generally everything should count. It goes by the merchant code at checkout not by what specific items you buy.

Since you already buy gift cards, I'd ensure that they're earning the full cash back, then at the end of the quarter prepay out the rest of the $1500 limit in gift cards for the grocery store (especially since you're in year 1 and get 10% back). If you spend $300/mo on groceries, you should be able to cover this entire quarter plus 2 months of the next quarter (5 months of gift cards at $300/ea = $1500).

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

UncleB — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 08:09:28 GMT

Everything you pay for with Discover at a grocery store should earn the extra cash back, even the sales tax.

The only thing that doesn't earn cash back is if you use the 'cash over' feature to get cash back at the register (in which case the 'cash over' part doesn't count); everything else should work.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 12:57:51 GMT

It's the store, not the product that counts. At a pure grocery store, every purchase should count at 5% (except, as has been noted, cash-over).

An open question is whether Walmart stores (and Target, Meijer, etc.) will count as grocery stores for the Discover 5%. The terms of the deal certainly give them leeway to exclude all such stores: "Grocery purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, supercenters, discount stores (or at grocery stores associated with supercenters or discount stores) are not eligible." But even with similar language on other cards, I've had mixed results. From what I've heard, AmEx strictly treats Walmart and the like as *not* grocery. For Visa/MC, my general experience has always been that it follows the MCC coding for the store; if the store codes as MCC 5411, it will count as grocery, otherwise it will not. For Walmart and Target, that's a store-by-store issue. Typically the traditional (going back over 10 years now) Walmart/Target which was a discount store with just a couple aisles devoted to snacks and limited grocery items, those stores code as discount. The Walmart/Target stores which were built from the ground up as complete grocery stores (as most are now) typically code as grocery (5411), and thus do count as grocery for Visa/MC cards which offer extra cashback for grocery. The exception to that rule has been Chase, which specifically excludes Walmart and Target from the grocery category, no matter how it codes.

As for Discover, the only grocery bonus experience I've had with them dates back to 2011, and in that case, at least the Walmart stores I went to, did not count for 5%.

You can bet I'll be hitting Walmart with my Discover card tomorrow for some test transactions.

Chris.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

UncleB — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 13:04:21 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
It's the store, not the product that counts. At a pure grocery store, every purchase should count at 5% (except, as has been noted, cash-over).

An open question is whether Walmart stores (and Target, Meijer, etc.) will count as grocery stores for the Discover 5%. The terms of the deal certainly give them leeway to exclude all such stores: "Grocery purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, supercenters, discount stores (or at grocery stores associated with supercenters or discount stores) are not eligible." But even with similar language on other cards, I've had mixed results. From what I've heard, AmEx strictly treats Walmart and the like as *not* grocery. For Visa/MC, my general experience has always been that it follows the MCC coding for the store; if the store codes as MCC 5411, it will count as grocery, otherwise it will not. For Walmart and Target, that's a store-by-store issue. Typically the traditional (going back over 10 years now) Walmart/Target which was a discount store with just a couple aisles devoted to snacks and limited grocery items, those stores code as discount. The Walmart/Target stores which were built from the ground up as complete grocery stores (as most are now) typically code as grocery (5411), and thus do count as grocery for Visa/MC cards which offer extra cashback for grocery. The exception to that rule has been Chase, which specifically excludes Walmart and Target from the grocery category, no matter how it codes.

As for Discover, the only grocery bonus experience I've had with them dates back to 2011, and in that case, at least the Walmart stores I went to, did not count for 5%.

You can bet I'll be hitting Walmart with my Discover card tomorrow for some test transactions.

Chris.

I know it can vary from location to location (based on the things you already mentioned) but I'm still looking forward to hearing how Discover works out for you this quarter!

Be sure to let us know how those test transactions go!

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 13:09:24 GMT

OP, I love the way you budget for groceries using a prepaid gift card.

Awesome!

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 14:01:59 GMT

I do most of my grocery shopping either at Walmart (which has a Supercenter with a complete supermarket down the road from me) or Food Lion, a regional (Southern U.S.) chain. Actually, has anyone asked Discover directly if purchases made from the grocery section of Walmart will count for the 5%? I get my prescriptions at Harris Teeter (a brand of the Kroger chain), and I think that when I picked up some fairly pricey prescriptions (insulin for type II diabetes plus supplies) there last year and paid with my older Discover during the 5% cash back period, it went into the 5% CB category.

This will be important to find out since I might be putting up to $750-$800 through my new Discover during the April-June period and I want to make sure I don't buy groceries at places that won't generate the 5%.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

DaveInAZ — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 14:18:53 GMT

@UncleBwrote:
@Anonymouswrote:
It's the store, not the product that counts. At a pure grocery store, every purchase should count at 5% (except, as has been noted, cash-over).

An open question is whether Walmart stores (and Target, Meijer, etc.) will count as grocery stores for the Discover 5%. The terms of the deal certainly give them leeway to exclude all such stores: "Grocery purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, supercenters, discount stores (or at grocery stores associated with supercenters or discount stores) are not eligible." But even with similar language on other cards, I've had mixed results. From what I've heard, AmEx strictly treats Walmart and the like as *not* grocery. For Visa/MC, my general experience has always been that it follows the MCC coding for the store; if the store codes as MCC 5411, it will count as grocery, otherwise it will not. For Walmart and Target, that's a store-by-store issue. Typically the traditional (going back over 10 years now) Walmart/Target which was a discount store with just a couple aisles devoted to snacks and limited grocery items, those stores code as discount. The Walmart/Target stores which were built from the ground up as complete grocery stores (as most are now) typically code as grocery (5411), and thus do count as grocery for Visa/MC cards which offer extra cashback for grocery. The exception to that rule has been Chase, which specifically excludes Walmart and Target from the grocery category, no matter how it codes.

As for Discover, the only grocery bonus experience I've had with them dates back to 2011, and in that case, at least the Walmart stores I went to, did not count for 5%.

You can bet I'll be hitting Walmart with my Discover card tomorrow for some test transactions.

Chris.
I know it can vary from location to location (based on the things you already mentioned) but I'm still looking forward to hearing how Discover works out for you this quarter!

Be sure to let us know how those test transactions go!

The thing is Discover doesn't give any breakdown of how much any single transaction earned for rewards. You only get a very basic breakdown on the statement of 5% rewards = $X.xx, 1% Everything = $X.xx. So you won't know how much a Walmart (or any) transaction earned, unless you can figure it out from the statement summary. But in my experience my local Walmart codes as grocery on Barclays Visa/MC, but not Amex or Disco.

For all their other issues, that's one area where Barclays is ahead of the competition as it lists the rewards detail for every transaction, Amex & Discover only give you lump sum statement summaries.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

UpperNwGuy — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 14:15:17 GMT

OP, you need to do your own test transactions at the exact stores you hope to use for groceries. Don't rely on the reports of others here in the forum because what works at their store might now work at your store.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Shadowfactor — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 14:43:02 GMT

@DaveinAZ

Amex breaks down the rewards into individual charges you just have to go to the points summary and then click on activity. It will give you a list of each card on your account including AU for each statement, if you click it. It will show you each charge and what multiplier was used.

Discover is very basic, but once a charge posts it will tell you the merchant category

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

DaveInAZ — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 15:46:54 GMT

Thanks for the tip on Amex, still figuring out all the tricks. I don't recall Disco giving you the merchant category, I'll check again

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 16:51:41 GMT

Chase also does an excellent (and fast) job of showing what an individual charge earns.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 17:40:35 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
It's the store, not the product that counts. At a pure grocery store, every purchase should count at 5% (except, as has been noted, cash-over).

An open question is whether Walmart stores (and Target, Meijer, etc.) will count as grocery stores for the Discover 5%. The terms of the deal certainly give them leeway to exclude all such stores: "Grocery purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, supercenters, discount stores (or at grocery stores associated with supercenters or discount stores) are not eligible." But even with similar language on other cards, I've had mixed results. From what I've heard, AmEx strictly treats Walmart and the like as *not* grocery. For Visa/MC, my general experience has always been that it follows the MCC coding for the store; if the store codes as MCC 5411, it will count as grocery, otherwise it will not. For Walmart and Target, that's a store-by-store issue. Typically the traditional (going back over 10 years now) Walmart/Target which was a discount store with just a couple aisles devoted to snacks and limited grocery items, those stores code as discount. The Walmart/Target stores which were built from the ground up as complete grocery stores (as most are now) typically code as grocery (5411), and thus do count as grocery for Visa/MC cards which offer extra cashback for grocery. The exception to that rule has been Chase, which specifically excludes Walmart and Target from the grocery category, no matter how it codes.

As for Discover, the only grocery bonus experience I've had with them dates back to 2011, and in that case, at least the Walmart stores I went to, did not count for 5%.

You can bet I'll be hitting Walmart with my Discover card tomorrow for some test transactions.

Chris.

I use my Discover at Wal-mart all the time and i'm letting you know now that at least in my area, Wal-Mart is categorized as a Discount Store which is one of the exclusions in their Grocery 5% Cashback.

Per the disclosure on Discover's website:

Grocery purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, supercenters, discount stores (or at grocery stores associated with supercenters or discount stores) are not eligible. Purchases made using tap-and-pay, mobile or wireless card readers, virtual wallets or similar technology may not be eligible. Rewards are added to your Cashback Bonus account within two billing periods. See Cashback Bonus Program Terms and Conditions for more information about your rewards.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

SunriseEarth — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 06:43:00 GMT

IME, Walmart and Target have not coded as Grocery on Disco or AMEX, but have on Visa/MC. However, this can vary by your area. And yes, anything purchased at a grocery store would receive the cashback bonus, so long as the store codes as a grocery store.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 15:10:10 GMT

So how can we find out what local stores qualify for the 5%

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

UpperNwGuy — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 15:35:46 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
So how can we find out what local stores qualify for the 5%

Easy. Go to those stores. Make a small purchase at each using your credit card. Then go online and see which stores gave you 5%.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 16:01:45 GMT

They sure do make it easy to know where to shop for that 5% bonus! If a person were to call Amex or Discover to inquirre what their Grocery code is, would they be able to tell us? Then we would sim have to inquire at th places we shop to see what code they actually fall under.

I primarily shop at Fred Meyer(Kroger), and would assume they're considered a grocery store. Though back in the day the were considered a variety store. Second place is Safeway. If they're not considered grocery, then I don't now what is. lol

Currently I use my Fred Meyer Rewards MC to shop, as it earns decently. But if there was a card that I could get more back I'd definitely use it.

Discover starts the 5%, so it looks like it will have to come out of the drawer.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 16:13:37 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
They sure do make it easy to know where to shop for that 5% bonus! If a person were to call Amex or Discover to inquirre what their Grocery code is, would they be able to tell us? Then we would sim have to inquire at th places we shop to see what code they actually fall under.

Visa and Mastercard offers are usually very clear in the fine print of the offer, telling you which MCC are used for the bonus categories. But the catch is the bolded bit. The clerks at a store are going to have no idea as it is not something they ever have to enter, and good luck in finding someone who could help! And with Amex (and possibly discover), I haven't seen explicit identifiers in the offer.

Some cards (but not Amex) will either show you the bonus on each transaction when it posts (some chase cards) or allow you to see the MCC when you download the transaction (some US Bank) so in those cases you can make a small test transaction and not wait till for the statement to cut. With Amex it takes longer. Don't know about Discover as I have only had the IT Miles, which doesn't have categories.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

UpperNwGuy — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 21:33:23 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
They sure do make it easy to know where to shop for that 5% bonus! If a person were to call Amex or Discover to inquirre what their Grocery code is, would they be able to tell us? Then we would sim have to inquire at the places we shop to see what code they actually fall under.
I primarily shop at Fred Meyer(Kroger), and would assume they're considered a grocery store. Though back in the day the were considered a variety store. Second place is Safeway. If they're not considered grocery, then I don't now what is. lol

Currently I use my Fred Meyer Rewards MC to shop, as it earns decently. But if there was a card that I could get more back I'd definitely use it.
Discover starts the 5%, so it looks like it will have to come out of the drawer.

Do test transactions. Don't waste your time calling Amex or Discover, or inquiring at the stores. The people you talk to will not have reliable information. Repeat: do test transactions.

Re: Discover IT 5% Cashback for Grocery Stores

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 21:49:40 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
They sure do make it easy to know where to shop for that 5% bonus! If a person were to call Amex or Discover to inquirre what their Grocery code is, would they be able to tell us? Then we would sim have to inquire at th places we shop to see what code they actually fall under.
I primarily shop at Fred Meyer(Kroger), and would assume they're considered a grocery store. Though back in the day the were considered a variety store. Second place is Safeway. If they're not considered grocery, then I don't now what is. lol

Currently I use my Fred Meyer Rewards MC to shop, as it earns decently. But if there was a card that I could get more back I'd definitely use it.
Discover starts the 5%, so it looks like it will have to come out of the drawer.

I don't shop at Kroger very often, but I was able to search my transaction history and it looks like they code as Grocery Stores & Supermarket.