topic Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar in Credit Cards

2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 13:51:10 GMT

For the 2nd year in a row, Discover announced the 5% cash back calendar for the whole year. No more wholesale club in 2019.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 13:55:07 GMT

Not sure why but I'm not exactly blown away.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

simplynoir — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:44:31 GMT

If I had a Discover IT card the only real "meh" is the 2nd quarter. I guess if you travel a lot it might make sense...

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:03:44 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:
If I had a Discover IT card the only real "meh" is the 3rd quarter. I guess if you travel a lot it might make sense...

We have busy schedules so we eat out or have delivery a lot and doordash qualifies for the 5%

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

patoot10 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:07:25 GMT

Nothing special.

I will use Amex Gold in the 1st and 3rd quarter to get 4 pts which are worth more than 5%

Sams club to get 5% in the 2nd quarter

I have Chase Amazon but not prime so 4th quarter makes sense to grab those extra 2% but since I have too many cards and I use the Amazon trick I probably won't even use it then

RIP Discover

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:10:47 GMT

Only category I will probably use will be the gas, Uber, lyft one. I normally use the restaurant category but since I have the Amex Gold that makes discover redundant.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

dlister70 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:27:28 GMT

@patoot10 wrote:

I have Chase Amazon but not prime so 4th quarter makes sense to grab those extra 2% but since I have too many cards and I use the Amazon trick I probably won't even use it then

RIP Discover

What is the "Amazon trick"? I am intrigued.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

simplynoir — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:45:27 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@simplynoir wrote:
If I had a Discover IT card the only real "meh" is the 3rd quarter. I guess if you travel a lot it might make sense...
We have busy schedules so we eat out or have delivery a lot and doordash qualifies for the 5%

I meant the 2nd quarter there but if UberEats qualifies maybe it's worth it.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:53:36 GMT

Sweet, so between It and Nusenda Platinum Cash Rewards I'll have gas for q1, q2, and q3 and restaurant for q2, q3, and q4. Not to mention Freedom, US
Bank Cash+, Vantage West Connect Rewards, and Citi Dividend. Gotta love 5% cash back cards.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

patoot10 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 15:15:55 GMT

As I said I have too many cards and at this point most of them don't offer the best rewards so no point in putting actual spend on them but you still need to use them here and there to keep them active otherwise the issuer will close them so what I do is every month I would use a couple of my cards to reload my amazon balance by 50c or something small and I do this by rotating "useless" cards on monthly basis then when the time comes and I want to make an amazon purchase (rare) I would use that balance that I have been reloading slowly or just buy a gift card for a restaurant that I frequently eat at. This is convenient because the alternative would be to physically hit the grocery store and buy packs of gums with each card or risk losing it.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:18:18 GMT

Patoot10: Sounds like you're going through effort of keeping cards open just so you can continue going through effort of keeping cards open. If you closed all the useless ones would you still have a decent AAoA? Something to consider

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

patoot10 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:09:33 GMT

I don't think anyone can justify using more than 6 cards on everyday basis. There are those cards that don't earn much but maybe give you a free night annualy. Using those cards at physical stores is an effort but loading amazon is a breeze maybe 5 min every month and I am done.

I will never close a card I dont need unless its costing me an annual fee.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:25:37 GMT

Your logic seems a bit disjointed. I understand keeping cards with benefits like a free hotel night, but ones that don't do anything? If you need the useless cards to keep your AAoA up, that's one thing, but if you're keeping them just to keep them with no discernible benefit and then are having to routinely use them on something like Amazon reloads to no benefit other than keeping the card alive, it just sounds like a waste of time. You say nobody can justify more than 6 cards on a daily basis (which by the way you could have 15 cards and fit this principal, a card doesn't have to be carried daily to be useful, and it's very reasonable to rotate cards out quarterly), so does that suggest that if you closed all of your useless cards you'd have about 6 left? What would your AAoA be not counting the rest?

So I opened the Delta Gold for the bonus, and am PCing to Delta Blue in year 2, may eventually close it as it's gonna be practically useless, especially if I want to open a future credit card with Amex and need another slot. Or say, my Barclay Sallie Mae Rewards card was PCed to Oblivion, so I closed that just last week - it may have had 4 years of history but I have a card with 12, another with 6, and a few more with 4 so I wasn't worried. Plus the more cards you have open that's technically more chances for identity theft, even if the card never leaves your sock drawer.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:31:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Your logic seems a bit disjointed. I understand keeping cards with benefits like a free hotel night, but ones that don't do anything? If you need the useless cards to keep your AAoA up, that's one thing, but if you're keeping them just to keep them with no discernible benefit and then are having to routinely use them on something like Amazon reloads to no benefit other than keeping the card alive, it just sounds like a waste of time. You say nobody can justify more than 6 cards on a daily basis (which by the way you could have 15 cards and fit this principal, a card doesn't have to be carried daily to be useful, and it's very reasonable to rotate cards out quarterly), so does that suggest that if you closed all of your useless cards you'd have about 6 left? What would your AAoA be not counting the rest?

So I opened the Delta Gold for the bonus, and am PCing to Delta Blue in year 2, may eventually close it as it's gonna be practically useless, especially if I want to open a future credit card with Amex and need another slot. Or say, my Barclay Sallie Mae Rewards card was PCed to Oblivion, so I closed that just last week - it may have had 4 years of history but I have a card with 12, another with 6, and a few more with 4 so I wasn't worried. Plus the more cards you have open that's technically more chances for identity theft, even if the card never leaves your sock drawer.

Right, and doing Amazon reloads on cards that don't get good rewards (e.g. 5%) there does equate, over time, to a small annual fee. I reload Amazon 10 times monthly with my Heritage Bank debit card (to meet the rewards checking requirement) but that's because the tradeoff makes sense. (A total of $5 load "wastes" 25c compared to spending with the Amazon Prime card, but enables much more in interest). With an otherwise useless credit card it doesn't.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:32:59 GMT

Yes sir the opportunity cost lol, I do the same thing Amazon reloads to trip the rewards for my Kasasa checking accounts xD because like you say that's a worthwhile trade-off.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

gdale6 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:02:13 GMT

Meh, they need to find a few better ones like the home improvement they used to have. Now to see what Freedom comes out with.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

patoot10 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:13:39 GMT

Amex cards cap is definitely something to consider if you reached 5 cards or whatever your cap is and you want new cards then sure close some cards but I don't think there is any good reason to close an account that doesn't cost you money to maintain.

People like to close accounts because they find it hard to keep track of dates and payments and that's understandable but if you have a functioning process you shouldn't close your cards. If you have an account that's new and closing it won't affect your average age of accounts today, wait 10 years and re-do the math, it will count heavily given that you keep opening new cards in the future which you probably will chasing bonuses and categories.

At the end of the day it's about what works for you rather than a specific norm that people must follow.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Shadowfactor — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:21:33 GMT

The only worthwhile category is gas now that Amex has changed the game with the Gold Card. I don’t even know if I would use gas as citi premier gets 3X on gas.

I don’t even see touching my discover card next year. I don’t even know why it’s still open to be honest. Low CL, discontinued discover deals and no BT/promo APR offers ever (not that I would even use those)

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:35:05 GMT

The rewards aren't bad at all IMO.

Re: 2019 Discover 5% Cash Back Calendar

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:53:49 GMT

patoot10 I'm not talking about chasing bonuses and subsequently closing every card you open, I'm hinting at the idea of opening cards that have good bonuses but that also have benefits long term, such that you won't even end up with many useless cards in the first place - but that these kinds of cards are the exception, so a couple of cards that become useless is ok if you opened like 10 other ones in the same timeframe that you end up keeping long term. But for some people I guess the pack rat mentality towards your credit cards may work better (says the guy with 20+ credit cards)