topic Re: Unable to PC Discover cards in Credit Cards

Unable to PC Discover cards

SmileNWave — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 01:52:22 GMT

I reached out to Discover last June about PC'ing the rewards programs from my Chrome to the Cash Back, and back then they said that they were unable to. They recommended that I open a new account with them if I really wanted the 5% CB, or wait to see if they were able to PC in the future.

I reached out again, yesterday, and I've been informed by the representative I spoke to that their system for PC'ing credit cards has been discontinued since May.

Is there anybody out here that's come across a similar experience recently?

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

uncredited — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 03:31:26 GMT

There's a few threads about this now. (Mods: do we need to merge this into a disco PC mega thread?)

Yes, it appears that is the case. However the website still shows and advertises it and alerts that they're working on improving it and it will be back "soon".

No way to know if it's gone forever or if they'll bring it back when it suits them. Since the website shows it still and says it'll be back in inclined to think they'll be bringing it back at some point. But who knows when or if they really will I was planning on pc in June, so it was surely a surprise!

The page actually looks different now than a few months ago... Maybe the wheels are turning slowly?

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Zoostation1 — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 05:17:00 GMT

They keep telling me it'll come back in the future but don't know when. My guess is most who have the Chrome (myself included) want to PC to the Cashback card with the rotating 5% categories and they're trying to slow that down. IMO, they really need to update the Chrome if they don't want people always trying to go that route. Now that my one year is up I'm using mine mainly for gas only since I don' thave a 3% or higher gas card. If they did have 3% on gas I wouldn't have as much motivation to go for a better card on gas next time I app for anything.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

uncredited — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 05:54:50 GMT

I still don't actually know what I was thinking when the secured graduated and they asked which I wanted why I picked chrome. I think they did a multiple choice question of what I valued more, changing quarterly rewards at 5% or fixed rewards at 3% and the latter sounded better and I ended up with chrome.

Technically "chrome" is now the name of the student version. "Gas and Restaurant" is the name of the normal one (Cashback is the name of the rotator.). Yet in the app it still shows chrome as the card.

The PC problem I think doesn't involve chrome at all. I think it involves their first year bonus of doubling rewards with Miles. People were getting Miles as a 3% 1 year card and then PC to Cashback, or other way around and get the bonus on Cashback and then get a1.5% card thereafter, breaking the rewards structure. They want people in the 1% block.

They only can fix that if they're changing the rewards programs or adding cards. But it's be surprised if they didn't do that soon.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

SmileNWave — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 12:07:00 GMT

@Zoostation1 wrote:
They keep telling me it'll come back in the future but don't know when. My guess is most who have the Chrome (myself included) want to PC to the Cashback card with the rotating 5% categories and they're trying to slow that down. IMO, they really need to update the Chrome if they don't want people always trying to go that route. Now that my one year is up I'm using mine mainly for gas only since I don' thave a 3% or higher gas card. If they did have 3% on gas I wouldn't have as much motivation to go for a better card on gas next time I app for anything.

It just sucks that my first credit card is stuck only earning 2% on Gas & Restaurants. At this point, I've just stopped using it in general, only throwing a $5/mo recurring charge on it.

Surely the loss of revenue from merchant fees and swipes would outweigh the cost of moving our cards to the 5% rotating categories CB program?

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:26:09 GMT

@SmileNWave wrote:
@Zoostation1 wrote:
They keep telling me it'll come back in the future but don't know when. My guess is most who have the Chrome (myself included) want to PC to the Cashback card with the rotating 5% categories and they're trying to slow that down. IMO, they really need to update the Chrome if they don't want people always trying to go that route. Now that my one year is up I'm using mine mainly for gas only since I don' thave a 3% or higher gas card. If they did have 3% on gas I wouldn't have as much motivation to go for a better card on gas next time I app for anything.
It just sucks that my first credit card is stuck only earning 2% on Gas & Restaurants. At this point, I've just stopped using it in general, only throwing a $5/mo recurring charge on it.

Surely the loss of revenue from merchant fees and swipes would outweigh the cost of moving our cards to the 5% rotating categories CB program?

If they let you do the PC how would you use the card? For everything, or just the 5%? If the latter, they would be losing money. As is probably the case for most on MyFico, but presumably not the general population. At a guess, PCing is much more common for those the issuers are less keen on, those more savvy about rewards options

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

uncredited — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:01:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@SmileNWave wrote:
@Zoostation1 wrote:
They keep telling me it'll come back in the future but don't know when. My guess is most who have the Chrome (myself included) want to PC to the Cashback card with the rotating 5% categories and they're trying to slow that down. IMO, they really need to update the Chrome if they don't want people always trying to go that route. Now that my one year is up I'm using mine mainly for gas only since I don' thave a 3% or higher gas card. If they did have 3% on gas I wouldn't have as much motivation to go for a better card on gas next time I app for anything.
It just sucks that my first credit card is stuck only earning 2% on Gas & Restaurants. At this point, I've just stopped using it in general, only throwing a $5/mo recurring charge on it.

Surely the loss of revenue from merchant fees and swipes would outweigh the cost of moving our cards to the 5% rotating categories CB program?
If they let you do the PC how would you use the card? For everything, or just the 5%? If the latter, they would be losing money. As is probably the case for most on MyFico, but presumably not the general population. At a guess, PCing is much more common for those the issuers are less keen on, those more savvy about rewards options

Based on the way they promoted how easy it is to change the rewards programs and finding the right rewards for you, nd the fact that they only have 3 rewards programs, and 2 are just 1% cards outside the specialty capped categories, I really don't think they were ever worried about that in a general sense. No matter which card you're on, they've got you on mostly a 1% card except for Miles which is a better QS rather than the "travel" card they market it as. I still suspect it has more to do with the unintended "first year exploit" that stems from their promo bonus of doubling the first year, that they probably didn't have back when they launched PC's. The first year doubling combined with the PCs between Miles and Cashback (not Chrome really) opened a "hack" that was basically an invitation of doing the eqivalent of getting the sub then dropping the card.

But how that relates to bringing PC back IDK. The website for it updated, but it also seems you can't link to it directly on their site unless you search for it, it's not in the FAQs anymore, and the "pretty" page for it is only found in search engines. But they're also not the type to leave pages up that aren't actually valid anymore. I suspect they won't bring it back until the rewards programs change in a way it's not an exploit anymore. Either new/chagned card rewards overall, or getting rid of the "first year doubling" thing. A lot of other banks are doing that now (Citizens, Santander, one or two others I've seen come in) so they may be planning on a new gimmick that negates the issue.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

ptatohed — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 17:09:30 GMT

To me, that 1st year match has a lot of value. Instead of a product change and not getting that match, why not straight up apply for the Disco-it CB card?

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

mfinsmi1 — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 23:55:46 GMT

@ptatohed unforutnaely discover does not let you apply for a second card for an entire year - i would much rather sacrfiice my cash match to be able to PC becasue right now i too have a chrome card that is in my sock drawer therefore i am earning $0 rewards as i have no use for the 2% resturants and gas since i have much better cards for those categories (discover was one of my first cards in my rebuild)

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 15:00:00 GMT

This really sucks! And what's up with discover not releasing their 2023 5% calendar on November 1.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 16:58:23 GMT

@mfinsmi1 wrote:
@ptatohed unforutnaely discover does not let you apply for a second card for an entire year - i would much rather sacrfiice my cash match to be able to PC becasue right now i too have a chrome card that is in my sock drawer therefore i am earning $0 rewards as i have no use for the 2% resturants and gas since i have much better cards for those categories (discover was one of my first cards in my rebuild)

So you got it recently (less than a year anyway)? So did you not understand the rewards then, or was there some other reason

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Zoostation1 — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 18:13:45 GMT

@uncredited wrote:

Technically "chrome" is now the name of the student version. "Gas and Restaurant" is the name of the normal one (Cashback is the name of the rotator.). Yet in the app it still shows chrome as the card.

I think Chrome is still part of the desgnation for the regular Gas and Restaurant one. If you click on gas and restaurants on the Discover site the page it brings you to says "Discover It Chrome Gas & Restaurant Card" at the top and my latest statement refers to it as Chrome as well. I also noticed that Experian and CK still reference it as Chrome (for student cards they list out Student Chrome and Student Cash Back separately too). Nonetheless I hope they do allow PCs again so I can switch to the categories. For the next 5-6 months if not longer it's goign to stay just as my gas card, but next go around I want to app for a 3% or more on gas card (would love to have a Custom Cash but I'm likely forever blacklisted by Citi).

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

uncredited — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 19:36:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This really sucks! And what's up with discover not releasing their 2023 5% calendar on November 1.

I didn't know that was a thing, but maybe one more clue that they're about to refresh their rewards program totally. No PCs since May but they say it'll be back. No 2023 cash back calendar. if they're changing it it'll have to be by January 1st if they don't post a calendar. Could be exciting.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

SmileNWave — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 22:54:22 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@SmileNWave wrote:
@Zoostation1 wrote:
They keep telling me it'll come back in the future but don't know when. My guess is most who have the Chrome (myself included) want to PC to the Cashback card with the rotating 5% categories and they're trying to slow that down. IMO, they really need to update the Chrome if they don't want people always trying to go that route. Now that my one year is up I'm using mine mainly for gas only since I don' thave a 3% or higher gas card. If they did have 3% on gas I wouldn't have as much motivation to go for a better card on gas next time I app for anything.
It just sucks that my first credit card is stuck only earning 2% on Gas & Restaurants. At this point, I've just stopped using it in general, only throwing a $5/mo recurring charge on it.

Surely the loss of revenue from merchant fees and swipes would outweigh the cost of moving our cards to the 5% rotating categories CB program?
If they let you do the PC how would you use the card? For everything, or just the 5%? If the latter, they would be losing money. As is probably the case for most on MyFico, but presumably not the general population. At a guess, PCing is much more common for those the issuers are less keen on, those more savvy about rewards options

Admittedly, I'm not the best at keeping track of what spending should go into what card. I find myself sometimes putting dinner on my Navy More Rewards instead of my Amex Gold card, or groceries on the Navy instead of Amex. I'm sure it'd be a negligible difference to let my card be changed to the Cashback.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 23:25:50 GMT

@uncredited wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
This really sucks! And what's up with discover not releasing their 2023 5% calendar on November 1.
I didn't know that was a thing, but maybe one more clue that they're about to refresh their rewards program totally. No PCs since May but they say it'll be back. No 2023 cash back calendar. if they're changing it it'll have to be by January 1st if they don't post a calendar. Could be exciting.

I was thinking that too! I really hope so. Discover hasn't had anything new in a while. It would be nice to see a new card from them. I really like the lender Discover. Yes I have been keeping up with the release of the calendar for the last 2 years and it's always released November 1. I hope they aren't trying to be like chase and announce new categories 2 weeks ahead of the new quarter.

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

uncredited — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:24:22 GMT

Same, I really like them overall, and they've been very good to me. It's a shame that there's not much reason to use the chrome card other than just liking discover, but I do use it. Partly to manage my reporting balance I'll switch to disco because the date lines up, but also whenever I'm manually entering a card for something I can't use the Citi VAN on, handing a card in person, or over the phone, I'll usually go with disco. If something goes wrong I know resolving it will be easiest with them.

If they could revamp with new rewards AND allow existing customers to pc to it, making it a higher use card, that would be very exciting!

Re: Unable to PC Discover cards

Absolution16 — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 07:54:49 GMT

I have the 1.5x Miles card. It was a "forced" and "involuntary" PC initiated by Discover with the reasoning that they were offering me a product that "better fits my needs." I figured they did this instead of CLD or closure since I was ignoring Discover for a long period of time. When I called at that time, I was told that a PC can be made at anytime. I sort of regret not asking them to reverse what they did.

Hopefully, they will revamp their rewards program and allow PCing back again. Despite some difficulties at times with acceptance, their customer service has been mostly positive, and I like that they seem to be entirely U.S. based.

Since I have another 1.5% cashback card in QS, the Miles card has become redundant. They both have the same 5K CL also. I really like that they both have super easy redemptions and No FTF, although QS is a lot easier to use internationally.