Discover 5% Online Purchases Question

Hooosier · ‎11-11-2013

We are planning a trip to Disney this spring and we are in the process of booking everything. Disneystore.com sells gift cards that can be redeemed for Disney World Resort stays. Could I use my Discover to purchase $1500 worth of gift cards from disneystore.com to get 5% cash back on that or would Discover know the purchase was for gift cards and disallow the cashback?

nmac · ‎11-11-2013

It all depends on if the company (Disneystore) is coded as “merchandise” with the discover network. I highly doubt that the Disneystore would be coded as anything else but it is a possibility. I guess it could end up being coded as travel. I would buy 1 gift card and see how it reports on your account. If its fine you can go ahead and order the rest if not you haven’t wasted that much money and you still have the gift card.

Quick Silver 2k - Discover 4.3K - Chase Freedom 7.6K - Venture 13K
Citi Double Cash 3.5K - Amex SPG 5K - CSP 5K - Arrival+ 3K
SW Premiere 5K - Citi TY Premiere 3.7K - FNBO Sun Country 3.6K
BOA Cash Rewards 5K - DCU Platinum 10K - Spirit 5K

Mrm-na · ‎11-12-2013

If you have time, the safest way would be to make a test purchase, as nmac said. Note that the cashback reward, if you end up getting it, won't post to your account until after your statement date. So depending on the timing you might have to wait a while to find out for certain if the test was a success.

Gunnar419 · ‎11-12-2013

@nmac wrote:
It all depends on if the company (Disneystore) is coded as “merchandise” with the discover network. I highly doubt that the Disneystore would be coded as anything else but it is a possibility. I guess it could end up being coded as travel. I would buy 1 gift card and see how it reports on your account. If its fine you can go ahead and order the rest if not you haven’t wasted that much money and you still have the gift card.

I believe in this case, with Discover offering 5% for online shopping in this quarter, it's not the merchant coding, but the method of purchase that matters.

I recently booked some travel (not Disney related) and the coding of ONLINE under the POS (point of sale) category was all it took to earn the 5%. I can't answer OP's question with certainty, but I can say that Discover is being pretty literal when it says 5% for online purchases