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. 
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.
@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!
@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.
@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
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
