@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It can easily be argued though that because of the match, the Discover is more useful than those other cards you get just for the SUB though. That’s the point. Disco’s way of doing it is genius because it pushes you to use their card 9 months longer than the competition.
Well, it could be argued, but it would be wrong! With Discover Deals gone the maximum the doubled card in the 5% categories will give you is $600, of which $300 won't come until the end of the year. This is $480 more than with a 2%, which is good, but a) the assumes max out every quarter, and b) an e.g. $500 sub is more valuable, especially as it comes much sooner.
(I'm still not counting the first year doubling of 1% to 2%, because if you are into rewards you should have a 2% card anyway!)
The genius is for Discover and not for the user. And even then, some of the traditional SUBs encourage HEAVY usage early on, so $4K in three months has some value for the issuer, whereas there is a little point in me spending more than $3K in the first 6 months with Discover.
You are looking at rewards chasers which aren’t even close to the bulk of people who go for credit cards. The average person will get the card, use it for the match, and likely keep using it after the match is over without thinking twice.
Look how many people still use debit cards and earn 0...
You can’t throw away my comparison with SUBs on other cards because you brought it up to begin with. Disco’s plan gets most people to use their card for an extra 9 months over a card someone got just for a SUB, it’s a genius strategy. It’s not the dollar amount that makes them money anyway, it’s the swipes, and by removing all of the protections from their cards they pretty much insure that hardcore credit card users won’t be making big purchases anyway but lots of smaller ones = more fees.
