Discover It Miles Credit Card Review
Key Takeaways
The Discover It Miles card offers a simple way to earn and redeem miles. Unfortunately, it's a poor option for a rewards card when you're trying to earn miles for free travel. The biggest advantage of travel rewards credit cards is earning a large sign-up bonus after opening a new card and meeting a specific spending requirement. This approach is the most effective way to accumulate points for travel redemptions.
This card disguises its sign-up bonus as a points match for the first year. For newcomers to travel rewards, this might initially seem attractive. You could earn 30,000 points and receive a match to 60,000 points at year-end. However, you would need to spend $20,000 on the card to earn those 30,000 points (due to the 1.5x points multiplier). When comparing to other cards on the market, you'll find you can spend significantly less to earn the same amount of points elsewhere.
Why This Card Could Be Right For You
The Discover It Miles card provides simplicity for beginners in the points and miles hobby. It offers a flat 1.5x mile multiplier on all purchases with no limit, making it straightforward to earn miles without complicated strategies. There is no annual fee to consider. Redemption is also uncomplicated, though you'll always receive a 1:1 redemption ratio regardless of how you choose to use your miles.
While there isn't a traditional sign-up bonus, Discover matches all miles accumulated during your first year. However, this requires substantial spending to gain meaningful value, making it less advantageous compared to opening a new card with a high sign-up bonus for a better return on investment.
You can redeem miles as a credit to your account, as cash via electronic deposit, or as credit for travel purchases made within the past 180 days. "Travel purchase" encompasses many categories including airfare, hotels, car rentals, travel agents, transportation, restaurants, and gas stations. Though you won't find exceptional value with the 1:1 ratio, you also won't lose value.
When The Usual Advice Doesn't Apply
The exceptions where this card might not be good for you:
- You want to transfer points and miles to airlines and/or hotels to find opportunities that maximize your points' value
- There are better category multipliers available, and you're willing to put in the effort to track spending and maximize those benefits
What to Know About Discover it Miles
The Discover It Miles program is straightforward and easy, but the lack of significant welcome offers makes this a poor program to invest in
- Discover does not offer transferable miles either, making the program even less valuable
- You can only open one Discover card in 12 months, which significantly limits your ability to collect miles
- The best way to use Discover It Miles for travel is by using them to cover any travel purchase made in the last 180 days
How The Discover It Miles Credit Card Fits In The Discover it Miles Ecosystem
Discover offers several other rewards cards, but all of them are ultimately cash-back products rather than true transferable travel rewards cards.
The Discover It Cash Back card includes the same first-year cashback match as the Discover It Miles card. It also earns 5% cash back on rotating quarterly categories, which can provide more upside if you’re willing to track changing bonus categories throughout the year.
The Discover It Chrome card is the weakest option in the lineup. It earns 2% back at gas stations and restaurants and 1% on all other purchases, along with the same first-year rewards match. Like the Cash Back card, rewards are limited to cashback-style redemptions rather than flexible travel rewards.
If you want a card that allows you to transfer to partners and erase travel purchases from your statement, Capital One’s Venture cards are stronger alternatives:
- Capital One VentureOne: No annual fee and flexible travel redemptions, though the 20,000 mile welcome bonus is modest compared to other Venture cards.
- Capital One Venture Rewards: $95 annual fee, 75,000 mile bonus after $4,000 in purchases, unlimited 2x miles on purchases, and stronger overall travel benefits.
To generate a similar first-year return from Discover’s cashback match, you’d need to spend roughly $25,000 on the Discover It Miles card. The Venture Rewards card provides a much larger upfront bonus, better ongoing earning rates, and more premium travel benefits.
Card Information
Differentiating Perks
Rules
Historical Card Offers
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Discover It Miles Application Rules
Card approval not subject to 5-personal-cards-in-24-months rule
You can only get one Discover card every 12 months