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 high 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 — 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
Several other Discover Rewards credit cards exist in the market, but they are all cash back products. The Discover It Cash Back card offers the same dollar-for-dollar match at the end of the first year like the Discover It Miles card. It also provides 5% cash back on everyday purchases at different places each quarter. The Discover It Chrome card is similar to the Cash card but offers 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants, with 1% on all other purchases. It features the same matching bonus as the other two cards. Neither has an annual fee, and both are cash back cards, so you cannot redeem rewards for travel-related purchases as you can with the Discover It Miles card.
For travel redemption options, you'll need to look beyond the Discover family of cards. Capital One offers a similar feature where you can redeem miles for travel-related purchases to effectively "cancel them out." The no-fee option is the Capital One VentureOne card. For enhanced benefits, consider the Capital One Venture Rewards card, which has a $95 annual fee but comes with an attractive welcome offer of 75,000 miles (with past elevated offers reaching 90,000) after spending $4,000. To receive an equivalent bonus with the Discover card's one-year matching bonus, you would need to spend $25,000. Combined with 2x miles on all purchases versus Discover's 1.5x miles, the Venture clearly represents better value, not to mention its additional benefits compared to the Discover card.
Card Information
| Bonus Points | Minimum Spend | Point Value | Annual Value | Annual Fee |
1st Year Value
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $1 | 1.0 ¢ | $0 | $0 |
$0
|
| Best Value | Differentiating Perks | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Cash Back, Travel | Discover will match every mile for the first year giving 3% cash back on all categories for the first year | No 5/24 |
Spend Categories
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
3X points
3¢ Per Dollar Spent
Card Benefits
You will pay no foreign transaction fees when you use your card for purchases made outside the United States.
Discover It Miles Application Rules
Card approval not subject to 5-personal-cards-in-24-months rule
