Discover Financial Services DFS is giving away free money...lots of it....to users of their Discover card. It has always been a good card to carry for those of us who look to maximize points and perks, but the new bonus plan accompanying their just announced deal with Apple Pay is just too good to not share.
The original attraction was the boosting of their 1% cash back to 5% for purchases up to 1500.00 per quarter in categories that change each quarter. A few months ago they added an incentive that doubles all cash back you earn during your first year. You don't receive the bonus until your year has ended, but it effectively increases your cash back to 10% for the bonus categories. It currently is available to all new card holders and old card holders who signed up for it. If you are a long time member and did not sign up, you will have to get a second card to take advantage of this bonus.
Yesterday Discover announced their affiliation with Apple Pay and, as an introductory promotion, will pay 10% cash back on all in store purchases up to 10,000 paid using Apple Pay that post to your account by the end of this year.
Let's do the math. You get the standard 1% cash back (or 5% if a bonus category) plus 10% cash back for using Apple Pay plus double all cash back bonuses for the first year.....an additional 11% or more for a total cash back of 22% minimum. Discover confirmed these cash back bonuses can be stacked together. That's at least a guaranteed 2200.00 available to everyone with enough credit to get a Discover card. For those who want to leverage this to the max, Discover will allow a person to have two accounts provided one has been open for one year minimum and your spouse or maybe another family member could have and additional account (or two).
If you think 10,000 is a lot of spend in three months, consider that Walgreens sells 500.00 Visa gift cards (4.95 activation fee) and accepts Apple Pay. They also sell ebay gift cards which can be leveraged up for an additional 13%+. A lot of stores sell gift cards and accept Apple Pay and more stores will be adding it.
Apple Pay goes live with Discover on September 16.