Jul 7th, 2009
Discover Chips Away at Customer Benefits
Discover has been a credit card company that I’ve liked a lot over time. Not long ago, they called me when they suspected my credit card had fraudulent activity–and they were correct. I like the way they do business for the most part, although I did question their Motiva card a few months back.
That said, they have slowly started chipping away at some of the features I really like with their cards.
Over a year ago, my Discover Open Road card went from a long billing cycle (bill due on the 1st, card closing on the 2nd) to a much shorter one (same closing date but bill due on the 26th). My regular Discover card just did the same thing (bill due date went from the 16th to the 12th, closing date still on the 17th). Those five days can make a large difference in my finances, as I like to hold onto my money in an interest bearing account as long as possible.
One of Discover’s all time most appreciated and advertised benefits has been “cash back”–their rebate that they would pay out in cash (or in other ways) to you once you reached a certain threshold–which was $20.
Until this month, anyway.
I just reached the $20 reward threshold on one of my cards and attempted to collect it; when I used Discovercard.com to do so–as I’ve done many times before–I was informed that I must hit $50 in order to redeem the reward for cash.
$50! That’s 2.5 times the old amount!
While I will continue to use Discover–and trust me, I do like them–this is not a change that thrills me.
