Evolve Money Update and Discover It Cash Back Clarification ($50 Refer a Friend Bonus and 5% Cash Back at Walgreens)
Good evening, the first half of this post is a follow up to Evolve Money Adds Discover Credit Cards as Bill Pay Payment Source (Visa and MasterCard Payments Coming in 2015). We last left off with a $999 Evolve Money pending charge on my Discover It Credit Card.
I am happy to report than the Evolve Money bill payment posted as a purchase. It is still yet to be determined if these transactions will earn cash back (1%) and/or 5% cash back for being an online transaction for Discover It’s 4Q category bonus. According to Doctor of Credit, Evolve Money bill payments should earn 1%, but not 5%. We will see if he is right…
The bill payment posted very quickly. I think the Evolve Money relationship with Discover could be good. I’m looking forward to when Visa and MasterCard join in 2015.
The second half of this post is a revision to Random News: AMEX Offers for Best Buy and Starbucks; and Discover It Cash Back Confusion. In that post, I tried to decode my Discover It Credit Card cash back and figure out which transactions fit into each cash back section.
I made these 6 transaction last month on my Discover It Credit Card:
I am not sure if this is a new feature on Discover’s website or if I have just missed it for the last several months, but there is actually a very detailed cash back bonus summary on Discover’s website. In early October, I forgot that I referred a friend to the Discover It Credit Card, which earned me a $50 referral bonus.
The $55.15 cash back for the Shop Discover and Promotional section is made up of a $50 referral bonus and 2 Shop Discover portal payouts ($5.15 total). If you have a Discover It Credit Card, you can refer your friends and family members and earn $50 per referral.
The $35.69 cash back for the 5% Cash Back Bonus section confused me at first. $35.69 / 5% = $713.69, which is made up of 3 transactions from Walgreens ($303.95 + $103.95 + $305.79). I am not sure why the last $303.95 from November 4 did not earn 5%, but I hope it shows up on my next statement.
The last $18.43 cash back for the Everything Else section means that $1,843 was charged and only earned 1% cash back. If I add up all the transactions from the last statement, the total spent was $2,843.71. If I subtract the $1,000 in 5% Walgreens purchases, the remaining balance is $1,843.71. It looked like I earned 1% on those purchases, so I earned $18.43 cash back.
2 surprises from analyzing Discover’s cash back sections:
- GiftCardMall.com *does not* count as an online purchase, therefore not earning 5% cash back.
- My November 4 Walgreen purchase did not earn 5% cash back this statement. I will need to track that for next month and see if it shows up there. I hope it does.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
After reading your blog post, I decided to go check out my Discover It cash back earnings to see if I could determine which of my online purchases were actually earning the 5% cash back. However, I couldn’t find the “very detailed cash back bonus summary” you mentioned anywhere on my account site. Could you give a little guidance as to exactly where you found that. I’m sure it’s right in front of my face & I’ve just missed it! Thanks :)
It’s not super obvious like it should be. I believe you have to look at past statements and in a small box on the right hand side you will see cash back details. There is also a link that takes you to a page with all the details (the screenshot with red boxes and text). If you can’t find it, let me know and I will hunt it down.
The referral link for $50 is not the best offer right now unfortunately. The $150 cashback offer has returned. I love to get $50 for referring friends, however not when it costs them $100. Crossing my finger that Discover will up the referral bonus as well, but that doesn’t seem likely.
http://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/discover-it-150-bonus-returns/
You are right Shawn. The $150 sign up bonus is better (I signed up with that offer last year). When the Discover It Credit Card has no sign up bonus (most of the year), then you can refer your friends / family members.
Weirdness on mine too. I had a single (>$1000) Walgreens transaction on mine. The part over $1k ($9.90, to be exact) did earn 1%, but nothing posted for that base $1k. I’m sure it’ll post on the next statement, or the one after that promo ends.
Did your $1000 Walgreens transaction post in October or November?
October 30, it says on my statement.
Gift cards at walgreens?
I buy PPMCCs at Walgreens.
When does your statement close?
It closes on the first or second on every month, so it will be a while until my next statement closes.
The 5% Discover It store promo is only for the first $1000, so I wonder if you have to make your cumulative qualified purchases be $1000 or under. That would explain why your Nov 4 Walgreen purchase did not get the 5%. Perhaps you can try buying something else at Walgreen’s for $286.31 or under and see if you get the 5% right away?
I think you only earn cash back when the statement closes, not as soon as the purchase posts to the account. I’m 90% sure the remaining 5% Walgreens cash back will post next statement.
i was thinking this same thing
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I did earn 5% cash back at Walgreen. Thanks for letting us know that giftcardmall.com didn’t earn 5%, I was about to go this route.
You’re welcome Jake, learn from my mistakes and don’t shop on GCM :)
Crap, I did :-(
Discover is known for categorizing spend, if the Walgreens doesn’t post next month just contact them about it and they should fix it.
Thanks Will. That’s what I had in mind too.
Cal State Fullerton? I did my B.A. and half of an M.A. there.
Also went to HS in Brea. It used to be right across the street from the mall.
Ahh good times at CSUF. I can’t believe it’s been more than 2 years since I graduated from college. Where did you finish your MA degree?
Grant, spending within 7 days of your statement close will result in your CB not being posted until the following statement close.
That seems to be true in my case, thanks for sharing Frank.
This doesn’t jive with my latest statement, as I posted above. I got the 1% base cashback on the WG amount over $1k, even though it posted 2 days before statement close. Maybe this rule only applies to bonus? In any case, I’m confident it’ll post next month or I’ll solve it with one email.
So, Grant, did you get 5% for Giftcardmall? And if not-why?
Nope, it only counted at 1%. Not sure why, I guess giftcardmall.com just isn’t classified as an online retailer. Oh well, life goes on.
You are always so optimistic :-)
So, your Walgreens counted for 5%, right? And what else?
Yes, most of my Walgreens purchases counted for 5% cash back, plus I had a $50 refer a friend bonus.
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