Tag Archives: Discover It Credit Card

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How Right (or Wrong) Were My 2018 Travel Predictions?

Good afternoon everyone.  In mid January 2018, I wrote My Unlikely, But Entertaining 2018 Travel Predictions.  I did not look at that post until yesterday, so it was fun to look at the predictions I had made.  I will go through my 2018 predictions and see how well I did.  Since my memory is not that great, please correct me if I am wrong on any of these.  In a few days, I will share my probably equally as unlikely but equally as entertaining 2019 travel predictions, so check back for that post.  Without further ado, here were my 2018 predictions and the results:

Airlines

  • After the Virgin America merger, Alaska Airlines will add new routes to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean (Correct! According to Alaska Airlines’ website, they did add several new routes of Mexico City from SFO, LAX, and SAN.  Unfortunately, there were no new routes to Canada or the Caribbean.)
  • Delta Airlines will introduce cash and miles award tickets, then American Airlines and United Airlines will follow suit (Wrong!  Looks like none of the big 3 airlines added “cash + miles” award tickets.)
  • Southwest Airlines will increase their Transfarency by automatically keeping track of travel funds in each account (Wrong!  You still need to manually track your travel funds.)
  • JetBlue will add new routes along the West Coast and maybe to Hawaii (Wrong! JetBlue did add new routes along the East Coast, but nothing new on the West Coast.)
  • Singapore Airlines will allow you to book United Airlines awards online (Correct!  Singapore Airlines added the ability to book award flights on United Airlines in February.)
  • British Airways will bring back the 4,500 Avios award price in the United States (Wrong!  Sadly, the 4,500 British Airways Avios pricing band is still not available in the US.)

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PSA: Set Up Text & Email Alerts to Catch Fraud Right Away

Good morning everyone.  A few days ago, I received 2 texts from Discover regarding a Fox Rent A Car charge on my Discover It Credit Card.  Unfortunately, I was nowhere near a Fox Rent A Car location and have never rented a car from Fox Rent A Car.  I quickly logged into my Discover app and looked at the transaction details.  It appears there was a charge for $301.92 and then a refund of $301.92.  The other weird thing is the “THUMB*IT” description name.  I immediately called Discover and told them my credit card was stolen and reported the transactions as unauthorized.  The Discover rep assured me that I would not be responsible for these transactions and would send out a replacement credit card right away.  If it weren’t for the text alerts, I may not have noticed that my Discover It Credit Card was stolen, since my balance would not have increased since the transactions cancelled each other out.  This is a great reminder of having text alerts set up for your credit cards.

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Track Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses, Annual Fees & 5/24 Score with TravelFreely

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few weeks ago, I was in Denver and went to the Front Range Travel Hackers Meetup Group.  At the meetup, I met Zac, the founder of TravelFreely, a website he created to track credit card sign up bonuses (deadlines to complete the minimum spending requirements), track credit card annual fees, calculate your 5/24 Score, and make it easy for you to track your credit cards along with your spouse / companion’s credit cards.  And by the way, the service is completely free and you can set up your account in a few minutes (unless you have 30+ credit cards like me, in which case, it could take a little longer).  Without further ado, here is how TravelFreely works.  To get started, sign up for your free TravelFreely account here.  Enter your name, email address, and click the Get Started button.

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Calculate Discover It Q3 Restaurant Spend ($75 Cash Back Max)

Good morning everyone. August 15 marks the midway point of Q3 (July 1 to September 30), so I wanted to do a quick check to see how I was doing in regards to my Q3 restaurant spending on my Discover It Credit Card. This quarter, the Discover It Credit Card is paying 5% cash back on all restaurant purchases, up to $1,500 in spend. If you max out Q3, you will earn $75 cash back ($1,500 x 5% = $75).

After you complete the $1,500 restaurant spend this quarter, all future restaurant spend only earns 1% cash back this quarter. I don’t want to do that, since I would rather put the extra restaurant spend on my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card and earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar at restaurants. Some people value Chase Ultimate Rewards Points at more than 1.5 cents per point, but I tend to redeem them for airfare at 1.5 cents per point, so 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards = 4.5% cash back vs. Discover It’s 5% cash back (plus, I tend to redeem my Discover cash back for discounted gift cards through the Discover Deals portal). Anyway, let’s get back on track and talk about calculating Q3 restaurant spend on the Discover It Credit Card.

After logging into your Discover online account, click the Activity & Payments drop down menu and click the Search Transactions link.

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Minor Changes to Discover Banking Accounts Coming August 8, 2018

Good afternoon everyone, I just got an email from Discover regarding changes to my deposit accounts.  I have 2 credit cards, 1 checking account, and 4 savings accounts with Discover (thanks to various account opening promotions), but these changes are not for Discover It Credit Card or Discover It Miles Credit Card holders, so if you only have those Discover accounts, this post is not for you.  But if you have a Discover checking, savings, money market, or IRA account, there are a few account announcements you should be aware of.  Here is the email I received from Discover, but the email only mentions which sections were changed, not what the actual changes are, so I logged into my Discover account to find all the details.

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