Discover it® Miles

Discover it® Miles is a very good travel rewards credit card, especially the first year. Instead of giving new cardholders a few hundred dollars in rewards for spending thousands within a few months of opening an account, as is common with some of the best rewards cards, Discover it Miles doubles all the miles you earn the first year as an anniversary gift. That’s actually the case with all Discover credit cards right now, just like the Discover it Miles Card’s $0 annual fee and $0 foreign transaction fee. But what’s being doubled matters, and Discover it Miles gives 1.5 miles / $1 on all purchases. As a result, Discover’s one-year anniversary present could be worth a great deal.

Although its name might lead you to assume otherwise, Discover it Miles offers good introductory financing terms, too, giving 0% for 14 months on new purchases to new cardholders. The card’s minimum credit requirement can also be described the same way: good. You’ll want a 700+ credit score for solid approval odds.

Below, you can find a summary of all the key points to consider when thinking about applying for the Discover it Miles card.

Discover it Miles Review Highlights:

• Decent regular earning rate. You will earn 1.5 miles for each $1 that you charge to the Discover it Miles card. That’s solid in the sense that the average rewards card offers just 1.17 miles per $1 spent, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report. But it won’t blow your socks off.
• Great first-year promotion. However many miles you earn the first year your account is open, Discover will match it. So let’s say you earn 35,000 miles the first year your account is open. And since Discover miles are worth a penny apiece, that sum would be redeemable for about $350 in travel. That means Discover’s first-year match would give you another $350, for a total of $700. Not too shabby.
• Booking flexibility. Where you book matters with many travel rewards credit cards, which often require you to use a certain website or travel provider as a condition of earning points or miles at the maximum rate. That’s not the case with the Discover it Miles card, fortunately enough. You can comparison shop to your heart’s desire and earn rewards at the same rate no matter where you book.
• No annual fee. The Discover it Miles card is $19.5 per year cheaper than the average credit card and even more inexpensive compared to many of the market’s best travel rewards deals. With that being said, it’s your expected rewards value minus fees that really counts.
• Decent intro financing offer. At 0% for 14 months, the Discover it Miles credit card’s new-purchase financing promotion is quite a bit better than the market average of 0% for 11 months. That doesn’t mean it’s the best card for the job – far from it, but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due.
• Potential for an extremely high APR. The low end of the Discover it Miles APR compares favorably to the average among credit cards for excellent credit, according to WalletHub’s Landscape Report. But the high end doesn’t even stack up well against the average for people with fair credit.
• Good credit required. You generally need good credit to get approved for the Discover it Miles card, which will make things difficult for about 60% of potential applicants. So it’s a good idea to check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub to make sure you have a good shot.