How To Stretch Your Dollar With Discover Card Cashback Reward

Super Combinations for Savings

I went for a decade not using my Discover Card. One of the reasons is a common joke that most stores do not take the Discover Card. Even the animated show Futurama made fun of the Discover Card. Then, when another credit card was giving one percent on everything, five percent on gas, and two percent on grocery store and then I abandoned the Discover Card for several years. Then, I noticed that there were ways to combine Discover Card reward with the available promotional deals. I skirted back to Discover Card.

Terms You Need To Know

First $3000, you earn only .25 percent. Afterward, you earn 1 percent on your purchase until your anniversary month is reached. Then, you repeat the requirement to purchase $3000 before earing 1 percent again. Purchases earning 5% do not count in the first $3000. During the year, certain types of purchases are eligible for 5% cashback; however, one needs to sign up before a purchase can qualify for 5%. You can also earn bonus dollars from shopping through Discover, earning 5% to 20%. Very few places will give you cashback for the Apple Store but you can receive 4-5% cashback through ShopDiscover.
Although there are a lot of participating partners, I am highlighting some of my favorite stores:

Buca Di Beppo

In my opinion, the two best pizzas money can buy are Johnnies' New York Pizza and Buca di Beppo. However, one could get great deals at Buca. At Discover, you can use $20 of your cashback to buy a $25 gift card. If you have an Entertainment book, there are typically two $10 off $20 purchase coupons. (I purchased two Entertainment books for $40 but Fatwallet happened to have a rebate amounting to $7; within one month of purchasing my Entertainment books, they have paid for themselves). So if you get a take-away Supreme pizza for $25, you'll paid around $16.5 after tax, and save $8.5 for another day. If you sign up for the special offers on the site, you can receive regular offers. I don't really consider using my cashback as really spending money because I am not taking money out of the bank or charging money on a credit card, and even if I do have to pay a portion, overall, it is still a great deal.

Footlocker

Have you noticed that shoes for men are very expensive at Payless? My pre-teen son is wearing men's 6-1/2. Our family favors Adidas, and recently we noticed that our purchases with Discover cashback and the birthday offer was better than the savings that I would have received at Citadel's Adidas outlet. You can use $20 cashback to buy a $25 Footlocker gift certificate. So, for $60 cashback, you can buy three $25 gift certificates. Then, if you are signed up for the frequent purchase program at Footlocker, you will receive a coupon good for $25 off $100 purchase. The final step is to shop for Adidas shoes on sale. What's left is charging the tax on my Discover Card. Who would not want to parlay $60 cashback into $100 to buy durable athletic shoes for the family, and just pay for tax?

Brookstone

Have you been to Brookstone and want to buy everything at the store? You can turn $20 cashback into $30. This will come in handy especially around the holiday time when you can pick up a coupon for $20-25 off $100 from the store because it is encouraging holiday purchasing.

Old Navy

In my family, back-to-school purchase is at Old Navy after Christmas. You can use $20 cashback to buy a $25 gift certificate. The perfect time to use this certificate or multiple certificates is after Christmas when Old Navy moves out a lot of that year's merchandise that it wants to clear. The deals especially around New Year's Day can be 40% off the lowest discounted price. If you have ever purchased at Old Navy, you will generally receive a receipt with a survey. Complete that survey and you receive a code for an additional 10% off.

Enterprise

You can use $20 casback to purchase a $40 gift certificate. I don't have a combination for super savings, but I think this one is worthy of mention. This gift certificate is a bit tricky because you have to reserve your rental car through the 1-800 number on the certificate. What is amazing is that once we needed to rent a car for a day, using our gift certificate, we ended up paying $9 out of pocket. Then, we left extra gas in tank, and they ended up writing on a business card that they will give us a 1/4 tank at our next rental.