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Discover Announces 5% Bonus Categories for Q3 2023
With June now underway, Discover is looking ahead to the third quarter of the year and announcing what bonus categories cardholders will earn up to 5% back on starting next month.
About Discover’s Q3 2023 categories:
From July 1st through September 30th, Discover It cardholders will be able to earn up to 5% back in two categories: gas stations and digital wallets. Despite the name, the gas stations category will also include public electric vehicle stations. Additionally, purchases made at the gas pump or inside the station will qualify. However, Discover warns that stations affiliated with supermarkets, whole clubs, or other locations may not be eligible as qualification is based on the merchant category code (MCC).
Meanwhile, the digital wallets category will apply to purchases made using the Discover It card via the likes of Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and others. In this case, Discover notes, “Certain third-party payment accounts and digital wallet transactions may not earn 5% if Discover does not receive sufficient transaction detail for the purchase to be identified as being through a digital wallet.”
As always, these 5% bonus categories are capped at a combined spending limit of $1,500. This means that cardholders can earn up to $75 in bonus cashback during the quarter. All category purchases over this limit will earn the regular 1% back.
Until July 1st, current and new Discover It cardmembers can continue to earn up to 5% back on the second quarter bonus categories. This includes purchases at restaurants and wholesale clubs.
My thoughts:
As a Discover It cardholder myself, I love these Q3 selections. First, although working from home means my wife and I don’t tend to spend a lot on gas, we do have some potential road trips planned in the coming months. Thus, the gas stations category should come in handy.
However, it’s the mobile wallets category that I’m most excited about. Considering that most places I go to these days seem to accept Apple Pay, this one almost feels like a “gimme.” As a result, I feel as though I may even be able to max out this quarter’s bonus. If so, it would be the first time in a very long time.
There is one minor and very specific downside to the mobile wallet category, though: it means I likely won’t be able to use my new Curve card to score this bonus. While that card is able to pull over merchant category coding to ensure you get all of the eligible rewards, I can’t imagine that using my Curve card via Apple Pay will then trigger the 5% category. Again, this affects nearly no one, but I wanted to note it.
Overall, I think this is another strong quarter for Discover’s bonus categories — and potentially a good one for new cardholders to jump aboard for.
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