Continuing to look ahead to 2013… Discover has (sort of) announced the bonus reward categories for their reward cards for 2013. Details can be found below.
As a reminder, Discover (and others) adopted rotating reward categories a few years ago. This means that you can get 5% cash back on select purchases, but only if you manually enroll for the latest offer each quarter.
Here are the upcoming categories (see below for details):
- January to March: Restaurants and movies
- April to June: Home improvement stores
- July to September: “Summer Fun”
- October to December: “Holiday Shopping”
For the 1st quarter (January 1 – March 31), you’ll get 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases at restaurants as well as at movie theaters, video rental stores, online movie ticket vendors, and online movie rental services.
Update: For the 2nd quarter (April 1 – June 30), you’ll get 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases from home improvement stores, including: home supply retail stores, lumber/building material stores, paint/wallpaper stores, hardware stores, and lawn and garden supply centers.
For the rest of the year, the situation is less clear. They’re still using vague names like “Summer Fun” and “Holiday Shopping.” But… If you view the source code on the page describing the bonus offers, you’ll see that the details for future quarters are actually there, but commented out.
Note: There’s probably a reason that this info is hidden from view. It’s possible that they’ll change their mind and modify the offers before they go live. In fact, they had previously listed spring as being home improvement + clothing stores, but the clothing stores were dropped.
For the 3rd quarter, “Summer Fun” apparently means gas stations, theme parks, water parks, and zoos. And for the 4th quarter, “Holiday Shopping” apparently means department stores and online purchases (that’s the same as last year).
All other purchases are subject to the standard rewards schedule. All other purchases earn 1% cash back with no annual earnings limit and no annual fee.
Enrollment for the 2nd quarter is currently open. To sign up, login to your online account or call the number on the back of your card.
And if you don’t currently have a Discover Card but want one…
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I’d really try to take advantage of these cards more, but I find them hard to follow sometimes. I just stick to my 1.5% cash back card that pays out each month – it keeps it really easy.