The King of All Credit Cards

Let me tell you about my friend Discover.  It is by far my favorite credit card.  I receive cash back for EACH purchase.  They also have this cool program where they feature certain merchants for 3 months at a time and you receive 5% cash back on those purchases.  For example, this month is gas stations, theme parks, and movies (think summer vaca!) and in the Fall, online shopping and department stores (Hello holiday shopping!).  Last year, they even had a 'double your cash back bonus' during the peak of holiday season.  Other merchants featured throughout the year include restaurants, hotels, etc. 

I'm not even close to finished.  They also have a program called 'ShopDiscover' where you earn 5% - 20% cash back bonus when you shop online at almost every retailer under the sun (over 200 of them anyways).  You simply go to the Discover website and click on the retailers site through the Discover site and continue shopping as you would if you went directly from google or as if you typed the website directly into the browser.  I can not even begin to list the top retailers because all my favorites are on there and the list is endless.  But I feel like I haaaave to give you a few examples.... (Lowes - 5%, Home Depot - 10%, Target - 10%, Home Decorators - 5%, The Container Store - 10%, Crate & Barrel - 5%, Walgreens - 10%, Groupon - 15%, White House Black Market - 5%, Ulta Cosmetics - 15%, Ugg Australia - 10%, DSW - 10%, Macys, Nordstroms - 10%, Shutterfly, The North Face - 15%, Underarmor - 10%, iTunes - 5%.  Seriously, the list goes on and on and on from home, electronics, sports, kids, clothing, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, vacations, etc. 

Wait.  I'm still not finished.  What do you do with the cashback bonus, you ask?  Well again the options are endless....you can apply the cashback bonus direcly to your credit card balance, receive the cash (i.e. direct deposit to your bank account), donate to charity (Discover also makes an extra annual contribution to the charity that receives the most donations), or redeem for Discover gift cards, merchant gift cards, or merchandise (with free shipping and no sales tax!).  There is also a new option to shop at sites like amazon.com and pay with your cashback bonus.  Although these are all great options, my favorite of the moment is redeeming for merchant gift cards.  The range of participating merchants includes over 150 partners.  Similar to the list of ShopDiscover participates, the list includes lots of top name brands.  It still gets better.  Your cashback bonus rewards go further with partner gift cards.  You can redeem your cashback bonus for a gift card valued up to $5, $10, $15, $20 more or even double the amount of your cashback bonus. 

For example, I had about $400 in cashback bonus (I like saving it up!).  Since we had planned on purchasing our bathroom floor tile, shower tile, and vanity at Lowe's, I saw it as the perfect time to redeem my precious pot of cashback bonus.  You can redeem $90 worth of cashback bonus for a $100 gift card to Lowe's.  Cha ching!!  So I redeemed $360 worth of cashback bonus and received $400 worth of gift cards!  Amazing!  Remember, this is $400 completely free!!  Just for using my discover card on everyday purchases!  Am I the only one who thinks this is just the greatest?!!  We also processed the order online through the ShopDiscover program so my pot of cashback bonus will start growing again with 5% cashback bonus from the Lowe's purchase.     

Needless to say, in any home improvement project, every little bit counts so this comes as a huge savings for us!  Our $1,000 purchase was really only $600 out of our pocket.  We will definitely be taking advantage of the cashback bonus for future purchases like paint, furniture, etc.  So that's my little story about my beloved credit card.  It's the best one on the block.  How many times did I say cashback bonus?  I dare you to start using a Discover card and see how many times you say it!  Haha I rave about it all the time!!  Happy Shopping! :)