Discover It^® Miles Card — Full Review [2024]

Great Card If

• You have a high yearly spend and can put it all on this card
• You cringe at the thought of managing dozens of rewards programs
• You don’t fancy the upgrades and status benefits you could get with loyalty points
• You shop at places where you can’t use your other points cards (like Sam’s Club) and you need a gap-filler card

Don’t Get If

• You want to maximize synergy with specific loyalty programs like AAdvantage or Marriott Bonvoy programs (there is no transfer option)
• You want to earn the maximum possible points (many other cards will offer more value/dollar than this card over time)
• You travel overseas a lot (Discover is not as widely accepted as other card providers)
• You’d like to get as many upgrades and status benefits as possible to travel in style

Sign-Up Bonus and Earning Miles

Why would that busy parent be concerned with using the card all year? Because after your first year ends, you get your coveted sign-up bonus offer credited to your account: all miles earned are doubled, with no limit!

The typical user may differ from the above picture, but anyone too busy to track a dozen or so credit cards who still enjoys traveling with their family will enjoy the card.

This card’s normal rate is 1.5x on all purchases, making it an easy all-around card. But the first year double miles bonus really sweetens the deal!

Essentially, you’re getting 3x points for each dollar spent as long as you keep your Discover Miles card for the whole year.

That shouldn’t be too tough to do, since there’s no annual fee ($0) or any other restrictions.

Additionally, you typically get an intro APR on the card. Useful if you want to free up some cash for something else!

Bottom Line: The Discover Miles card comes with an intro APR and earns the equivalent of 3x points for the full first year due to its double miles sign-up bonus! The card has no annual fee.

Card Drawbacks: Weak Second+ Year and No Partners

But, drawbacks do exist. After your first year, you’ll simply continue to earn 1.5x points for everything you spend from that point on; lots of other cards can beat this earning rate.

Also, while Discover positions the card as a miles earner, it actually acts more like a cash-back card.

In fact, one option for redeeming your “miles” is to just get straight cash deposited into your bank account. We don’t suggest you do this for tax purposes, however.

Additionally, the “miles” are actually just credits to your statement for anything travel related. Miles cannot be transferred to any frequent flyer programs and cannot be used in any other way.

Bottom Line: After the first year, you will earn 1.5x miles for all of your purchases on the Discover Miles card. However, these act much more like cash-back since the miles cannot be transferred to airline partners.

International Travelers: Discover How Difficult It Is

Although no foreign transaction fees are imposed, using your card overseas can be tough since many international merchants do not accept Discover.

Perhaps that will change with the addition of chip technology, but you’d be better off using your Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card or another overseas travel card.

Also, after your first year, the card only earns 1.5x points to the dollar, which is the same as the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card but lower than the Citi Double Cash Card.

As we said, the card essentially boils down to a cash-back card that can only be redeemed for travel, so other cards may be more profitable once you’ve collected the first-year bonus.

Bottom Line: The Discover Miles card is essentially a cash-back card like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card or the Citi Double Cash Card. Note that Discover is difficult to use overseas due to limited international presence.

Some Additional Benefits of the Discover Miles Card

On the plus side, you do get a little love from the $30 WiFi credit per year. That should cover a trip or two’s worth of internet access while flying at 30,000ft.

With no annual fee, there’s really no harm in having the card around. They’ll waive your first late fee payment if you don’t pay off your balance for some reason, and you won’t incur a penalty APR for doing so.

Another fringe benefit of having Discover credit cards is that you get free access to your FICO score, which is tracked in a monthly graph for you (see the picture).

This is a very useful tool when developing your points strategy, so you can see how your credit score is being affected by your activities.

Bottom Line: The Discover Miles card comes with a $30 WiFi credit each year and also has free credit score tracking.

Useful for the Family Shopper

Are there other advantages of having a Discover card? Discover has often been the rogue provider that is not accepted at all merchants, though that has been changing.

However, one unique partnership, Sam’s Club, is no longer exclusive and now accepts all card providers. In January of 2016, Sam’s started accepting Visa.

But warehouse clubs are the outcasts of the points world and do not have many partnerships, so you’ll usually only earn 1x points there. However, the Chase Freedom^® has been running a 5% bonus for the last two quarters!

Use your Discover Miles card to your heart’s content at your local Sam’s or Costco to quickly rack up points and fill the gap in your points strategy when you can’t use any other card.

One alternate card for wholesale stores is the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi, which earns 2% cash-back at Costco, but also 4% in gas at Costco (up to $7,000, then earn 1%) and 3% in dining and eligible travel.

Bottom Line: The Discover Miles card is great for those places where you won’t earn bonus miles otherwise, such as at Sam’s Club or Costco (or even Costco Travel!).

Hidden Benefit: the Double Dip

Here’s a somewhat “hidden” benefit of using the Discover Miles card: when you’re using the card to make travel purchases with the “miles,” you’re actually still accruing points in those loyalty programs, which is then reimbursed by Discover.

In a typical redemption, you won’t earn miles for your travels because you can’t redeem and earn points at the same time. Another double bonus!

If nothing else, the card is great during its first year and for a newbie to the points strategy world.

Bottom Line: The “double dip” increases the value of the miles earned on the Discover Miles card slightly, since you can both pay for a travel purchase with the card to earn miles and pay off the balance with those “miles” as cash-back.

How To Redeem Awards With the Card

When redeeming miles for your rewards, there’s no minimum limit. Redeeming 1 mile for 1 cent can be done any time with no restrictions. Discover typically likes to keep things easy, and this is no exception.

Also, there’s no minimum spend you must make to activate your rewards. Pretty generous offer!

Your miles won’t expire unless your account is turned off, and they may potentially get disabled if you’re not active on your card for 18 months or more.

Finally, if you’re worried about airline mileage devaluation, this card can help hedge your bets since you don’t actually deal with any of the airline loyalty programs.

Best Way To Redeem Discover Miles

In true Discover fashion, redeeming miles from the Discover Miles card is simple.

Go into your account and select the redeem option. You will see the number of miles you have available to spend on travel, gas, or restaurant purchases.

The purchases must have been made within the last 180 days, which is a fair amount of time to plan. And there is a note that if you use NFC to pay, the purchase might not be eligible (we’re not sure why).

So, figure out what you’re going to be doing, rack up points, and apply them toward those purchases on your card within 180 days.

A Non-Recommended Second Redemption Option

You can redeem your points as a bank credit as well if you’d rather have the cash for something else. There will be an option to do this, and you just need to fill in your bank account details.

Again, however, there is a possibility you will have to consider this as income and it could affect your taxes, so we find it easier to simply use the credit towards offsetting travel, gas, or restaurant purchases.

Best Way To Maximize Discover Miles

There aren’t too many “tricks” with the Discover Miles card; it’s a simple spend and earn card.

To maximize, use your card for everything in year 1 so that when your anniversary comes around you get double the miles!

A Few Points Earning Ideas

Idea #1: Because this double miles deal essentially makes your first year earnings 3x, you can put bills on your card that you might not otherwise, such as your rent.

Most rental properties charge a 2-3% fee to use your credit card, but since you are earning the equivalent of 3% it will balance out while allowing you to earn all the additional points for your apartment bill.

For instance, at $1,200 rent and 3% fee, you would pay $36 per month in fees, but gain 1,854 points immediately (doubling that is equal to 3,708).

Over the first year, this comes out to 44,496 extra points, which is equal to $444.96. The total in fees is only $432, so you’d profit by over $12, which isn’t much but it’s something.

If your apartment charges a smaller fee or no fee at all, you’ll be making much more!

Idea #2: One potential trick you could use would be to pre-purchase a ton of gift cards within the first 12 months that you’ll save to use afterward.

Of course, you should only do this if you have the spare cash (although the no interest for 12 months will certainly help), but you can essentially “pre-pay” for things to get 3x points.

In general, just put anything you can on the card to earn all the points you can muster!

Hot Tip: You do not get miles for any cash you might get back at checkout, so don’t waste your time pulling lots of cash!

You cannot transfer miles to other programs with this card.

However, Discover is a partner of Diner’s Club International, JCB, and China Union Pay, which are networks built to help you use your Discover cards overseas.