Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
I’ve written a lot about Discover’s current overlapping promotions: an extra 10% cash back for Apple Pay purchases, plus double all cash back for a year. You can find full details here and here. What’s new is that Discover has started telling people that gift card purchases don’t count for the Apple Pay promotion.
When you use Apple Pay with Discover, it now shows a message on your phone that says (bolding is mine): “Get 10% Cashback Bonus on up to $10K of in-store purchases using your card in Apple Pay till 12/31/15. Excludes gift cards.”
And the small text that says “Tap For Details”? When I click it, all it does is open the Discover app that’s loaded on my phone. I don’t see any relevant details there.
Will they enforce the gift card exclusion?
Now that its clear that Discover doesn’t want to pay people 10% back for buying gift cards, the question on everyone’s minds is whether or not Discover will actually enforce this exclusion. Does Discover have a way of knowing what you bought? What if you buy both a gift card and other things? Do the answers to these questions vary by store?
My bet is that this exclusion won’t be enforced. That said, I have no way of knowing that for sure… yet. There is unquestionably a real risk: you might not get a 10% bonus when buying gift cards.
Waiting is the hardest part…
My statement doesn’t close until early October, so I won’t personally be able to check what works and what doesn’t for a while. I’m sure, though, that we’ll hear reports from readers soon as their Discover statements close and they find out whether or not they’ve earned the 10% bonus.
Until we learn more, don’t forget that this is a great deal even without gift cards. You can still get over 20% back on regular purchases if you participate in both big promotions: Apple Pay 10% and Double Cashback for a year.
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[…] Frequent Miler reports Apple Pay has added “excludes gift cards” to this promotion. But I […]
I finally got my first chunk of Apple Pay bonus. It seems to correspond roughly to my first billing cycle (ending Oct 19) with Apple Pay charges, but it’s about $9 short. There is an obvious $75 gift card purchase at a drug store, but I have never received a mail telling me they were excluding something.
Two questions: 1) is this consistent with what other people are seeing? Cash back lagging a couple of months behind purchases? 2) Is there any way I can see which purchases qualified for which bonuses so I know if I have to dispute something?
Data point: just received first email warning from Discover for a $245 purchase – except that the purchase did NOT include any gift cards (I have the receipt to prove it)!
It seems obvious to me Discover is simply flagging purchases over a certain amount, but does NOT have level 3 meta data (or whatever it’s called).
Hey Mark, I received the same similar message from Discover this weekend. I guess they are actively monitoring gift card purchases and removing them.
[…] has been a lot of hype about Discover’s deal of the year and up until now I’ve only been looking at it from the gift card angle so I decided to just […]
Thanks for the heads-up. I purchases ONE Visa Gift Card and one one merchant gift card so far. I’ll update my info here when, and IF, I get an e-mail like that.
[…] people were attempting to get cash back on gift card purchases, which seems like a great idea. Frequent Miler shared a while back that Discover wised up and started warning customers that they would not be […]
[…] of September 18, the gift card exclusion was in there. On the 16th and probably the 17th (or part of the 17th) it […]
[…] September 18, Frequent Miler wrote Discover’s Deal of the Year: Excludes gift cards. Has anyone received an email from Discover showing a gift card purchase was honored on or after […]
Two emails from Apple about this…
#1;
Important info about extra rewards with Apple Pay
Dear Mark X XXX,
We’re writing to let you know that your gift card purchase made with Apple Pay at Walgreens #9751 for $504.40 on September 23, 2015 will be rewarded 10% Cashback Bonus® as a one-time courtesy. Gift card purchases are not currently included in this promotion, and any future gift card purchases will not qualify.
As a reminder, now through December 31, 2015, you’ll get an extra 10% Cashback Bonus® on up to $10,000 in purchases when you shop in stores and use your Discover card with Apple Pay, excluding gift card purchases.
Sincerely,
Discover Card Customer Service
#2;
Important info about extra rewards with Apple Pay
Gift card purchases will not earn extra rewards
Dear Mark X XXX,
We’re writing to let you know that your Apple Pay purchase on September 21, 2015 for $521.59 at Walgreens #9751 included a gift card. The gift card portion of your purchase does not qualify for the 10% Cashback Bonus® promotion.
As a reminder, now through December 31, 2015, you’ll earn an extra 10% Cashback Bonus® on up to $10,000 in purchases when you shop in stores and use your Discover card with Apple Pay, excluding gift card purchases.
If you disagree with our finding and contend that your purchase did not include a gift card or a portion of your purchase qualifies per the terms of the promotion, let us know with supporting documentation in the next 21 days. Documentation can include store receipts or invoices, but cannot include your Discover card statement. You can send documentation via email:
•Scan and then e-mail to promoverification@discover.com
Sincerely,
Discover Card Customer Service
Has anyone tried buying smaller denomination GCs at places where spending a larger amount of money is presumably more normal than drug stores? Like Whole Foods, for instance. If you buy a $100-200 GC from there that doesn’t seem as out-of-line in terms of a purchase amount than at say, Rite-Aid, and maybe less likely to get flagged.
It doesn’t do anything for MSing, but it does help to at least capitalize on the discount if it’s somewhere you’ll ultimately spend the money anyway.
I purchased a $50 VGC from Office Depot during the 1st days of the promotion. Haven’t heard anything about it since. Will post any updates here.
Bad news , just received several emails on gc Apple Pay from Walgreen
We’re writing to let you know that your Apple Pay purchase on September 23, 2015 for $504.95 at Walgreens #9808 included a gift card. The gift card portion of your purchase does not qualify for the 10 Miles per dollar spent promotion.
As a reminder, now through December 31, 2015, you’ll earn an extra 10 Miles per dollar spent on up to $10,000 in purchases when you shop in stores and use your Discover card with Apple Pay, excluding gift card purchases.
If you disagree with our finding and contend that your purchase did not include a gift card or a portion of your purchase qualifies per the terms of the promotion, let us know with supporting documentation in the next 21 days. Documentation can include store receipts or invoices, but cannot include your Discover card statement. You can send documentation via email:
I suspected this would how Discover would play it. Estimate which transactions included GCs, deny the claim and move the burden of proof to the cardholder.
My in box was spammed with all the ones from Walgreen gc purchasing , I suspect they haven’t yet check staples or office max ones, will report once those spam comes in.
Mine was a little more generous!
Future gift card purchases will not earn extra rewards
Dear ###,
We’re writing to let you know that your gift card purchase made with Apple Pay at Rite Aid Store – #### for $#,###.## on September ##, 2015 will be rewarded 10% Cashback Bonus® as a one-time courtesy. Gift card purchases are not currently included in this promotion, and any future gift card purchases will not qualify.
As a reminder, now through December 31, 2015, you’ll get an extra 10% Cashback Bonus® on up to $10,000 in purchases when you shop in stores and use your Discover card with Apple Pay, excluding gift card purchases.
Sincerely,
Discover Card Customer Service
I got the same email that gave me my first purchase of $505 for gift card for the courteous one time deal and then an email saying that future gift cards are not included in the fall fo I got the same email that gave me my first purchase of $505 for gift card for the courteous one time deal and then an email saying that future gift cards are not included in this offer. I posted my emails but my post is under moderation.
I contacted Discover, since my account didnt show any Apple Pay bonuses either, they said it will take them another month or so to process it.. They may actually end up giving the cash back after Dec 31st..
October statement just posted. ZERO ApplePay bonuses on this statement.
My 2nd statement closed yesterday and no bonus cash back. Bought GC’s on 9/17, so no cash back on September or October statements. Also bought a bunch more last month that weren’t on it.
That is two billing statements. Time to contact them or wait it out?
FWIW, last quarter when they had the 5% CB bonus at home improvement stores, my wife and I were at Lowe’s and bought about $50 worth of planting stuff. At the same time, I also bought a $500 eBay GC and based on the CB I earned, I must’ve gotten the bonus on that purchase, too. Maybe this is common knowledge already, but it seems pretty indicative to me that it should work, *especially* if you buy other items with the GC(s).
I don’t think that’s a fair assumption. Discover never said that you won’t earn the 5% quarterly bonus on gift cards.
Good point, I forgot they added the exception for AP after the deal was announced.
Yeah, I’ve never had any issues getting Cashback on gift cards in the quarterly bonus category.
Yeah I am trying this approach. Unless they are notified on the purchase I am making sure that the dollars are not just gift card purchases. I am still not trying my luck at offices stores. I am ok with a guarantee 5% with chase ink.