Discover card welcome offers don’t tend to be very generous which is partly due to the fact that they don’t have an annual fee.
They do offer a referral program though which usually offers a $50 bonus for both the referrer and the person being referred. Discover has – presumably temporarily – increased that bonus to $100 for both parties. There’s no large spend requirement to earn that $100 bonus as it’s awarded after your first purchase.
In addition to the $100 welcome offer, the Discover It Miles card earns 1.5% on all purchases which gets doubled in the first year, making it a 3% credit card for your first 12 months of card membership. The $100 referral bonus isn’t awarded as “miles” though, so that sadly doesn’t get doubled at the end of your first year.
The Offers
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
 ⓘ $100 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates $100 + First Year Double ⓘFriend-ReferralThis is a friend-referral offer. A member of the Frequent Miler community may earn a referral bonus if you are approved for this offer Get $100 after first purchase. All "miles" earned in first 12 months will be doubled. This makes this a 3% cash back card for the first year. No Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Great card to get for its first year 3% cash back. Earning rate: 1.5 miles per dollar for all spend. Base: 1.5% Card Info: Discover issued by Discover. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: ✦ No foreign transaction fees ✦ Redeem miles for travel or for cash back (1 cent per mile either way) |
At the bottom of the application form is the following wording:
You will receive a $100 Statement Credit after making a purchase within three months of account opening. You must apply through your friend’s referral link and be approved by December 31,2020 in order to be eligible for the $100 Statement Credit offer. Offer may not be combined with any other introductory offer. Promotional award will be applied within 8 weeks.
It’s not clear if you’ll be able to generate referral links for this $100 offer through the end of the year, so it would be worth generating a link now in case the referral offer gets reduced as it looks like links generated now will be valid until December 31.
If you’re in 2 player mode, you can earn a total of $200 with this offer if one of you already has a Discover It Miles card – $100 for the referrer and $100 for the person being referred.
When generating a referral link, Discover lists the following exclusion:
Existing Discover cardmembers and those who have opted out of receiving market communications from Discover are not eligible referrals.
That makes it sound like the referrer won’t receive $100 if the person being referred is already a Discover cardholder. We don’t believe that’s enforced though, but let us know in the comments below if you have experience suggesting that this exclusion does get applied.
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[…] HT: Frequent Miler […]
[…] Update 7/16/20: Don’t think this bonus ever went away, but it’s now showing an end date of 12/31/20. Hat tip to FM […]
Do you know if discover allows matching? I recently signed up for one of their cards for the lower bonus.
I’m not sure, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask them to match it.