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Discover Deals (previously known as Shop Discover) has long been one of the highest paying shopping portals around. When Discover introduced Double CashBack for a year for new cardholders (and existing cardholders who jumped on the deal quickly), Discover Deals became too good to be true. Those enrolled in the Double CashBack offer can click through Discover Deals to a merchant offering 10% cash back and, in the long run, they should earn a total of 20% cash back. And, when a store offers 20% CashBack through Discover Deals, the customer should eventually get a total of 40%. That’s phenomenal. And, keep in mind, these rewards are on top of rewards earned by one’s credit card automatically.
The Catch
I’ve reported several times before that as of mid October, Discover Deals has stopped sending congratulations emails within a few days of each purchase. Miles to Memories reports that people have received emails saying that they’ll hear from Discover in about 30 days to confirm the amount of CashBack Bonus they may earn:
In my case, I haven’t received any such emails, but recently I have received a few “thanks for using Discover Deals” emails from purchases made almost two months ago. While the emails show the merchant and the reward amount, they do not show the transaction date or order ID. Here’s an example:
In the above example, it was easy to figure out which purchase had earned cash back. Since the payout for Sears has been 10% since the beginning of October, I know that a $40 reward corresponds with a $400 purchase. In mid October I had gone through Discover Deals to Sears and reloaded a Sears gift card with $400. Simple enough. Another email, though, shows $1.90 in rewards. I don’t have any records of a $19 purchase at Sears so I can’t figure out which of my many purchases were credited, or partially credited, here. Discover Deals usually lumps together payouts from multiple purchases made in one day with the same merchant. My guess is that the $1.90 payout is from two or three small separate purchases (but I still can’t find a combination that adds to $19!).
No tracking
Most online shopping portals provide an easy way to see rewards that are pending or paid. Many even offer the ability to see “click-through” tracking so that you can see which stores you visited and when. Discover provides none of that. Once your statement has posted you can see a summary of how much you’ve earned from each merchant, but that’s about it. Using Discover Deals requires a leap of faith that you’ll earn the promised rewards. As far as I can tell, there’s no good way to check to see which purchases have been properly credited.
Recommendation
In the past I’ve recommended using the Discover Deals portal even if you didn’t plan to pay with a Discover card. It usually worked anyway. And, in some cases, buying or using gift cards worked too even if the terms and conditions said otherwise. Now, my recommendation is different than before (but consistent with Shawn’s approach):
- Check CashBackMonitor to find current portal rates. If another portal offers rewards close in value to Discover Deals, then go with the other portal.
- If you don’t want to pay for your purchase with your Discover card, then go with a different portal.
- If you plan to buy gift cards and if the Discover Deals terms exclude gift card purchases from that merchant, then go with another portal (ideally, go with one that doesn’t exclude gift card purchases).
- If Discover Deals offers the best rate and you plan to pay with your Discover card for an item that is not excluded, then go with Discover Deals. Make sure to record the date of the transaction, the order number, and the amount that you expect to earn from Discover. If you don’t eventually get cash back from Discover, call Discover and ask for a courtesy adjustment.
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I have used ShopDiscover and Ebates for Walmart purchases. I have noticed that some items are more expensive or not available when I get to Walmart via these portals (instead of directly). I wonder if that applies to other retailers.
That’s interesting. I’ve seen that happen with a couple of merchants, but in general its very unusual.
Does anyone have any info if Discover Deals is paying the cashback on Ipads purchased from BestBuy?
Thanks
Question:(I’m new to discover card and how cashback works)
I did a purchase at Dell using the portal and Discover card 2 weeks ago.
Dell cancelled the purchase for unrelated reason last week but I also got the cashback confirmation email.
Now I have the cashback posted to my account.
Will they take it back if I use it?
Thanks!
In theory, Discover should take back the cashback if an order is cancelled. But under similar circumstances, they didn’t take back cashback from my account on at least twice.
Discover has screwed themselves with these deals and is just taking time to figure out how to minimize the damage. Cashback will come eventually!
So finally I received two cashback emails from discover for Sears purchases. One order was paid for with a discover card. But the second order was paid for entirely with a Sears gift card.
Who needs Discover … when we are so much better with AMEX and Chase cards
Until the next wave of FR’s (AmEx) or shutdowns / points theft (Chase). LOL
Another reason to be disgusted with Discover “deals” and their miserable card. I just looked at the fine print for next quarter’s categories. I had been excited (ha!) previously to see that gas would be included in next quarter’s categories. (at 5% — to be doubled at end of first year). Silly me to think they would be doing that the same way that Chase, Citi, Bank America, et. al. have done it. But nooooo, this is “discover,” where they are discovering all sort of new ways to mislead and rip us off. Note the fine print:
“Purchases made at Gas Stations affiliated with superstores, supermarkets and warehouse clubs may not be eligible.”
typical Discover ambifliguity…. as in, gee, “discover” than any gray area with discover are anything but black holes?
And of course, gas stations affiliated with Kroger, Safeway, et. al. are not on the list thereafter….
(they DO work when the
ps to Greg, perhaps you could use all the comps. you got ealier this year from Discover to install an editing feature for our posts. When the subject of Discover comes up, I dooo get so fired up I don’t edit the steam very well.
ps #2: while I’m at it, about your guidance going forward, why would anyone use Discover deals AT ALL if they don’t have the decency to let us know that at least a given transaction has tracked — within say 24 hours of the order being placed? If they aren’t willing to even correct that problem, and to admit that they’ve been screwing up, then I’d say we should start a major boycott of Discover.
(and send copies of threads like this to Wall Street analysts who cover Discover Financial Services…. I’m half tempted to short DFS)
That loud whooshing sound your hearing is the other shoe being raised to drop.
First the apple pay limitation, next the portal and final yearlong total of what gets doubled.
I passed on this promo, partially because of the vague wording and legalese in the T&C that allow Discover to pull the rug at the end. Either that or they have Craptera running their promo and portal reporting. Hope I am wrong and it all pays as anticipated, but that whooshing keeps getting louder..lol
I stopped using Discover after the Apple Pay fiasco. Thats the best we can do.
I got my first Discover card a few months ago in response to the “double cashback” offer. I’ve used cashback sites for years, and I was immediately concerned about Discover’s lack of transparency — aka, no way to track your purchases (something I take for granted with other cashback sites). At first, I was getting nearly-immediate email confirmations — which provided some sort of “tracking” capacity — but then those stopped (as you’ve noted).
I’ve kind of stopped using Discover Deals, but I have several large Sears purchases that never credited. A few weeks ago, I called Discover and their agent said I needed to wait a few weeks to see if they post. Obviously, this isn’t an acceptable solution, and certainly makes me reluctant to “max out” the current promos which are only “worth it” if the cashback actually comes.
Certainly a frustrating experience, and I hope somebody (aka, you!) gets to the bottom of what’s going on.
We noticed that the number of Discover Deals on mobile (visit Discover Deals on mobile phone) are less than that on desktop even login with the same account. 10% cashabck for Sears is listed on desktop website, but not on mobile site. Do you guys experience the same?
Discover’s track record for paying out the Discover Deals rewards has been spotty at best. Think of the ramifications if they fail to pay out those double rewards at the end of next year.
I had a similar experience with my credit line not resetting quickly. After about 5-6 days I called and they did it manually. I highly recommend you call them.
Maybe Discover should take all that money it’s wasting on mailouts and spend it on cashback instead.
Seriously…I get probably one of their offers every other day now. I had to call and tell them to stop, that I’m not interested in participating in their shady offers that require a million hoops to get paid.
Had several discussions with Discover customer service regarding bonus payouts. I was told it would take several statements for the bonus to post, no email alerts when using bonus category for purchases either. Very frustrating, time to look elsewhere. Discover’s loss if they can’t post bonuses in a precise manner.