What do you do with your Discover Cash Back?
 

I don't use my discover card nearly as much as some others here. But I have built up a decent amount of cash back bonuses. I just have it sitting in my account. BTW, I do have a small balance and some other CC balances. Does anyone pay off their balance with your cash back? Or do you hoard it for when there is a good bonus to use it on?

I just leave mine there, there was a crazy deal back in late 2011

$40 Shell gascard for $20 only...

other than that, their cashback is kinda bleh

Walmart

Which was not repeated in 2012. There is some risk in a reward program changing, etc and not worth keeping a ton of points.

fark yeah.

I've been a discover cardholder for about 14 years now and that's the only time I've seen a deal come up that was THAT good - usually you can only double your money on shitty lobstergrams and cruises.

I bought $2100 in GC's over my 3 accounts with that promo and netted about $900 (on top of the cash back) once I sold them (I did the cost/benefit, since Shell gas is usually more expensive around here anyway, it was worth it to sell the GC's to plasticjungle and take the 5% hit or whatever and buy gas elsewhere).

I'd been waiting for another deal like that to come around, hoping it would be an annual summer thing, but it hasn't been. I have about $2500 in CB sitting in our (3) accounts right now, waiting for something good to come along.

just wait it out for another good deal.
i used it on the sams club gift cards $40 + $10 free. used them at Walmart.

I've only used it once (at REI). I have a few bucks pending right now and will probably spend that at REI also.

buy stuff from amazon, I get between 30$-100$ every month.

This. I never really let my cash back bunus built up over 100$.

if there will be a program change, they going to send out a notice then I will just cash out all my rewards then :worship:
you must buy a lot of stuff from amazon since its only 1% CB

Guess you failed to read the original post. This post was titled what do you do with your cash back bonus. My answer: buy stuff from amazon

I get a gift card with it. Had been getting plain Discover GCs, but recently (since we bought a house) get Lowes GCs now. $90 in CB = $100 GC at Lowes, which is nice. Better return than just a plain Discover GC.


A little OT, but while Shell may be a little more expensive, but it may be better gasoline. I've found that Shell (in particular, but it probably applies to other large oil companies like Exxon, Chevron, etc) gave me upwards of 10% better mileage than the no-name convenience store gas (I track my mileage at every fill up). So, even though it was a little more expensive, it wound up being worth it.

I did a small test when I first got my car with citgo, shell and mobil (and also 91 vs 87) and *zero* difference. Now, there may be long-term differences, but those are difficult to test.

Also note with the GC's - if you use GCs to pay for something you can't use ShopDiscover - which is 5% at Lowes (and HD).

Cashed in on $400 of my bonus for $500 in sams/walmart giftcards in hopes of turning it into a mastercard prepaid card. So far none of the walmarts around here will let me purchase a prepaid card with a giftcard. So much for that idea...

Other than that, occasionally use it for Amazon and various restaurants if I know far enough in advance I'm going.

Lately I just use it for whatever I'm already purchasing on amazon. Between all my cards the discover usually gets about $20 cash back each month.

The $20 for $40 Shell deal I think was a once in a decade type of deal. It would be real nice to see it again, but I would not stash a lot of cash back in the Discover card holding out hope for it.

I am basically of the opinion that you either take a gift card for $5-$10 off some store you plan on purchasing something from anyway\one of their usual offers or you just take a statement credit and be done with it. Chase UR is sort of in the same boat. Never see anything tremendous gift card-wise on that site either.

Yeah, probably not a difference among the major oil companies. I noticed a difference when compared to the local Speedway, Delta Sonic, 7-11 type stations.

I haven't bought anything on lowes.com (yet), so the shop discover is a moot point. Even so, 10% off the GC is better than 5% cash back :)

You're actually better off using your discover card for your Amazon purchases and then just applying your Discover cash back as a balance credit. At least you'd be earning 1% or more on the Amazon purchase.

I had some issues with CB posting from all the bonus CB they had around the holidays - and I waited until this week to call them on it.

My only previous encounter with them was several years ago when Bing cashback was around. I tried calling Discover to get cash back and they wanted documentation of the purchase, receipts, any emails I had, etc (what a PITA - with Bing you just chatted with them and they credited you). So I was expecting the same treatment.

Fortunately not - on 2 cards I rang off (separately) a list of about a dozen transactions that I never received cashback for - and a few minutes later the CSR verified the amounts (totaling about $120 in CB) and told me they'd be credited.

Why do people suggest using cashback to buy things on Amazon? Wouldn't it be smarter to get those partner gift cards since they all return more than what you pay (eg $40 CB goes to $50 gift card)?

I buy Macys giftcards. $45 of cashback bucks gets me a $50 Macys giftcard.

Yeah, that deal was amazing. We have built up our CB just hoping that might come around again. But now I have my eye on a tv cabinet from Crutchfield. With my cashback I will save $250 by purchasing the discounted gift cards. I think it's best to get at least something extra for your CB rather than using it on an equal cash basis.

I've used them to purchase Lowe's GC ($90 for $100 GC). Combined wth the Lowe's 10% movers coupon for some home improvement stuff I would have purchased anyway.

Thinking of doing this again soon, are the mover coupons still out there?

They are, although some of them have you go online and enter info about your move, then they email the coupon several days later. Not sure what checks they do to ensure 1 per person / address / household / city / whatever.