What are the Benefits of the Discover Student Credit Card: Benefits of the Discover Student Card include a 0% starting APR on purchases for the first 6 months, no yearly fee, and no fees for making purchases in other countries. Plus, Discover will match all points you earn with the Discover it Student Cash Back card or the Discover it Student chrome card during the first year you have it.
All Discover cards, including student cards, have a number of security features. Account tracking and SSN alerts are two of them. There is also a “Freeze It” tool that lets users lock their account if they lose or steal their card.
Discover recently took away some perks from all of its cards, including the ones for students. In February 2018, it stopped offering buy safety, extended warranty, and return security. At the same time, Discover also stopped offering trip insurance and protection for car rentals. And Discover got rid of its price guarantee perk in October 2018.
What are the Benefits of the Discover Student Credit Card
The perks for both Discover student cards are the same. But each one has a different way of getting benefits. The Discover it Student Cash Back card gives 5% cash back on up to $1,500 per quarter spent in bonus areas, which change every quarter and require registration, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Discover it Student Chrome gives you 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants (up to a total of $1,000 spent each quarter) and 1% cash back on everything else.
- Unlimited Cashback Match – only from Discover. Discover will automatically match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year! So you could turn $50 cash back into $100. Or turn $100 into $200. There’s no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Just a dollar-for-dollar match.
- Earn 5% cash back on everyday purchases at different places each quarter like Amazon.com, grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations, up to the quarterly maximum when you activate. Plus, earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases – automatically.
- No credit score required to apply.
- Discover could help you reduce exposure of your personal information online by helping you remove it from select people-search sites that could sell your data. It’s free, activate with the mobile app.
- No annual fee and build your credit with responsible use.
- 0% intro APR on purchases for 6 months, then the standard variable purchase APR of 17.99% – 26.99% applies.
- Click through to Discover’s website to see terms and conditions.
When you’re just learning to use credit, a card’s terms are crucially important. Before settling on a new card, you’ll want to make sure that the card’s APR is affordable, its fees are reasonable and the issuer won’t ding you with an unaffordable APR if you fall behind on payments. In this respect, the Discover it® Student Cash Back card shines, offering one of the most forgiving and consumer-friendly credit card agreements around.
But unlike many credit cards with more affordable terms, the Discover it® Student Cash Back card doesn’t sacrifice rewards. Instead, it offers one of the most generous cash back programs you can get on a student card — especially in the first year.
Since it’s a category card with rotating bonuses, the Discover it® Student Cash Back card’s cash back program takes some time to master. But if you don’t mind tracking bonus-earning purchases and opting into the program every three months, you could be surprised by how much cash you earn.
A safer card for learning to use credit
When you’re just starting to learn to live within a budget and master your finances, the last thing you need is to worry about excess fees or unaffordable interest rates. Discover helps lessen this worry by offering consumer-friendly terms that are much more forgiving than what you’ll find on most rewards credit cards.
For example, it doesn’t charge a late fee the first time you miss a payment deadline (up to $41 late payment fee thereafter), so you have some wiggle room in case you accidentally forget to make an on-time payment. It also doesn’t charge a penalty rate. So if you run into some money trouble and have a hard time paying your bills, Discover won’t make your situation worse by dramatically hiking your interest rate.
No foreign transaction fee
Discover also waives the it card’s foreign transaction fee, so you can take this card with you when you study abroad or travel for the summer and not worry about whether you’ll be hit with extra charges. Many cards, by contrast, charge foreign transaction fees as high as 3 percent, which can add up if you regularly charge your card abroad or use it to buy foreign merchandise online.
Average APR
The Discover it® Student Cash Back card offers a reasonable APR of 17.99% to 26.99% variable. The low-end APR on this card is quite impressive considering our weekly rate report lists the average student card APR as hovering around 19%.
Excellent rewards
Where the Discover it® Student Cash Back card really stands out is with its rewards. Cards that offer similarly forgiving terms are often basic, plain vanilla cards without a rewards program. The Discover it Student Cash Back card, by contrast, offers a robust cash back program that can deliver a substantial amount of value if you use it regularly.
For example, cardholders get 5 percent cash back when they enroll in rotating purchase categories (up to $1,500 in purchases per quarter, then 1 percent) — many of which cover everyday purchases, such as gas and groceries, that students may already make regularly.
Outstanding sign-up bonus — if you can wait
The Discover it® Student Cash Back card also offers the opportunity to double your cash back in the first year. Unlike with a typical sign-up bonus, you won’t get any kind of cash reward up front. But if you can wait until the end of the year, you could end up getting a much bigger bonus overall. Since Discover doubles your rewards bonus, you’ll essentially earn 10 percent on categories such as gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants or Amazon.com during (when the category’s quarterly bonus is active) and 2 percent on all other purchases.
Student-friendly benefits
The Discover it® Student Cash Back card also offers a number of other benefits that can help you pad your bank account and protect your personal information. It also offers a 0% intro APR for six months on purchases (17.99% to 26.99% variable APR after that), so you can temporarily carry a balance without paying interest. It also offers a security service that monitors the dark web on your behalf and alerts you if it finds that your Social Security number is being traded on the web. It will also monitor your Experian credit report and let you know if an account is opened in your name.
In addition, it offers an instant freeze service you can use if you lose track of your credit card — a helpful tool for nights out when you accidentally leave your card at a bar or lose it in your dorm. Finally, the Discover it® Student Cash Back card offers a free FICO score so you can track your credit score throughout the year.
