Time To Sign Up For My Favorite Discover 5% Cash Back Categories Of The Year

by joeheg

One of the only reasons I put any spending on my Discover card is the rotating 5% cashback categories. Every three months they have a category, or categories, where you can earn 5% back on the first $1,500 spent. That’s a max of $75 back and that’s not bad for a card with no annual fee. You can net $300 per year if you max out each category.

I’ve been a bit underwhelmed with the offerings so far this year, mainly because I can earn about the same amount or more with other cards.

  • Jan – March – Grocery Stores
  • April – June – Gas Stations, Uber & Lyft
  • July – September – Restaurants and PayPal

However, I am excited about the category for October-December. No question that it’s designed to arrive just in time for holiday shopping.

October – December – Amazon.com, Target and Walmart.com

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That’s right. 5% back on purchases at Amazon.com, Target and Walmart.com.

Here are the restrictions for each merchant:

Amazon.com purchases include those made through the Amazon.com checkout, including digital downloads, Amazon.com gift cards, Amazon Fresh orders, Amazon Local Deals and Amazon Prime subscriptions and items sold by third party merchants through Amazon.com’s marketplace.

Target purchases include any purchase made online at Target.com, through the Target app, or in-store at Target. Individual merchants and stand-alone stores within physical Target locations or on Target.com may not be eligible in this category

Walmart.com purchases include those made at Walmart.com and when shopping through the Walmart app (including Grocery Pick Up and Instore Pick Up). Purchases made in store at Walmart Stores, Walmart Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Walmart Pay are excluded from this promotion. Individual merchants and stand-alone stores within physical Walmart locations may not be eligible in this category.

I can see many of these boxes arriving at our house in the near future.

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I also think it’s great that Target is allowing you to shop online or in the store. Perfect for when Sharon has to go, last minute, to get additional lights for our Christmas decorations (Note from Sharon: Y’all have NO IDEA how many Christmas lights I use – and buy – every holiday season).

Now, you have to wait until October to earn the 5% back but you can sign up for the offer right now at this link or by logging into your Discover account.

Final Thoughts

I know it’s possible to earn points back at Target or Amazon.com through other means, like buying gift cards, but this is an easy way to get an automatic 5% rebate. All I need to do is go into our Amazon accounts and set the preferred payment type to our Discover cards. If I haven’t maxed out the offer by the end of December, I can always go and buy an Amazon.com gift card and top off our balances.

I just have to make sure I go back into the accounts in January and set it to a different card.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

Feature Photo by Dave_7 on Flickr

 

2 comments

Mike September 9, 2019 - 8:07 pm

Target sells Target gift cards at a discount of 10% during the holidays. So on that you will get 5% off, effectively getting 14.5% back.

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joeheg September 10, 2019 - 8:19 am

Loved this offer when you could buy 3rd party cards with the target cards. Only been getting 1-2x$300 cards now.

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