Pragmatic Finance

Discover Card has a rewards program named the Get More Program which gives 5% cash back on purchases made at specific merchants or for specific categories. Normally the promotion covers items that are hot or purchased heavily that season. Adding this to other rewards cards, such as Citi Dividend, allows you to increase the number of purchases you get 5% back on. The Get More Program is only offered for the Platinum and student cards, not the Miles or Gas card. This makes sense because the former two have otherwise basic rewards programs.

I got a student card about a year ago. The rewards program on normal purchases for this and the platinum card is very mediocre, giving low rewards which only reach 1% after 3k in purchases. However, the Get More Program makes this card fairly useful. It might not be worth the trouble to get this for just this use. However, if you already have one of these cards you should definately sign up it. Its easy to register, just log onto your account and click a few buttons. They send you an email to confirm that your registered. Cash back can be redeemed in $20 increments as a credit to your card, a check, or even a deposit into your bank account. You can also get even more back if you redeem as gift cards, increasing your rewards anywhere from 20% to 100%, depending on the gift card merchant.

Overall, this is a pretty slick marketing gimmick for Discover. I pretty much keep a card in my wallet all year round that I normally wouldn’t carry with me. Most people tend to stick to one or two cards that they use all the time. If they get people using the card often based on what’s hot for that season many will continue to use it for other purchases as well.

The current Get More promotion started in July and lasts until the end of September (07/01/06-09/30/06) and covers:

Tuition: from preschool to college

Apparel:

• Gap
• Kohl’s
• Marschalls
• TJ Max
• Famous Footwear

Office/Home:

• Dell
• Office Depot
• OfficeMax
• Staples
• Linens ‘n Things
• Pier 1 Imports

Here’s the details and disclore if you wanna read the details.

Sign up to earn 5% Cashback Bonus on tuition and payments (at daycare centers, pre-schools, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and correspondence, business, secretarial, vocational or trade schools) and at Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Kohl’s, Pier 1 Imports, Linens N Things, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Famous Footwear, Gap, and Dell from 7/1/06 (or the date on which you sign up, whichever is later) through 9/30/06, subject to a cap of $2,000 in purchases. Offer applies to purchases that are submitted to us under Merchant Category Codes 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299, 8351 and/or are made at specified merchant locations. Tuition purchases do not include purchases made at park districts, bookstores, education supply stores, camps, music, art and dance schools. Allow up to 5 weeks for this reward to be added to your Cashback Bonus Account. You will continue to earn a Cashback Bonus of up to 1% on all other purchases. Discover Platinum Gas, Home Improvement, Restaurant and Education Card members are not eligible to participate in this promotion. See Cashback bonus Terms and Conditions for furthur details.