Discover® Business Card Review

The Discover® Business Card was last reviewed on : 26th June 2008

Summary - The Discover® Business Card will appeal to the small business owner who is looking for a cash rebate business credit card. You can earn 5% rebates on office supply purchases and 2% rebates on gasoline purchases. There are a few details in the rebate formula that you should be aware of. So read on to find out more about this card.

Rebate Formula - Office Supplies and Gasoline - The Discover® Business Card has a tiered rebate formula. For your first $1,200 of annual spending on office equipment and supplies, you will earn 5% rebates. For your first $1,200 in gasoline purchases, you will earn 2% rebates. Once your spending on these two category of items exceed the $1,200 threshold, you will earn the same rebates as your "other purchases", which has its own formula. Let us look at that next.

Rebate Formula for "other purchases" - For other purchases, you earn 0.25% rebates when you annual spending is below $5,000. Once your annual spending exceeds $5,000 you earn 1% rebates. Purchases made on office supplies and gasoline count towards the $5,000 threshold. You can earn unlimited rebates.

Double the value of your rebates - The other great feature of the Discover® Business Card is that you can up to double the value of the cash rebates you have earned by exchanging them for the 60+ merchant partners gift certificate. That means that a $20.00 rebate can turn into a $40.00 gift certificate. Below is the list of some their partners.

Double Your Rewards with these Partners

Bedroom Expressions	Kalamazoo Outdoor
Big City Chefs	GourmetTM Grills
Carnival Cruise Lines	Lawn Boy
Celerity Cruises	Lobster Gram
Crabtree & Evelyn	Mrs. Fields
Denver Mattress	Norwegian Cruise Line
FTD.COM®	Princess Cruises
Furniture Row Outlet	Reader's Digest
Great American Days	Royal Caribbean®
Holland America	International
Hollywood Video®	Samsonite® Company Stores
Hyatt® Hotels & Resort	The Sharper Image
Sofa Mart	Sprint
Ticketsnow.com	Ultra Diamond Outlet

Teurn $20 Rebates into $30 Gift Certificates

BLOCKBUSTER®	M&M's World
BLOCKBUSTER Online	Omaha Steaks
Ethel M Chocolates	Rhapsody
Sunglass Hut

Turn $20 Rebates into $25 Gift Certificates

AMC Theatres	Champs Sports	Men's Wearhouse
Ace Hardware	Crutchfield	Pep Boys
Bed Bath & Beyond®	Eddie Bauer	Pier 1 Imports
Bennigan's	Fandango	Ponderosa Steakhouse
Black Angus/Cattle Company	Footaction	Red Lobster
Steakhouse	Foot Locker	Sally Beauty
Bonanza Steakhouse	Gap	Staples
Borders Books & Music®	L.L.Bean	Steak & Ale
Buca® di Beppo	Lands' End®	Waldenbooks®

Turn $40 Rebates into $50 Gift Certificates

Ace Hardware	Gap	Pier 1 Imports
Callaway Golf	L.L.Bean	Red Door Spa
Cooking.com	Lands' End®	Sunglass Hut
Crutchfield	Mario Tricoci
Eddie Bauer	NASCAR.com

Turn $40 Rebates into $45 Gift Certificates

Chili's Grill & Bar®	On The Border Mexican Grill
Kohl's	& Cantina®
Maggiano's Little Italy®	Red Lobster
	Romano's Macaroni Grill®

Charity Donations - add 20% - Discover will add 20% to the following charities if you choose to donate your cash rebates. They are the American Red Cross, Junior Achievement, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation®.

Special Merchants Discount - Discover gives the business cardholders special discounts to various merchants. Below is a sample of what you may get

Barnes and Nobles - 7% cash back Overstock.com - 5% discount FTD.com - 20% cash back or discount.

Purchase Checks - The Discover® Business Card allows you to write checks (called purchase checks) to business suppliers who do not accept credit cards. Your interest rate will be the APR on the card. There is no fee for this service.

Other Discover® Business Card Services - Discover also offers the following services to cardholders. You get free annual and quarterly reports. Your statements for the last 12 months can be viewed online and sorted by categories and employees. You can also transfer your expenses into Quickbooks.

Verdict - For a small business owner to get the most out of a cash back business credit card, you will have to look at your own expenses and how they breakdown. This is because different business cash rebate cards offer 2-5% rebates on different business purchases. If you spend less than $1,200 in offices and supplies and gasoline, and would like the flexibility of exchanging your rebates for gift certificates instead, then the Discover® Business Card would be a very appropriate card for you. The 0% apr offer on purchases for 12 months may also appeal to those in need of some lines of credit for capital expenditure purposes.

Positives

Up to double the value of your rebates

No annual fee*

25 day grace period for purchases

Earn unlimited rebates

5% cash rebate on office supplies for first $1,200 in annual spending

Earn 2% rebates for first $1,200 in gasoline purchases

Negatives

Tiered rebate system - can only earn 5% and 2% rebates on office supplies and gasoline purchases for spending on these items of up to $1,200

Discover® Business Card
Reward Benefits
Rebate Percentages	Earn 5% cash rebate first $1,200 in office and supplies purchases Earn 2% rebates on first $1,200 in gasoline purchases For "other purchases", earn 0.25% rebates for annual spending below $5,000, earn 1% rebates once annual spending exceeds $5,000
Cost/Fees/Interest rates*
Introductory rate	0% introductory APR on purchases for 12 months* 3.99% APR on balance transfers for 6 months*
Annual Fee	No annual fee*
Purchase APR	13.99%*
Balance Transfer APR	13.99%*
Cash Advance APR	23.99%*
Penalty/Default Rate APR	24.24%*
Min Finance Charge	$0.50*
Grace Period	25 days*
Balance Calculation Method	Average daily balance (including new purchases)*
Balance Transfer fee	3% min $5.00, max $75.00*
Cash Advance fee	3% min $5.00*
Over-the-credit-limit fee	None on balances of $1,000 or less; $39 on balances greater than $1,000*
Late Payment fee	None on balances up to $100; $39 on balances of $100 and greater.*