Executive Summary - A great way to earn cash back with this card is to shop online with Discovers' online merchant partners from their shopping mall. In this part of our review, we will look at how this is done and also at their partners.
Another great way to earn extra cash back with Discover is to shop on their online shopping portal. They were one of the first issuers to create such a portal and today, it still remains one of the best (in my opinion). Here is how it works. They have partnered with various merchants (many of them happen to be very well known brands like LandsEnd, GAP etc). Rather than going to their website directly through an internet browser (like typing in gap.com), card members can log into their account and go to the shopping portal called shopdiscover.com. They can then click on the merchant icons and they will be taken to their website.
The advantage of going through the portal is that your purchases will be tracked and you will earn extra cash back. They minimum cash back that you will earn is 5% and tops up at 20%. This feature is great for those who like to shop online. Furthermore, we have found that Discover pays their card holders a higher cash back than other credit card shopping portals. What do we mean by this?
Well, Discover is not the only one with this feature. Other issuers like Chase, Citi, Capital One and Bank of America all have their own versions of shopping portal. In fact, many of the same merchants can be found on other portals as well. For example, you can find Best Buy and GAP in all of them. But most of the time, you earn more cash back with Discover. And the reason is because the minimum cash back they will pay is 5% whereas other portals start at 2%.
Below is a list (or rather screen shot) of their online merchant partners.
