Introduction
I signed up for the Discover Miles card last year – you know, the one with 1.5% cashback and then doubled at your anniversary to give you 3% cashback. I had signed up for the card on March 3rd, 2015. My first statement was on April 16, 2015. I didn’t get the double cash back on my April 10, 2016 statement. I finally got it on my May 10, 2016 statement, so my 13th statement.
My spend
As you can see, I earned 86,000 miles for the Apple Pay promo, which equates to $860 cashback. That meant I charged $8,600 worth of stuff during the promo. From the screenshot, you can see I also earned about 60,000 miles “everywhere else.” This means I charged $600/.015 = $40K on everything else. Discover then doubled those charges for a total of 145,861 “Discover Match” miles.
For those keeping score, my CL was only $6,400 on the card. I didn’t really MS much on it for fear of being shutdown after the first year and voiding my extra 1.5%.
What next
I haven’t looked into it that much, but my plan is to churn the card. That means I want to close the card, give it some time, and apply for it again to see if I’ll qualify for the double cashback 3% again. This time, I might go a bit harder, but not enough to risk shutdown. If you know the churn-ability of this card, please let me know.
Nice work. I feared they might match the first year on a rolling basis, but it’s great it’s in one-lump sum. It’s been a pain to get my transactions bonused. Tracking the bonus on statements isn’t the easiest to calculate. But I maxed out my Apple Pay, quarterly bonus categories and some portal bonuses. Expecting over $1600 USD (so far) in doubling bonus this November. It was an unbelievable offer.
Well lump-sum is more dangerous in case they shut you down before they pay out.
Are second miles cards or even third getting the cash back match?
Is the Apple Pay bonus still going on or was that only Q4 last year?
Only Q4 last year. It was too good to be true and might not happen ever again.