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The 2021 Discover cash back calendar can be found here.
Discover has announced its 5% cashback calendar for 2020. Each quarter, holders of the Discover® More® Card and the Discover it® Cash Back can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 of purchases at select merchants.
To earn the bonus 5% cash back, cardholders must activate the bonus categories at the start of each quarter. Unlike the Chase Freedom®, which allows you to register later in the quarter and retroactively receive the 5% on purchases for the entire quarter, Discover only awards the bonus on purchases made after you activate the bonus categories.
Merchants that feature on the Discover 2020 5% earning calendar include Lyft, Uber, Amazon.com, Gas stations, restaurants, and PayPal.
2020 5% Cash back Calendar
Q1: Grocery Stores, Walgreens, and CVS from January to March 2020 – Activation now open.
Q2: Gas Stations, Uber, Lyft, and Wholesales Clubs from April to June 2020 -Activation Opens February 1, 2020.
Q3: Restaurants and Paypal from July to September 2020 – Activation opens May 1, 2020.
Q4: Amazon.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com from October to December 2020 – Activation opens August 1, 2020.
Discover 5% Cash Back Overview
- Each quarter earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 of purchases (max $75 cash back), earn 1% thereafter.
- You need to register each quarter to activate your 5% cashback.
- The offer is only open to holders of the Discover® More® Card and the Discover it® Cash Back.
- Purchases made using tap and pay, wireless card readers, mobile payments, or virtual wallets may not be eligible for the bonus cashback.
- The restaurant category includes cafes, cafeterias, and fast food locations, and online delivery.
- Allow up to two billing cycles for the bonus to post to your account.
Our Take
The 5% bonus is arguably the primary reason for holding these cards. If you hold an eligible card, you are missing out on serious returns by not registering. Cashback fans can increase their earning with the Chase Freedom® card, which also features rotating 5% bonus categories. Combining both means you can be earning 5% cashback on up to $3,000 per quarter.
Source: Frequent Miler
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Easily the best 5% card. I have a Citi card with 5% as well, and it’s awful. Chase is pretty good, but never has Amazon or restaurants on its list.
Another good reason for the Discover card is that I sometimes get Amazon deals to use my Cashback towards a purchase (recently, a free $10 credit). That’s at least twice this has happened for me, maybe three times, in the last year or two.
5% although with limits is something that math accepts and is a number that catches people’s attention.
5% is hard to come by, but Discover isn’t accepted everywhere Visa and Mastercard are. In addition, they set a maximum cash back per quarter. Why not go with a 1.5 – 2% cash back card with no limit?
This is an easy way to boost your cash back bonus, but you have to remember to register.
I like the 2020 categories. Now I would like more options for redeeming the dollars (discounted gift cards).
Chase finally posted theirs: https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/freedom/calendar
I just might be using Discover more this quarter. Not too thrilled with the Chase options but Discover is up my alley. I love Discover. It’s nice to have the money go towards my Christmas present balance. It doesn’t hurt that the schools my kids go to only take Discover to pay into the lunch account.
If the 5% bonus is not your primary reason for holding these cards, I have no idea what is.
The categories this year are great! 5% cashback on grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants.
I always liked Discover, but it always brings us back to the dilemma: Cashback or miles /points.
Not a bad line up at all. I like seeing the entire year’s calendar all at once.
With the Discover card’s and Chase Freedom’s quarterly bonus categories, it’s actually quite a bit of work to take advantage of them every 3 months, haha.
What is the rationale of announcing the plan 1 year in advance?
Most of these categories are easy to use and maximize the cashback.
Thanks, nice little cashback rate on that card for Xmas.
The Discover categories seem to be more generous than the Chase Freedom. If I liked cash back rather than points, I would definitely get one of the Discover cards.
I find the 2020 Q1 5% categories from discover to be more useful than the Chase freedom Q1 categories.
Thank you for the information. I love the 5% cash back on gasoline purchases.
Great info! I will have to remind to register every quarter… But that 5% cash back worth it! Thanks!
I wish they would branch out into other areas for cash back offers.
Unfortunately I don’t use the majority of the bonus venues offered on their 2020 calendar. Is there any way to provide a comprehensive chart on no-annual-fee cards and their rewards systems for comparison? That would be a useful tool for someone like me who is new to this.
I think it is worth it to have a Discover card with a Chase card.
makes me look forward to the new year.
not a bad deal… in line with a few other cards
Arguably the primary reason? It’s the only reason. lol
Discover is my oldest card and I only pull it out for occasional 5% purchases. Thanks for the heads up!
Darn it. The groceries categories runs exactly when I still will have the 6% on groceries AMEX Preferred Blue card ($250 card upgrade bonus, not wort keeping after the first year.