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Each quarter, Discover it® Cash Back and the Discover® More® Card cardmembers can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 of purchases in select categories. And now you can start planning your purchases for October–December 2023 as Discover just unveiled its 5% cash back bonus categories for the fourth quarter of 2023.
By maximizing your Discover quarterly bonus, you'd earn $300 cash back on $6,000 in purchases over the calendar year. That's a solid return. Just don't forget you may be able to get a better return by signing up for a new cash-back credit card.
Related: The best cash-back card offers for every budget
Discover seems to be doing things differently in 2023. Historically, Discover published bonus categories for the entire calendar year. Now, that is no longer the case. Taking a page out of Chase’s playbook, Discover announced bonus categories quarter-by-quarter. That means we've had to wait to see what Discover has in store for next quarter, rather than the entire calendar being revealed at the beginning of the year.
Discover 5% Cash Back Overview
- You need to activate your 5% cash-back earnings before making purchases.
- Earn 5% back on up to $1,500 of purchases at select categories each quarter. That's a max of $75 cash back per quarter.
- Earn 1% on all spending after that.
- Allow two billing periods for the rewards to post to your account.
- Payments made using digital wallets and certain third-party payment accounts may also be ineligible if “the technology does not provide sufficient transaction details or a qualifying MCC.”
Discover cash back categories for Q3 2023
- Activation has been open since June 1, 2023.
- Q3 2023 runs from April 1 through June 30, 2023.
- This quarter's Discover cash back bonus categories:
- Gas stations
- Digital Wallets
Discover cash back categories for Q4 2023
- Activation is open as of September 1, 2023.
- Q4 2023 runs from October 1 through December 31, 2023.
- Next quarter's Discover cash back bonus categories:
- Amazon.com
- Target
Warning: Discover Cash Back Activation is Not Retroactive
Unlike Chase's 5% cash back bonus categories, Discover's bonus activation is not retroactive.
Chase requires cardholders to activate the rotating 5% cash back quarterly bonus on the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom®. However, members can activate their bonus as late as the 14th day of the last month of the quarter (e.g. September 14 for Q3). Doing so earns them 5% cash back from day one of the quarter.
However, this is not the case with Discover. With Discover, you only start earning your 5% cash back bonus from the day you activate. Therefore, we recommend activating for Q4 2023 now so as not to miss out on any cash back!
Discover 5% Cashback History
Curious about what might be offered next quarter? Us too. That's why we put together a full history of Discover 5% cashback categories since 2017. As you can see, Discover can be rather predictable about what categories it offers — from grocery stores offered in Q1 to Amazon.com offered in Q4:
| Year | First Quarter (Jan-March) | Second Quarter (April-June) | Third Quarter (July-Sept) | Fourth Quarter (Oct-Dec) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | • Grocery stores • Drugstores • Select streaming services | • Restaurants • Wholesale clubs | • Gas stations • Digital wallets | • Amazon.com • Target |
| 2022 | • Grocery stores • Fitness club & gym memberships | • Gas stations • Target | • Restaurants • PayPal | • Amazon.com • Digital wallets |
| 2021 | • Grocery stores • Walgreens & CVS | • Gas stations • Wholesale clubs • Select streaming services | • Restaurants • PayPal | • Amazon.com • Walmart.com • Target.com |
| 2020 | • Grocery stores • Walgreens & CVS | • Gas stations • Uber & Lyft • Wholesale clubs | • Restaurants • PayPal | • Amazon.com • Walmart.com • Target.com |
| 2019 | • Grocery stores | • Gas stations • Uber & Lyft | • Restaurants • PayPal | • Amazon.com • Target • Walmart.com |
| 2018 | • Gas stations • Wholesale clubs | • Grocery stores | • Restaurants | • Amazon.com • Wholesale clubs |
| 2017 | • Gas stations • Ground transportation • Wholesale clubs | • Home improvement stores • Wholesale clubs | • Restaurants | • Amazon.com • Target |
Our Take
The 5% Discover cash back bonus is the main reason for holding these cards. Failing to activate your bonus or doing so too late negates the entire reason for having them. You can miss out on some substantial earnings over the year.
Cash back fans can get even more bonus cash back categories by also signing up for the Freedom Flex. In addition to a rotating 5% bonus cash back category, the Freedom Flex also earns 5% on travel purchased through Chase and 3% on dining at restaurants and drugstores. You can take things up to another level by combining the cash back with the points earned from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to further boost the value of your cash-back earnings.
The Freedom Flex and Discover card duo would earn you 5% cash back on up to $3,000 in purchases each quarter!
How do you boost your cash back earnings? Let us know in the comments below.
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.
I love using my Discover card because of the 5% categories they do by the quarters. Sad to see they don’t have travel listed under any of the quarters for 2021, as they have in the past and it was super helpful. On the flipside, I appreciate Discover for including restaurants in Q3, as hopefully that will be at a time that majority of restaurants would be open at near-full capacity or have more dining options as COVID restrictions lessen.
All quarters have easy to use categories this year.
Discover 5% is always a good way to earn cashback with grocery, gas, and restaurant spread out across the year. In addition to Discover, I’ve found that Chase Freedom is also very good esp. they currently (2021 Q1) have 5% cashback on wholesale clubs, such as Costco.
The only better deal I’ve found is the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred with 6% back on groceries…the advantage with Discover of course is it is a no annual fee credit card
It’s useful for planning to know each quarter’s categories in advance, especially given the overlaps that sometimes happen with other cards’ categories and credits.
the grocery bonus is now on so many cards, its practically difficult to maximize that. Wish Discover would do something like Citi Prestige and give 5x for online purchases or something. The Q3/Q4 promos are useful to maximize.
grocery is always the best.
I will certainly be able to max out each quarter with this selection. It’s a sensible split
Thanks for the reminder and look ahead. FYI, you get a $5 bonus when using the cash back reward for a gift card purchase (e.g., if you spend $20 in cash back, you can get a gift card worth $25).=
Where do you get it?
It’s a rewards redemption and the bonus varies from $25 for redeeming $20 to $50 for redeeming $45.
You’ll find all gift card redemption options (and the bonuses mentioned) by signing in from this page: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cashback-bonus/redeem-cashback.html
The Discover It, Freedom Flex, and US Bank Cash+ make a fantastic combination.
But Discover IT doesn’t earn 5% cash back, does it? AFAIK, it only earns 1.5% (doubled at the end of the year).
And, it’s only doubled at the end of your *first* year.
The Discover It Cash Back card only earns a base of 1% on all purchases — plus 5% in rotating categories.
“5% Cash Back
Earn 5% cash back on everyday purchases at different places each quarter like Amazon.com,4 grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, up to the quarterly maximum when you activate.
1% Cash Back
Earn 1% cash back on all other purchases – automatically.”