AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Discover has eliminated Extended Product Warranty, Return Guarantee, Purchase Protection, Auto Rental Insurance and Flight Accident Insurance across their card products as of February 28, 2018. These are insurance benefits provided simply by being a cardmember and take effect when you use your Discover card for the associated transaction.
Depending on how you use your card, this could be significant or might not have any impact on you whatsoever. It's important to keep in mind that you likely have another credit card that provides similar types of protection.
What Benefits Have Been Eliminated?
No changes have happened to the rewards/cash-back structure with Discover. All of the changes were related to ancillary card benefits that add value to the overall card offering. These benefits are complimentary and are insurance protections provided by Discover through a 3rd party. Here's the rundown:
- Extended Product Warranty – Covered qualifying purchases for an additional year when the manufacturer’s warranty is 36 months or less (Other card options for warranty protection)
- Return Guarantee – Return your product even if a store will not accept your return within 90 days
- Purchase Protection – Short term insurance coverage protected damaged or stolen purchases up to $500 for 90 days after purchase (Other options for purchase protection)
- Auto Rental Insurance – Secondary CDW/LDW insurance on rental cars up to $25,000 (Best cards for primary car rental coverage)
- Flight Accident Insurance – Purchase an airline ticket in full with your Discover card, receive reimbursement for the accidental death of you and your Covered Dependent(s) within one year of the flight accident, up to $500,000
Which Loss is Significant?
In the end, no single benefit loss is significant as you can receive these benefits, and sometimes better benefits (especially with auto rental insurance), from other card products. The significance here is that your Discover products will no longer have these benefits and you might opt to use a different card when completing a purchase.
Our Take
We definitely don't like losing benefits, but if Discover is eliminating the benefits they're likely doing it because their customers aren't getting the value that was hoped. If customers aren't leveraging card benefits, why would you continue to offer them? The flip side might be the associated cost for Discover has increased and they're trying to limit expenditure, but Discover has indicated that they're doing this as a matter of eliminating features that aren't being used.
Take a look through the cards you have and review our master post on guides to benefits to see what benefits you have that you may not have known about.
Source: Doctor of Credit & Ask Sebby
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.
Big downgrade on coverage with limited additions to compensate for loss. Not a fan of discover cards
I’ll probably end up using my Discover card less except for their 5% categories.
Well, I never used these anyway. I know the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has good benefits and so will probably use that when I may need these benefits. But the money back is great! It won’t push Discover to the back of my wallet though. I don’t understand why others are passing up the card. To each their own though.
It sucks to lose benefits. I hope Discover adds other benefits in the future.
One more reason to not use discover.
Good to know so that someone doesn’t use this card for car rentals etc. I guess its important to read the fine print – always. I hope they send out notices to all their customers.
Are Discover cards really that useful? There are so many retailers – online and in person – that don’t take them. They are not even as popular as Amex. Especially if you go abroad, you won’t be able to use it in very many places. Am I mistaken?
While Discover may not seem as popular, in the US it is accepted virtually everywhere you’ll see Visa/MC accepted. As for abroad it definitely depends, but I wouldn’t say it is limited as you might think.
Too bad. Some of the benefits being dropped are quite useful.
Would be happy to have this card in Canada.
And, that 5% becomes more if you select a gift card to Staples for your 5% back. They give you an extra $5.00 if you “Purchase” with their rewards a $25.00 card. Therefore, you $25.00 reward becomes $30.00 which is 20% more. So, in my opinion, the 5% becomes 6% if you play it correctly.
These used to be table stakes across most cards. Eliminating these will surely make people think twice before applying for a new discover card.
As already mentioned, 5% categories are enough for what I use the Discover card for. Next quarter and later this year they have 5% off at warehouse stores. Since there’s no Costco near me (which only takes Visa), at least I get 5% to shop at the highly inferior BJs.
I was considering getting a Discover credit card, I guess I am going to pass now!
Really? What about the card were you considering? These benefits really cause you to think twice?
I had a terrible experience with Discover in the past and won’t ever hold another card with them. They did not offer me protection when an issue arose with a merchant.
Haven’t used discover for a while… their 5% categories are the same or worse than Chase Freedom’s
5% is 5%! If it is the same as Chase, max out your earning and split your spend!
I think this card has been surpassed by other cash back reward cards? It’s never made it into Canada.
Definitely not surpassed by others — however, the cash back market is definitely more competitive than it has been.
This is why I never had a Discover
You never had a Discover card because of what? I don’t understand your comment.
Oohh. No car rentals in the future using Discover.
I certainly hope you weren’t using your Discover card for car rental insurance previously as it was secondary. You should instead use a card that provides primary coverage: https://awardwallet.com/blog/rewards-credit-cards-offer-primary-rental-car-insurance/
Completely agree with this. For me Sapphire Reswrvedis the best card for car rentals. Primary insurance and counts for triple points. I’ve never found Discover to be the best card for my wallet regardless though.
This is unfortunate, but not a deal breaker for me. I plan on continuing to use my card.
Will still find my Discover Card useful for some purchases. However, knowing this will affect other items I may have purchased utilizing this card. Knowledge is always power! Thank you.
not my first choice for cards anyhow
time to cancel discover card
Really? You’re going to cancel your card because you’re losing these benefits? Do you receive no other benefits from the cards other than the perks they’re canceling? I’d really like to know — it seems a little shortsighted, especially given their 5% rotating quarters and no annual fees on their cards.