2026.5 Update: There’s a link with $200 offer, and the double cash back on the first year feature is also there. This is the best ever offer on this card! HT: DoC.
2022.3 Update: It seems the good grade reward is no longer available.
2021.9 Update: Some users are targeted to generate referral links with $100 welcome offer. The link we use on our site has $100 welcome offer.
Application Link
- Discover it
- Through this link, you might see the application page for either Discover it or Discover it for Students. Actually these two are equivalent: no matter which application page you use, if you choose “College Student” as employment status, you will get Discover it for Students; if you choose other employment status, you will get regular version Discover it.
Benefits
- $200 offer: earn $200 statement credit after spending $500 within 3 months. This is the best ever offer on this card.
- Earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter, 1% cash back on all other purchases. You need to activate the 5% cash back beforehand each quarter. New categories every quarter. The 5% bonus categories for 2021 are:
- Double Cash Back: Double all cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year, including the 5% bonus category, and Discover Deals. The double part will be credited to you after the first year. Starting from 2018, the sign-up bonus and referral bonus will be granted as statement credit instead of cash back, so they will not be doubled.
Good Grade Reward: Earn $20 each year when you get at least a 3.0 GPA, up to 5 years. Screenshot.[2022.3 update] It seems the good grade reward is no longer available.- No credit history needed.
- Refer a friend: You can earn $50 for every approved account you refer, up to a maximum of 10 approved referrals ($500) per calendar year. The sign-up bonus from these referral links is $50.
- No foreign transaction fee.
- No annual fee.
Disadvantages
- Only first $1,500 purchases per quarter on bonus categories can earn 5% cash back, after that you can only earn 1% cash back.
- This is a Discover card, which is not as widely accepted as Visa or MasterCard.
- Credit limit for Discover it for Students may be VERY low, and it’s hard to get the limit increased.
- 5% bonus categories may not be correctly identified abroad when using some partner networks like UnionPay.
Recommended Application Time
- You can get approved even with no credit history at all! (SSN required)
- You may get rejected if you have some credit history, we recommend you apply when you have a credit history of 6 months.
- You must wait for a year before applying for a second Discover card.
- You can only have at most 2 Discover credit cards.
Summary
This card is a no-brainer choice. Everyone should get it for its 5% cash back in rotating categories and no annual fee. Besides, Discover Deals sometimes have pretty good discounts.
Historical Offers Chart
Note: Between 2015.6 and 2018.1, the $50 sign-up bonus is counted as cash back, thus is doubled to become $100 after one year. However, since 2018.1, the sign-up bonus is counted as statement credit, so it won’t be doubled any more.
Application Link
- Discover it
- Through this link, you might see the application page for either Discover it or Discover it for Students. Actually these two are equivalent: no matter which application page you use, if you choose “College Student” as employment status, you will get Discover it for Students; if you choose other employment status, you will get regular version Discover it.
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