Does This Little Known Feature Make the Discover It The Best First Card?

Ken Book

Jul 3, 2024

Advertiser Disclosure

Pointwise is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Introduction

So you just turned 18, or just got to college, or someone just told you about their free business class flight when you paid hundreds of dollars for economy. For whatever reason, you’re looking for your first credit card, and you want it to be the best.

I’ve been in that same exact situation, which is why I’m writing this short series on some of the most popular first credit cards, starting with the Discover It card.

If you’d rather just get the answer that’s best for you right away, without having to read this review series, Pointwise was built just for you. Pointwise asks you a few quick questions about your preferences, and then connects to your existing credit or debit cards to tell you which card is best for you based on your actual spending patterns and preferences.

Why the Discover It?

Of all the entry level cards, the Discover It is far and away the most flexible. You can think of it more like a family of cards, rather than one specific card. They’re frequently recommended as someone’s first credit card because it’s relatively easy for people to get approved for them without much [or sometimes any] credit history.

This is in contrast to the mistake many first time card applicants make, which is they check their credit score, see that it’s high (usually due to them being an authorized user on a parent’s card), and then they’re shocked when they aren’t approved for some of the more popular credit cards.

That’s because, at the beginning of your credit card journey, your credit score matters far less than your credit history, which is how long you’ve personally had credit cards or other personal loans. If being an authorized user on another card is all the credit agencies have on you, they’ll give you a good credit score, but your credit report won’t show any personal credit history, which will make you unlikely to get approved right away for many of the cards you’ve probably heard of.

The Discover It line of cards is relatively easy to get approved for, especially the student cards in the lineup, which are very similar to the non-student cards.

One other thing to note is that for the Discover It line of cards, you’ll see some advertising that they earn miles and other cash back. While some credit card issuers, most notably Chase, do have substantial differences in what you can do with cash back cards vs points/miles earning cards, Discover miles and cash back are worth exactly the same. For every dollar the cash back card earns you, the miles card will earn you the exact same, which you can then redeem for $1 worth of cash.

The difference is primarily in marketing for people who want to earn for travel, but don’t know much about credit cards.

Therefore, in this post, we’ll be looking at the Discover it Cash Back Credit Card, which is virtually identical to the Discover it Student Cash Back Credit Card, with the exception that the non-student version has an extended 0% intro APR offer - 15 months of 0% APR instead of the student card’s 6.

But that leads us to the first part of a segment we’ll call:

Features That Shouldn’t Matter

  • The 0% intro APR promotion

The 0% intro APR promotion on the Discover It cash back cards, for whatever length of time, should not impact your decision to open this card. That’s because you should be paying off your card, in full, every month, hopefully on auto-pay, to make sure you never carry a balance or pay interest on a credit card.

If you think you’re the type of person that would avoid paying off your card every month, then credit cards are not for you.

The reason Discover offers this is because a large portion of their revenue comes from people who carry balances on their credit cards, who then pay high interest once the promotional 0% APR expires, because they’re now habituated into carrying a balance, and probably lost track of when exactly that 0% APR is expiring.

Don’t fall for it. Pay off your card.

  • Whatever the interest rate is

The interest rates the Discover It charges are insanely high (18% - 29%), but that should not matter one bit to you. That’s because you should only be getting credit cards in the first place if you’re financially able and disciplined enough to pay it off every single month.

Assuming you do that, you’ll never pay the interest rates, so these rates could be 200%, but it still wouldn’t matter: you’re always paying $0 in interest.

  • Whatever credit limit they offer you

The goal of your first card is to start building your credit history while getting as many rewards as possible. Discover is known to give out small credit limits (this was my first card and I got a $500 credit limit at first, which they’ve raised several times since then without my asking), but that’s nothing to worry about.

Yes, the percentage of your available credit that you use will be high if you have such a low credit limit, but as long as you pay it off every month, given that it’s such a low limit, it shouldn’t hurt your ability to open more cards in the future, and in the long run the card is still a clear positive because you’re building credit history.

  • The card’s design

Discover is known for having some beautiful custom card designs, but while a fun feature, that should not impact your decision to open the card or not. Credit cards are financial products. If you want to buy a picture to put in your wallet you can do that separately, but that’s not what credit cards are for.

If this card makes sense for you, then by all means, have fun with the choose your own design feature, but don’t choose one card or another based on looks (this goes for those of you who love metal cards also)!

Welcome Offer

The Discover it Cash Back Credit Card used to offer an incredibly valuable welcome offer per dollar spent: $100 cash back after making your first purchase of any amount on the card, as long as it’s within 3 months of account opening.

That’s what initially got me hooked on this card, but unfortunately it’s not available through public offers anymore.

Fortunately, it is available through referral links, so I’ve linked my referral link for the card when the card name is mentioned in this article.

You can tell that this card is geared toward new credit card users because the bonus triggers as soon as you make any purchase of any size. You don’t have to spend $500 in 3 months or fulfill any other requirements that competing cards might make you jump through.

This also means the percentage back you get on the transaction that triggers the welcome offer is way higher than any other welcome offer out there.

For example, if one card offers $200 after spending $500, then the Return on Spend (RoS) is 40% (200/500) while working toward the welcome offer. But if you buy a $0.10 piece of candy from Five Below, that alone will trigger this $100 welcome offer, equaling up to an insane 10,000% return on spend.

Obviously, most purchases will be more than $0.10, so that percentage will likely be lower for you, but as long as your first purchase is lower than $250 you’ll earn better than a 40% return on spend chasing this welcome offer, which I can confidently say is the easiest welcome offer to hit in the credit card space.

Annual Fee

Part of what makes the Discover it Cash Back Card such a great first credit card is that it has no annual fee, which means even if you get to a point in the future where you have other cards that offer you more benefits than the Discover it Cash Back Card, you can still keep this card open without paying an annual fee.

That’s important because one of the factors that impacts your credit score, and most importantly, your credit history, is the average age of your credit accounts, and the age of your oldest credit accounts.

Having your first few credit cards be no annual fee cards that you plan to keep open forever, even if you barely use them years from now, is a tried and true way to have a great sustainable credit history.

Category Multipliers

The Discover it Cash Back Card offers 5% cash back in rotating categories each quarter (up to $1,500). After reaching the cap, and on all other categories, you earn 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Here’s what those 5% back categories have been so far this year:

Quarter Categories Q1 2024 Restaurants and Drug Stores Q2 2024 Gas Stations & Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Home Improvement Stores, and Public Transit Q3 2024 Walmart and Grocery Stores Q4 2024 TBD. Announcing on Sep 1

While the 5% categories are exciting, they don’t separate themselves apart from any of the other 5% back cards, and it’s not like the 1% back on everything else is all that special either.

That’s until you learn about the card’s little-known feature that makes a world of a difference, which is its first year match, where Discover will match all of your first year earnings on the card after your first year of having it.

That means the 5% cash back categories become 10% cash back categories, and the 1% back on everything else becomes 2% back on everything else!

For a no annual fee card, that’s about as good as it gets, and that’s more competitive than most cards that do have an annual fee!

Issuer Rules

The only great reason I can think of to avoid getting the Discover it Cash Back Card as your first card is Chase’s 5/24 rule.

This refers to the fact that Chase almost never approves you for a credit card if you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards from any issuer in the last 24 months.

This means if you plan on opening up a bunch of credit cards early on in your credit card journey, then it’s a good idea to start with Chase for your first 5 cards, since you’re still under 5/24, before moving onto other issuers.

But given that it’s not always easy to get approved for that many cards in such a short amount of time from starting your credit history, and that most people won’t get 5 cards in their first 2 years of using a credit card, I don’t think that’s a concern most people should have.

In Conclusion

Of all the beginner credit cards out there, the Discover it Cash Back Card is the easiest to recommend (just make sure you use a link that gives you the $100 welcome offer when you apply).

There are definitely situations where other first cards make sense for people, and if you want to see if that’s you, Pointwise will let you know what you should do.

But it’s hard to beat the one-of-a-kind first year cash back match, the $100 welcome offer with no minimum spend, and the fun custom card designs :)

——

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely the author's and do not reflect the views of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by any of the organizations mentioned.

Does This Little Known Feature Make the Discover It The Best First Card?

Ken Book

Jul 3, 2024

Advertiser Disclosure

Pointwise is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Introduction

So you just turned 18, or just got to college, or someone just told you about their free business class flight when you paid hundreds of dollars for economy. For whatever reason, you’re looking for your first credit card, and you want it to be the best.

I’ve been in that same exact situation, which is why I’m writing this short series on some of the most popular first credit cards, starting with the Discover It card.

If you’d rather just get the answer that’s best for you right away, without having to read this review series, Pointwise was built just for you. Pointwise asks you a few quick questions about your preferences, and then connects to your existing credit or debit cards to tell you which card is best for you based on your actual spending patterns and preferences.

Why the Discover It?

Of all the entry level cards, the Discover It is far and away the most flexible. You can think of it more like a family of cards, rather than one specific card. They’re frequently recommended as someone’s first credit card because it’s relatively easy for people to get approved for them without much [or sometimes any] credit history.

This is in contrast to the mistake many first time card applicants make, which is they check their credit score, see that it’s high (usually due to them being an authorized user on a parent’s card), and then they’re shocked when they aren’t approved for some of the more popular credit cards.

That’s because, at the beginning of your credit card journey, your credit score matters far less than your credit history, which is how long you’ve personally had credit cards or other personal loans. If being an authorized user on another card is all the credit agencies have on you, they’ll give you a good credit score, but your credit report won’t show any personal credit history, which will make you unlikely to get approved right away for many of the cards you’ve probably heard of.

The Discover It line of cards is relatively easy to get approved for, especially the student cards in the lineup, which are very similar to the non-student cards.

One other thing to note is that for the Discover It line of cards, you’ll see some advertising that they earn miles and other cash back. While some credit card issuers, most notably Chase, do have substantial differences in what you can do with cash back cards vs points/miles earning cards, Discover miles and cash back are worth exactly the same. For every dollar the cash back card earns you, the miles card will earn you the exact same, which you can then redeem for $1 worth of cash.

The difference is primarily in marketing for people who want to earn for travel, but don’t know much about credit cards.

Therefore, in this post, we’ll be looking at the Discover it Cash Back Credit Card, which is virtually identical to the Discover it Student Cash Back Credit Card, with the exception that the non-student version has an extended 0% intro APR offer - 15 months of 0% APR instead of the student card’s 6.

But that leads us to the first part of a segment we’ll call:

Features That Shouldn’t Matter

  • The 0% intro APR promotion

The 0% intro APR promotion on the Discover It cash back cards, for whatever length of time, should not impact your decision to open this card. That’s because you should be paying off your card, in full, every month, hopefully on auto-pay, to make sure you never carry a balance or pay interest on a credit card.

If you think you’re the type of person that would avoid paying off your card every month, then credit cards are not for you.

The reason Discover offers this is because a large portion of their revenue comes from people who carry balances on their credit cards, who then pay high interest once the promotional 0% APR expires, because they’re now habituated into carrying a balance, and probably lost track of when exactly that 0% APR is expiring.

Don’t fall for it. Pay off your card.

  • Whatever the interest rate is

The interest rates the Discover It charges are insanely high (18% - 29%), but that should not matter one bit to you. That’s because you should only be getting credit cards in the first place if you’re financially able and disciplined enough to pay it off every single month.

Assuming you do that, you’ll never pay the interest rates, so these rates could be 200%, but it still wouldn’t matter: you’re always paying $0 in interest.

  • Whatever credit limit they offer you

The goal of your first card is to start building your credit history while getting as many rewards as possible. Discover is known to give out small credit limits (this was my first card and I got a $500 credit limit at first, which they’ve raised several times since then without my asking), but that’s nothing to worry about.

Yes, the percentage of your available credit that you use will be high if you have such a low credit limit, but as long as you pay it off every month, given that it’s such a low limit, it shouldn’t hurt your ability to open more cards in the future, and in the long run the card is still a clear positive because you’re building credit history.

  • The card’s design

Discover is known for having some beautiful custom card designs, but while a fun feature, that should not impact your decision to open the card or not. Credit cards are financial products. If you want to buy a picture to put in your wallet you can do that separately, but that’s not what credit cards are for.

If this card makes sense for you, then by all means, have fun with the choose your own design feature, but don’t choose one card or another based on looks (this goes for those of you who love metal cards also)!

Welcome Offer

The Discover it Cash Back Credit Card used to offer an incredibly valuable welcome offer per dollar spent: $100 cash back after making your first purchase of any amount on the card, as long as it’s within 3 months of account opening.

That’s what initially got me hooked on this card, but unfortunately it’s not available through public offers anymore.

Fortunately, it is available through referral links, so I’ve linked my referral link for the card when the card name is mentioned in this article.

You can tell that this card is geared toward new credit card users because the bonus triggers as soon as you make any purchase of any size. You don’t have to spend $500 in 3 months or fulfill any other requirements that competing cards might make you jump through.

This also means the percentage back you get on the transaction that triggers the welcome offer is way higher than any other welcome offer out there.

For example, if one card offers $200 after spending $500, then the Return on Spend (RoS) is 40% (200/500) while working toward the welcome offer. But if you buy a $0.10 piece of candy from Five Below, that alone will trigger this $100 welcome offer, equaling up to an insane 10,000% return on spend.

Obviously, most purchases will be more than $0.10, so that percentage will likely be lower for you, but as long as your first purchase is lower than $250 you’ll earn better than a 40% return on spend chasing this welcome offer, which I can confidently say is the easiest welcome offer to hit in the credit card space.

Annual Fee

Part of what makes the Discover it Cash Back Card such a great first credit card is that it has no annual fee, which means even if you get to a point in the future where you have other cards that offer you more benefits than the Discover it Cash Back Card, you can still keep this card open without paying an annual fee.

That’s important because one of the factors that impacts your credit score, and most importantly, your credit history, is the average age of your credit accounts, and the age of your oldest credit accounts.

Having your first few credit cards be no annual fee cards that you plan to keep open forever, even if you barely use them years from now, is a tried and true way to have a great sustainable credit history.

Category Multipliers

The Discover it Cash Back Card offers 5% cash back in rotating categories each quarter (up to $1,500). After reaching the cap, and on all other categories, you earn 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Here’s what those 5% back categories have been so far this year:

Quarter Categories Q1 2024 Restaurants and Drug Stores Q2 2024 Gas Stations & Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Home Improvement Stores, and Public Transit Q3 2024 Walmart and Grocery Stores Q4 2024 TBD. Announcing on Sep 1

While the 5% categories are exciting, they don’t separate themselves apart from any of the other 5% back cards, and it’s not like the 1% back on everything else is all that special either.

That’s until you learn about the card’s little-known feature that makes a world of a difference, which is its first year match, where Discover will match all of your first year earnings on the card after your first year of having it.

That means the 5% cash back categories become 10% cash back categories, and the 1% back on everything else becomes 2% back on everything else!

For a no annual fee card, that’s about as good as it gets, and that’s more competitive than most cards that do have an annual fee!

Issuer Rules

The only great reason I can think of to avoid getting the Discover it Cash Back Card as your first card is Chase’s 5/24 rule.

This refers to the fact that Chase almost never approves you for a credit card if you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards from any issuer in the last 24 months.

This means if you plan on opening up a bunch of credit cards early on in your credit card journey, then it’s a good idea to start with Chase for your first 5 cards, since you’re still under 5/24, before moving onto other issuers.

But given that it’s not always easy to get approved for that many cards in such a short amount of time from starting your credit history, and that most people won’t get 5 cards in their first 2 years of using a credit card, I don’t think that’s a concern most people should have.

In Conclusion

Of all the beginner credit cards out there, the Discover it Cash Back Card is the easiest to recommend (just make sure you use a link that gives you the $100 welcome offer when you apply).

There are definitely situations where other first cards make sense for people, and if you want to see if that’s you, Pointwise will let you know what you should do.

But it’s hard to beat the one-of-a-kind first year cash back match, the $100 welcome offer with no minimum spend, and the fun custom card designs :)

——

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely the author's and do not reflect the views of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by any of the organizations mentioned.

Does This Little Known Feature Make the Discover It The Best First Card?

Ken Book

Jul 3, 2024

Advertiser Disclosure

Pointwise is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Introduction

So you just turned 18, or just got to college, or someone just told you about their free business class flight when you paid hundreds of dollars for economy. For whatever reason, you’re looking for your first credit card, and you want it to be the best.

I’ve been in that same exact situation, which is why I’m writing this short series on some of the most popular first credit cards, starting with the Discover It card.

If you’d rather just get the answer that’s best for you right away, without having to read this review series, Pointwise was built just for you. Pointwise asks you a few quick questions about your preferences, and then connects to your existing credit or debit cards to tell you which card is best for you based on your actual spending patterns and preferences.

Why the Discover It?

Of all the entry level cards, the Discover It is far and away the most flexible. You can think of it more like a family of cards, rather than one specific card. They’re frequently recommended as someone’s first credit card because it’s relatively easy for people to get approved for them without much [or sometimes any] credit history.

This is in contrast to the mistake many first time card applicants make, which is they check their credit score, see that it’s high (usually due to them being an authorized user on a parent’s card), and then they’re shocked when they aren’t approved for some of the more popular credit cards.

That’s because, at the beginning of your credit card journey, your credit score matters far less than your credit history, which is how long you’ve personally had credit cards or other personal loans. If being an authorized user on another card is all the credit agencies have on you, they’ll give you a good credit score, but your credit report won’t show any personal credit history, which will make you unlikely to get approved right away for many of the cards you’ve probably heard of.

The Discover It line of cards is relatively easy to get approved for, especially the student cards in the lineup, which are very similar to the non-student cards.

One other thing to note is that for the Discover It line of cards, you’ll see some advertising that they earn miles and other cash back. While some credit card issuers, most notably Chase, do have substantial differences in what you can do with cash back cards vs points/miles earning cards, Discover miles and cash back are worth exactly the same. For every dollar the cash back card earns you, the miles card will earn you the exact same, which you can then redeem for $1 worth of cash.

The difference is primarily in marketing for people who want to earn for travel, but don’t know much about credit cards.

Therefore, in this post, we’ll be looking at the Discover it Cash Back Credit Card, which is virtually identical to the Discover it Student Cash Back Credit Card, with the exception that the non-student version has an extended 0% intro APR offer - 15 months of 0% APR instead of the student card’s 6.

But that leads us to the first part of a segment we’ll call:

Features That Shouldn’t Matter

  • The 0% intro APR promotion

The 0% intro APR promotion on the Discover It cash back cards, for whatever length of time, should not impact your decision to open this card. That’s because you should be paying off your card, in full, every month, hopefully on auto-pay, to make sure you never carry a balance or pay interest on a credit card.

If you think you’re the type of person that would avoid paying off your card every month, then credit cards are not for you.

The reason Discover offers this is because a large portion of their revenue comes from people who carry balances on their credit cards, who then pay high interest once the promotional 0% APR expires, because they’re now habituated into carrying a balance, and probably lost track of when exactly that 0% APR is expiring.

Don’t fall for it. Pay off your card.

  • Whatever the interest rate is

The interest rates the Discover It charges are insanely high (18% - 29%), but that should not matter one bit to you. That’s because you should only be getting credit cards in the first place if you’re financially able and disciplined enough to pay it off every single month.

Assuming you do that, you’ll never pay the interest rates, so these rates could be 200%, but it still wouldn’t matter: you’re always paying $0 in interest.

  • Whatever credit limit they offer you

The goal of your first card is to start building your credit history while getting as many rewards as possible. Discover is known to give out small credit limits (this was my first card and I got a $500 credit limit at first, which they’ve raised several times since then without my asking), but that’s nothing to worry about.

Yes, the percentage of your available credit that you use will be high if you have such a low credit limit, but as long as you pay it off every month, given that it’s such a low limit, it shouldn’t hurt your ability to open more cards in the future, and in the long run the card is still a clear positive because you’re building credit history.

  • The card’s design

Discover is known for having some beautiful custom card designs, but while a fun feature, that should not impact your decision to open the card or not. Credit cards are financial products. If you want to buy a picture to put in your wallet you can do that separately, but that’s not what credit cards are for.

If this card makes sense for you, then by all means, have fun with the choose your own design feature, but don’t choose one card or another based on looks (this goes for those of you who love metal cards also)!

Welcome Offer

The Discover it Cash Back Credit Card used to offer an incredibly valuable welcome offer per dollar spent: $100 cash back after making your first purchase of any amount on the card, as long as it’s within 3 months of account opening.

That’s what initially got me hooked on this card, but unfortunately it’s not available through public offers anymore.

Fortunately, it is available through referral links, so I’ve linked my referral link for the card when the card name is mentioned in this article.

You can tell that this card is geared toward new credit card users because the bonus triggers as soon as you make any purchase of any size. You don’t have to spend $500 in 3 months or fulfill any other requirements that competing cards might make you jump through.

This also means the percentage back you get on the transaction that triggers the welcome offer is way higher than any other welcome offer out there.

For example, if one card offers $200 after spending $500, then the Return on Spend (RoS) is 40% (200/500) while working toward the welcome offer. But if you buy a $0.10 piece of candy from Five Below, that alone will trigger this $100 welcome offer, equaling up to an insane 10,000% return on spend.

Obviously, most purchases will be more than $0.10, so that percentage will likely be lower for you, but as long as your first purchase is lower than $250 you’ll earn better than a 40% return on spend chasing this welcome offer, which I can confidently say is the easiest welcome offer to hit in the credit card space.

Annual Fee

Part of what makes the Discover it Cash Back Card such a great first credit card is that it has no annual fee, which means even if you get to a point in the future where you have other cards that offer you more benefits than the Discover it Cash Back Card, you can still keep this card open without paying an annual fee.

That’s important because one of the factors that impacts your credit score, and most importantly, your credit history, is the average age of your credit accounts, and the age of your oldest credit accounts.

Having your first few credit cards be no annual fee cards that you plan to keep open forever, even if you barely use them years from now, is a tried and true way to have a great sustainable credit history.

Category Multipliers

The Discover it Cash Back Card offers 5% cash back in rotating categories each quarter (up to $1,500). After reaching the cap, and on all other categories, you earn 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Here’s what those 5% back categories have been so far this year:

Quarter Categories Q1 2024 Restaurants and Drug Stores Q2 2024 Gas Stations & Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Home Improvement Stores, and Public Transit Q3 2024 Walmart and Grocery Stores Q4 2024 TBD. Announcing on Sep 1

While the 5% categories are exciting, they don’t separate themselves apart from any of the other 5% back cards, and it’s not like the 1% back on everything else is all that special either.

That’s until you learn about the card’s little-known feature that makes a world of a difference, which is its first year match, where Discover will match all of your first year earnings on the card after your first year of having it.

That means the 5% cash back categories become 10% cash back categories, and the 1% back on everything else becomes 2% back on everything else!

For a no annual fee card, that’s about as good as it gets, and that’s more competitive than most cards that do have an annual fee!

Issuer Rules

The only great reason I can think of to avoid getting the Discover it Cash Back Card as your first card is Chase’s 5/24 rule.

This refers to the fact that Chase almost never approves you for a credit card if you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards from any issuer in the last 24 months.

This means if you plan on opening up a bunch of credit cards early on in your credit card journey, then it’s a good idea to start with Chase for your first 5 cards, since you’re still under 5/24, before moving onto other issuers.

But given that it’s not always easy to get approved for that many cards in such a short amount of time from starting your credit history, and that most people won’t get 5 cards in their first 2 years of using a credit card, I don’t think that’s a concern most people should have.

In Conclusion

Of all the beginner credit cards out there, the Discover it Cash Back Card is the easiest to recommend (just make sure you use a link that gives you the $100 welcome offer when you apply).

There are definitely situations where other first cards make sense for people, and if you want to see if that’s you, Pointwise will let you know what you should do.

But it’s hard to beat the one-of-a-kind first year cash back match, the $100 welcome offer with no minimum spend, and the fun custom card designs :)

——

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely the author's and do not reflect the views of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by any of the organizations mentioned.