Discover it® Student chrome
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A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.
Best for good grades rewards
- Annual Fee:
- $0
- Purchase Intro APR:
- 0% for 6 months
- Balance Transfer Intro APR:
- 10.99% for 6 months
- Regular APR:
- 19.49% Variable
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Discover it® Student chrome: Details and benefits
As one of the two student credit cards that Discover offers, the Discover it® Student chrome earns you 2 percent cash back at gas stations and restaurants on up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter, along with an unlimited 1 percent back on all other purchases.
At the end of your first year, Discover will match all of the cash back you’ve earned, no matter the amount, and apply it to your account.
For studious folks, there’s a $20 statement credit every year your GPA is 3.0 or higher for up to the next five years. (Think: you could use that to buy you and a group of friend’s a celebratory large pizza and breadsticks.)
There’s also a zero percent introductory APR offer for six months on purchases and an intro APR of 10.99 percent for six months on balance transfers (19.49 percent variable APR thereafter).
Advantages
- You don’t need perfect credit to qualify
- $20 statement credit each school year your GPA is 3.0 or higher (up to five years)
- Cash back is matched at the end of your first year
- No annual fee
Disadvantages
- If you don’t regularly spend at gas stations and restaurants, try a different card
- Poor introductory purchase APR offer
Is the Discover it Student chrome worth it for you?
First and foremost, the Student chrome is a card for students. If you’re currently enrolled in school and have little-to-no credit history, you’ll benefit from this solid starter card.
The restaurant category also covers purchases made at cafes, cafeterias and fast-food restaurants, but if you don’t spend much on gas or eating out, you might consider the Discover it® Student Cash Back. This card offers 5 percent cash back (up to $1,500 each quarter) on rotating categories like grocery stores, gas stations, Amazon.com and more, then 1 percent thereafter (activation required).
Get the most value from the Discover it Student chrome
To get the full value out of this card, your best bet is maxing out the 2 percent cash back category each quarter.
There are no foreign transaction fees, making this card a good choice if you plan on studying abroad (where Discover cards are accepted). Even better, your first late payment fee is waived (should you forget); after that, it’s up to a $39 fee.
To qualify for the Discover Good Grades program, you must manually enter your GPA in your online Discover Account. Documentation to verify your grade point average may be required.
A few additional features of the card that we recommend you make use of is the free FICO® Credit Score approximation on your monthly statement or in your online account and Discover® Identity Alerts. Your FICO® Credit Score will automatically show up, but you will need to activate the identity alert feature.
If you ever run into trouble, Discover offers a Freeze It® feature that allows you to turn your card on or off to prevent new purchases, cash advances and balance transfers.
How much are the Discover it Student chrome rewards worth?
To see how much you could potentially earn from the Student chrome, let’s look at a spending example.
If you spend $500 a quarter on gas and $500 on restaurant purchases every three months, you’ll max out your 2 percent cash back category for the quarter, earning you $80 by the end of your first year. If you spend an additional $200 each quarter on purchases within the 1 percent cash back category, you’ll earn an additional $8 for the year.
The real reward lies in Cashback Match benefit. At the end of your first year, Discover will automatically match all of the cash back you’ve earned, totaling $176. Should you receive the $20 statement credit for holding a GPA of 3.0 or higher, you’ll end up with $196 worth of rewards for your first year of card ownership.
How to redeem rewards
Rewards redemption is simple. You can redeem your cash back at any time in any amount as statement credit, an electronic bank deposit, gift cards through Discover partners (in $20 increments) or use to shop on Amazon.com.