Discover it® Miles Review: Travel Card with No-Hassle Miles

Any credit card issuer worth its weight in plastic has at least one travel credit card on offer. As its name implies, Discover it® Miles is Discover’s entry in that large and busy market.

It’s a card that, if cleverly utilized, can reap quite a lot of Miles for certain types of cardholder. Savvy and ambitious travelers using the card can take advantage of a big bonus to score free travel. Ready to fly away? Then read on for more about Discover it® Miles.  

0% intro APR for balance transfers -- The card could benefit by rounding out its 0% intro APR offer for purchases by also including the same for balance transfers. While rare in the travel category, we can always wish for the best perks in one card.

Travel insurances -- Cards from other brands, notably Visa and Mastercard, typically come with a set of travel perks and benefits like car insurance and coverage for lost/damaged luggage. Discover it® Miles lacks many of these extras.

If you’re considering a travel credit card, most likely the key reason is that it offers the opportunity to earn free travel. The idea is very seductive; use the card for purchases, rack up rewards Miles, then book that dream vacation you’ve always wanted.

In a way, this makes evaluating the merits of the many travel cards on the market easy. Can you earn Miles on them quickly? Do they have a big intro Miles bonus when you spend a certain amount of money off the bat?

Travel cards generally come in one of two flavors in terms of earning Miles:

• Flat-rate rewards cards -- Every purchase, no matter in what product/service category, earns Miles at the same rate.

• Bonus rewards cards -- Purchases in certain categories -- mainly travel, although not always, and sometimes with caveats -- earn Miles at elevated rates.

There are pluses and minuses to both. The flat-rate cards won’t dump a lot of Miles into your account at once with a strategic purchase, but they will earn at a steady and predictable rate. Flip those two factors, and you’ve got the advantages and disadvantages of bonus rewards cards.

Choosing between these types depends on what kind of consumer you are, broadly speaking.

If you’re a dedicated traveler that spends money constantly on the activity -- either for work or pleasure -- you might be better off with a bonus reward card, particularly one with elevated rewards for travel. If you’re a more general consumer, you’re probably more suited to a flat-rate card.

One nice thing about flat-rate rewards cards is that they require no planning and strategizing about bonus categories. Whatever you spend money on with the card, you’ll earn the same 1.5 Miles per $1.

Now, travel cards are effective earners if you have only a few, or even just one of them. Spreading your earnings among several will take that much longer to result in a tally high enough for a subsidized flight. If Discover it® Miles is that card for you, use it as often as possible for purchases without raising your credit utilization too high.

What will help greatly is the Mile-for-Mile matching program at the end of the first year of ownership -- a potentially massive and quite atypical initiative in the travel card segment. Combined with frequent spending on the card, this program can put you over the top and then some for Miles-funded travel.

Discover it® Miles is best suited for someone who’s enthusiastic about travel, but for whatever reason doesn’t necessarily spend much on the hobby. He or she should be an active credit card user, though, as the earnings rate for Miles is good, and effectively doubles at the end of the first year of ownership.

Those who actively spend money on travel expenses can also be served nicely by this card, although they might be better off with one that has bonus earnings for such purchases. Still, that 1.5 Miles per $1 rate and the Mile-for-Mile matching program can also result in meaningful earnings for this type of cardholder.