The Discover Open Road Card (former Discover Gas Card) will be changing it’s rebate policy slightly on gas purchases from October this year. At present, cardholders can earn 5% rebates on gasoline purchases at any station for up to the first $1,200 in annual gasoline purchases from with the card.

This will change in the following way from October 2007. You can still earn 5% rebates on gasoline purchase for the first $1,200 in gasoline spending. But each month, you can only earn 5% rebate for up to $100 in gasoline spending. Essentially, Discover is forcing cardholders to spread out the gasoline spending over 12 months. This will probably be difficult for many cardholders because it cost close to $50 to fill up many vehicles these days.

This is becoming an issue for credit card holders who want to earn 5% cash rebates for gasoline purchases. In the past, the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card and the Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa (now replaced by the Chase Freedom Card) gave cardholders a 5% rebates on gasoline purchases. The Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Card now only pays 2% rebates on gasoline, supermarket and utility purchases, while the Chase Freedom^SM Cash Visa® Card pays 3% cash rebates. The other card that pays 5% rebates on gasoline is the Blue Cash® from American Express . But you have to spend above $6,500 (in annual spending) before you can earn 5% rebates.

The best card now that lets you earn unlimited 5% rebates on gasoline purchases (without any limits or tiers) is the American Express SimplyCash^SM Business Card. You not only 5% cash rebates on gasoline, but also on office supplies and wireless services. Yes, it is a business card. But you can apply for one as a sole proprietor. At present, this would be the card I would recommend to earn 5% rebates on gasoline spending.

Discover has made some great changes to their travel reward card (The Miles Card) and in my opinion, this is now a serious card to consider for those looking for a reward card to earn free airline tickets.

The old Discover Miles Card was like a regular travel reward credit card where you earned points and redeem them for airline tickets and other goodies like merchandise, gift certificates and cash rebates. I did not like the old Discover Miles Card because you needed more than 25,000 miles to claim your free airline ticket (most programs require just 25,000 miles or points).

The new program is completely different and is more like the Amex Blue Sky or the Capital One No Hassle Miles program. With the new Discover Miles Card, you earn the usual reward points (or miles), but you can redeem them for any travel purchase. You earn one mile for every dollar you spend and double miles on up to $3,000 in travel and restaurant purchases.You can book your own airline ticket and then use the miles to get a credit from that expenditure. Let’s use an example. You buy an airline ticket for $200. If you have 20,000 miles in your account, you can use that to get a credit to your airline ticket expense on the card.

A program like this provides advantages over regular credit card reward programs. Firstly, you can use any travel agent to get the best deals (even internet travel agents). You are free from the usual restrictions like having to book 21 days in advance, having to stay a Saturday night. That means no blackout dates or restrictions.

You can also use your miles to redeem other stuff as well. For example, you can use them to redeem for gift certificates. Discover Miles has got 50 merchant partners. However, this is not that attractive because you need more points to redeem for a certain value of gift certificates than other reward programs. For example, you need to use 1,000 Miles for a $5 gift card, 3,500 Miles for $25, 6,000 Miles for $50 and more. The better cards allow you to use (for example) 1,000 points for a $10 gift card, 2,000 points for a $20 gift card etc. There is also a cash back program where you effectively exchange miles for cash at a 0.5% cash rebate percentage. Once again, you should not be getting this card for this feature.

If you are the type of person that likes to find your own deal on the internet, and want to use miles for any airline and any flight, then I would highly recommend the Miles by Discover® Card.

As a teaser, new cardholders get 12,000 bonus miles and a 0% APR deal for 12 months as well.

To further differentiate their cards, Discover has offered applicants of their student credit cards the choice three new designs with their monograms on them.

The features of these cards are the same as the regular Discover Platinum Student Card. What is different is just the card design - to make it more personal. You can choose from three colors - Black, Green or Sexy Pink.

I’m not too sure if simply offering the ability to put a monogram on your card is going to get more applications. But they sure look bright and fun! You can apply for the Discover® Student Monogram Card here.

My main credit card at the moment is the Blue Cash® from American Express , which pays 5% rebate on “everyday purchase” (supermarket, gas and drugstore) and 1.5% on “everything else” once your annual spending exceeds $6,500. This has been my main cash back card for the last couple of years. The great thing about this card is that you can earn 5% rebates for a few common spending categories. But I was looking for more and I think I may have found the card that also pays 5% rebates when you spend your card at various retailers.

That card is the Discover Platinum Card. The thing that caught my eye was the fact that Discover has made agreements with various partners and if you use your Discover Card at these partners, you may get as much as 10% rebates. Here is a quick glance at what is potentially in store.

Cash Back at Various Merchants at ShopDiscover.com

1. Lands End - 10%
2. Overstock - 5%
3. Target - 5%
4. Carnival Cruise - 5%
5. Barnes and Nobles - 5%
6. FTD.com - 20%
7 myhotelstays.com - 10%

If you are looking for a card that pays you “actual cash rebates” (not reward points when you use your card at popular merchants, the Discover® Platinum Card could be the card you are looking for. I am applying for this card. I will be doing a more thorough study of the ShopDiscover.com site soon.

From now until 31st March 2007, the Discover® Business Card is having a $50,000 sweepstake for applicants of the card. If you refer three friends or business colleagues, your name will be entered a second time for the sweeptakes.

Just to recap, the Discover Business Card is much like the Discover Platinum Card iin that it is a hybrid cash rebate credit card. With the Business Card, you earn 5% cash rebates for office supplies and 2% rebates for gasoline purchases. You will earn up to 1% rebates for all other purchases.

The neat thing about Discover Cards (including the Business Card) is that you can increase the value of your cash rebates by exchanging them for gift certificates of over 70 merchant partners. For certain partners, you can double the value of your cash rebates.

The Discover Business Card comes with no annual fee. It also helps you build your business credit by reporting to Dun & Bradstreet. If you have always been thinking of getting a business credit card, now is the time when you may want to consider the Discover® Business Card.

To find out more about this card, you can read our review of the Discover Business Card here.

Discover has announced on their website that from January to March of 2007, Discover Platinum Card holders will earn 5% cash rebates for travel items charged to the card. These include airline tickets, hotels, cruises, car rentals, Amtrak trains and Greyhound bus rides.

This offer is part of Discovers Get More merchants program. Every three months, Discover will allow cardholders to earn 5% rebates when the card is used for purchases from certain partner merchants.

The interesting aspect of this quarter’s travel merchant partners is that is it very rare to get 5% cash rebates for travel items. Certain credit cards like the BP Rewards Visa or Amex Costco Card pay 2% cash rebates. Some airline credit cards lets you earn double miles, but these cards tend to have high annual fees.

Hence, if you are looking to earn cash rebates from your travel within the next three months, you may want to consider the Discover® Platinum Card. You have to be aware though that this 5% cash back offer on travel items is only valid for the next three months. Having said that, you will get other offers and opportunities to earn 5% cash rebates.

You may want to read our review of the Discover Platinum Card first.