Escape by Discover Card Review
Latest News – Discover has discontinued this card.
The Escape by Discover® Card is one of the best travel rewards card because you can earn double miles, four miles per dollar spent at Amazon.com and also has no foreign transaction fee. Read on to see if this card will work for you.
Reward Formula – First and foremost, this is a travel rewards credit card. The unique feature of this card is that you can earn double miles for every dollar that you spend on the card. You can earn unlimited miles which never expire. Bear in mind that to keep your miles, you have to use your card for 18 consecutive months and cannot have 2 consecutive late payments.
4 Miles Per Dollar At Amazon.com – Another thing to note about this card is that Discovered has teamed up with Amazon whereby you can earn double miles for up to $250 a month in Amazon purchases. That means that you can earn four miles per dollar spent at amazon.com because you would earn double miles normally for other purchases.
No foreign Transaction Fees – Another great feature of this card is that since November 2011, Discover no longer charges any foreign transaction fee. Discover is accepted whereby Diners Club is accepted (most of Europe and most places in the world), in China and Japan.
How to Redeem Miles? – This is how the rewards work. You are supposed to use the card to book any travel items, whether it be airline tickets, hotels etc. You then have to submit this expense within 90 days to Discover. Basically, 10,000 miles is worth $100 in value. Hence, unlike the reward program of the past, you have the flexibility to book any ticket with any travel agent, online or off-line. It frees you up to find the best deal for yourself. I think this is a much better deal than many frequent flier programs because you are not restricted in any way that you book your travels.
Exchange Miles for Gift Cards – Those who are familiar with Discover know that they have the most comprehensive gift card partners (over 90 partners and now approaching 100). What is impressive about the program is that you can get more value than the number of miles you have. For example, many gift card merchants will accept 2,000 miles for a $25 gift card! Some merchants like Celebrity cruise will double the value of your gift card!
ShopDiscover.com – Discover also has a program called shopdiscover.com with about 100 retailer partners. With other Discover Cards, you can get 5% to 20% cash back bonus is you shop through these sites from shopdiscover.com. With the Escape Card, rather than earning cash rebates or discounts, you will earn additional double miles for every dollar that you spend.
Fees and Rates – The annual fee for this card is $60, which is actually a bargain considering that you can earn double miles for all purchases. Most airline credit cards charge an annual fee anywhere from $50 to $85 and you can only earn double miles if you book their airline ticket.
Verdict – In the past, most credit card reward programs required you to have a set points to redeem for a specific flight in a sector. For example, you typically need 25,000 miles or points to get a free economy class return ticket within continental USA. With this system, it came with a lot of restrictions like having to book three weeks in advance, having to stay a Saturday night for example. Now, most programs have moved away from this system and instead, they let you use points with more flexibility. But you still have to book your tickets through them. For example, witi Citi, you need to use expedia.com. With Capital One, World Points and Membership Rewards, you still have to use their in-house travel agent. This could sometimes cause problems because different travel agents are given a set amount of seats and tickets by airlines and hotels. So a seat may be available elsewhere but not with the credit card issuers travel agent!
The Escape Card solves this problem because you can book with whoever you want. It leaves you to find the best bargain and itinerary for yourself. Plus, you get to earn double miles for every purchase, which hardly any card offers.
If you are someone who is sick of all the restrictions placed by frequent flier programs or credit card programs and like the flexibility to finding the best travel deals for yourself, then I would highly recommend the Escape by Discover® Card. Furthermore, the fact that it has no foreign transaction fee and the miles you can earn from shopping at Amazon.com makes this card even more attractive.
