Credit card directory

Discover it Cash Back

Discover it Cash Back has no annual fee and pays 5% cash back on everyday purchases at different places each quarter, up to the quarterly maximum, when you activate, and 1% on all other purchases. There is no foreign transaction fee on the issuer page checked.

Facts read from the Discover official cash back card page on October 22, 2026. How we check them: methodology.

Earn rates, as the issuer prints them

Two lines make up the whole table, and the 5% line carries two conditions: activation each quarter and the quarterly maximum. The record for this profile captured the maximum as a phrase rather than a dollar figure, so read the current number in your account. Every purchase outside the quarter's category earns 1%, the same low floor as the Freedom Flex, Savor and Blue Cash Everyday in this directory. In the illustration below, the rotating line produces $200 of the $320 total, so most of the card's return depends on the quarterly calendar.

A year of spending on this card, worked out

Arithmetic illustration with stated inputs, assuming every quarter is activated and $1,000 of spending each quarter lands in the 5% category without passing the maximum: the 5% line returns $200 a year, and $12,000 of other purchases at 1% returns $120, for $320 in total.

Welcome offer as published

As published on the issuer page: Unlimited Cashback Match: Discover matches all the cash back you earn at the end of your first year (the first 365 days, new cardmembers, no purchase minimum, per the issuer page).

Discover's offer is a match rather than a bonus: it matches all the cash back you earn at the end of your first year, with no purchase minimum, for new cardmembers, per the issuer page. There is no spend pace to hit, and the match scales with the first year's earn. Applied to the illustration above, $320 of first-year cash back would become $640.

Who this earn structure suits

Cardholders who are happy to switch on Discover's quarterly 5% category each time it changes and to route matching purchases here until the quarterly maximum is reached. The first-year Cashback Match doubles whatever the card earns in year one, so the structure pays most to someone whose first year of category spend is heavy.

The traps to check in your account

• Discover sets the redemption options and minimums; confirm them in your account.
• The 5% line requires activation each quarter and stops at the quarterly maximum; spending above it earns 1%.
• Interest on a carried balance can outweigh the rewards, so the earn table assumes you pay in full.