Discover slashing card benefits (warranty, rental insurance, purchase protection, and more)

Finance
1

The following benefits being discontinued on February 28th:

*Extended product warranty, which extends a manufacturer’s warranty for a year
*Purchase protection, which covers newly purchased items if they’re stolen or damaged
*Return guarantee, which allows you to return a purchased item if the retailer won’t take it back
*Auto rental coverage, which pays costs not covered by your own insurance in the event of an accident with a rental car
*Flight accident insurance, which covers you if you pay for your ticket with a Discover card

4 Likes
2

This is an automatically-generated Wiki post for this new topic. Any member can edit this post and use it as a summary of the topic’s highlights.

3

It’s a shame. Interesting too given Citibank’s boosting of similar benefits over a year ago.

I wonder how large their losses have been from those benefits?

4

Hopefully not a start of a trend. No loss for me as I’ve avoided discover as mostly substandard for rewards/benefits.

5

Discover said it will eliminate five benefits from its lineup of credit cards in 2018 because customers don’t use them enough.
…

  • Flight accident insurance

Srsly?

4 Likes
6

I wonder if this will be like when US Air tried charging passengers for all in-flight water and soda 10 years ago. The industry trend failed to develop and they reverted to giving free drinks with their tail between their legs.

7

Discover said it “will continue to offer free benefits that card members use and value the most.” Notably, it is retaining price protection…

For this, I am thankful.

1 Like
8

Except Spirit, they still charge $3 for water or soda and accept tips for not crashing the plane.

9

Sounds like a case of not trying to compete on benefits. Maybe mainstream customers do not value those enough compared to more visible ones like cashback.

Plus it’s true that maintaining programs that are unused has a small cost they figured they could drop without hurting their brand.

For me Discover is only good for their 5% categories. In all other respects, other cards we have are better so if it leads to Discover focusing on 5% cashback rather than programs of theirs I wouldn’t use anyway, I’m fine with it.

Another benefit they could get rid of is their 0% foreign transaction fees. Considering it’s pretty much not accepted anywhere outside the US, that’s completely moot. But I guess it does not cost customer service so they keep it for decoration.

3 Likes
10

I haven’t tried, but supposedly Discover is by JCB, UnionPay and Diner’s Club networks, which does give it some international coverage. Anyways, I generally use Visa/MC outside the US.

11

Just got a letter that the in-flight wifi reimbursement for Discover It Miles is ending on March 31.

12

Interesting to me. I’ve found Discover one of my very most profitable cards. And their customer service is #1 . . . . . in my view, anyway.

Concession:

I concede my Discover Miles card will NOT be so great if they do not come through with the double reward payment I’ve been promised. Payment promised for July will be thousands of dollars, IF it happens. Absent that promised payment, my Discover Miles card is merely OK.