Discover Escape
|
  |
|
||||||||||||
|
|
Use the sliders to the left to calculate balance transfer interest and APR interest for this particular card. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
APR Rankings
Rewards Rankings
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signing Promotion ($250=25,000 points)/3 yrs |
$83 |
| Estimated Annual Rewards $21,600 * 2.00% |
$432 |
| Annual Fee, 3 yr avg |
$60 |
| Annual Rewards (Rewards less Fees) | $455 |
Discover Escape is one of few cards that has a 2% base rewards rate, which is why it ranks so well in terms of rewards. Despite the reward being called Discover Miles, it is effectively the same as cash.
Discover states, “Redeem for a direct deposit to your bank account or a Discover account credit starting at 5,000 Miles”. That’s music to our ears.
Many other miles programs are not transferrable – for example, you can not add your 5,000 Capital One miles to your 20,000 American Airlines miles to get a ticket. This forces you to spend 25,000 on the card before you can collect a ticket.
Quite possibly the best card out there, if you can get over the fact that it is on the Discover network. If that’s a deal breaker, the American Express Fidelity cards are almost as good. The only thing they lack compared to the Escape is what effectively works out to a $250 sign up bonus (1,000 points or ~$10 per month for the first 25 months you hold the card).
The benefits of this card more than offset the $60 annual fee, especially when you take the 25,000 (~$250) point signing bonus into consideration. However, if you plan to hold the same card for more than 4 years, it may be better to go with something like the American Express Blue Cash.
Is 25000 the req for round trip? How difficult is it to get airlines to allot the tickets. When you use these miles they always seem full?
Nope, even though they’re called “Miles”, Discover’s rewards don’t work that way. Rather than earning miles with a very specific airline and only being able to redeem them for a limited number of flights, Discover gives you a $100 travel credit for every 10,000 miles. You can then use that travel credit on any hotel, flight, or rental car you want.
And remember, you’re earning 2 miles per $1 spent, so that means you get $100 off travel whenever you spend $5,000. This plus the 1,000 miles (or $10) per month for the first 25 months.
So all in, it’s a great deal!