Time to Plan Some Late Summer Home Improvement Projects with Discover It Card

The Discover It card’s 5% Cashback Bonus categories for the remainder of 2016 were recently announced, and July through September looks compelling. Use your Discover It card at home improvement stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot in the 3rd Quarter and get 5% cashback on up to $1,500 in purchases. If you’re planning some projects now, it might be worth putting them off until July to capitalize on the bonus–wish me luck explaining that to Mrs. PointsYak.

All the 2016 bonus categories are listed in the graphic below. Amazon.com is prominently featured in the entire second half of the year, while “& More” in the 4th Quarter is vague at best. Home Improvement is what got my attention as it’s easy to spend money there, to be honest, I already have plenty of Amazon credit waiting to be spent.

Discover It Details

Discover It, similar to Chase Freedom, is a cashback card that offers a 5% cashback bonus on up to $1,500 of spending in categories that rotate quarterly. If you spend the maximum in each category, that’s $300 in bonus cashback each year. The card offers 1% cashback on all other spending.

The card offers no signup bonus, however for new accounts, ALL cashback earned on your first 12 bills will be doubled and will appear on your following statement. That could lead to a hefty cashback reward after a year of spending. The rest of the card details are as follows:

• No Annual Fee
• 0% APR for purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months
• No Foreign Transaction Fees (but limited acceptance outside U.S.)
• No fee for your first late payment
• Free FICO scores

Summary

In addition to the bonus offered by Discover, don’t forget to buy as much of your home improvement items online via shopping portals for even more savings. The portals may offer as much as an additional 5% – 10% cashback depending on your timing, and you can order ahead and pickup at the store to avoid shipping charges.

Even if your plans don’t include any home improvement this summer, it’s easy to shift spending to get the 5% bonus anyway. Both Lowe’s and Home Depot sell their own gift cards to use at a later time, or you can purchase gift cards to use at places like restaurants, gas stations, and other retailers.

I like having a variety of no annual fee credit cards at my disposal to take advantage of bonus spending categories. Discover It gives you one more weapon in your arsenal. And when you can’t remember which card to use in the store you’re shopping in, my PointsYak Cashback Lookup Tool will tell you the right card to maximize your bonus.