Lesson: Check Your Mail, You Never Know What You May Find!

The LESSON
Keep an eye on your junk mail and your email offers, you never know what you might find!

Another “updated terms and conditions” or…
“privacy policy” or…
PROMOTION!

The EXAMPLE
Back in late August, I received a promotion by (snail) mail from Discover Card. I have been a loyal customer for many years, especially taking routine advantage of its 5% cash back rolling promotions. Once I earn enough, I usually opt for the bonus redemption for an eGift card (immediate printing) to a store I know I’m going to use anyway, such as Banana Republic which gets me a 25% bonus and can be used in the entire family of Gap Inc. stores (Gaps, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta) (see inset).

But this promotional offer was impressive and, although it would take some work, it had a solid payout!

You will earn $500 Cashback Bonus® when you make a total of at least $3,000 in purchases each calendar month [for six months] from 9/1/13 to 2/28/14 with your Discover card. … If you do not reach $3,000 in purchases in each of those months, make a return that brings the monthly amount spent below $3,000, or convert to a Miles reward program, you no longer qualify to participate in this offer and will no longer be able to earn $500 Cashback Bonus®. You will, however, continue to earn Cashback Bonus® on every single purchase automatically.

Discover has many redeem options for bonus earning power!

Clearly this was a specific promotion to steer customers to “get comfortable” with using their Discover Card as a primary credit card, i.e. get them to move it and keep it in the front of their wallet/purse. Reading on, that is basically just was they said next in the confirmation email! (my emphasis)

Make Discover your primary credit card and take your Cashback Bonus® to the next level! Thank you for being a loyal Discover Cardmember.

So, after a few months of diligently using my Discover Card everywhere I went on several key purchases (and tracking my monthly spending quota on my custom credit card spreadsheet, as I did NOT want to accidentally forget a month), I logged on today to confirm my nice $500+ cash payout! No, thank YOU, Discover Card!

Now on to the easier part — Spending it!

My promo results after six months of “moving up” my Discover Card.

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