Two or three years ago I couldn’t even begin to imagine the changes that were about to take place in the credit industry. The financial crisis of 2008 – 2009 caused a lot of turmoil in the consumer credit industry, and we are still seeing the repercussions of that today. Tommrow I have a guest post going up that talks about how it’s STILL nearly impossible for many small businesses to get credit.

The reason I talk about the financial crisis when comparing the Discover® More® Card with Chase Freedom is because this crisis caused many card companies to scale back and change the structure of their rewards programs. Two years ago I would have recommended Chase Freedom over any card that Discover offered in a heartbeat. However it’s become more complex and they playing field is a bit more even these days.

The Chase Freedom card used to offer 3% cash back on everyday purchases each and every month, meaning that the categories remained the same. Now the card offers 3% cash back on “rotating categories” which change from month to month. This has a huge impact on the amount of cash back you can actually earn, especially when the category changes to “department store purchases” and you don’t shop at department stores etc.

Now for those of you who are going to say, well Discover More also has rotating categories – you’re right. However the difference here is that Discover has always compensated for this by offering a higher % cash back, in this case 5%. With Discover More you earn close to 67% more cash back on many of the same rotating categories offered by Chase Freedom.

Both cards allow you to earn 1% cash back on all other purchases and have no cap on the amount of cash back you can earn each month.

Rewards Program Winner: Discover® More® Card

When it comes to card benefits, Chase has always fared pretty well, and although they have made some cuts in with rewards, this hasn’t changed. Chase actually just launched a great program called Blueprint which helps you create customized payment plans, and track the repayment of your card. Chase also has an online “shopping mall” where you can earn up to a 20% cash back bonus on purchases through hundreds of merchants that Chase has partnered with.

Although Discover doesn’t currently offer anything like Chase Blueprint, they do have a phenomenal online shopping program which is comparable to the Chase program. ShopDiscover allows you to earn up to 20% cash back when buying online at from selected retailers. Some of these retailers include:

• Apple
• Best Buy
• Barnes & Noble
• Kohl’s
• Macys
• The North Face

I’m not going to list all 150+ retailers here for obvious reasons but you get the idea, there are many major stores and brands to choose from.

Overall though Chase actually has the upperhand on Discover when it comes to card benefits because of the Blueprint Program. Both companies have great online shopping programs you should make sure to take advantage of, regardless of which card you go with.

Card Benefits Winner: Chase Freedom

If you’ve checked out our Best Credit Cards of 2009 / 2010 section then you know that the Discover More card is currently our top choice. Although Chase launched the Blueprint program, it doesn’t make up for the major cuts made to the cards rewards program. For most people looking for a cash back credit card, the rewards are always going to come first. For this reason the Discover More card is the clear winner here. If Chase bumped up it’s rewards program to match what Discover offers it would be an entirely different game just like it was two years ago.

You can apply for the Discover® More® Card here.

(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...