The Discover it® Student Cash Back credit card offers generous rewards to students (making it our top credit card for student gamers) and an introductory offer that can earn you up to 10% cash back on your purchases in the first year.
However, to get the most from this card, you’ll need to be diligent and remember to sign up for the bonus rewards four times a year.
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Quick Review
The Discover it® Student Cash Back is a great starter credit card for new borrowers. Student credit cards tend to offer lower credit limits and strict qualification requirements. However, they’re good for credit building, especially for those without an established credit history.
Generous cashback rewards of 1%–5% (or 2%–10% in the first year) and reasonable fees are why the Discover it® Student Cash Back credit card makes our lists of:
The main downsides of the card are that it’s unavailable to non-US citizens—which rules it out for international students—and that you can’t always use Discover credit cards everywhere you go abroad, so it’s not great for anyone studying outside the US.
Discover It® Student Cash Back Card Important Details
Basic card details
- Credit card issuer: Discover
- Annual fee: $0
- Regular APR: 15.99%–24.99% (variable)
- Rewards rate: 1%–5%
- Grace period: 25 days
Additional Information
- 5% rotating cashback categories
- 1% cash back on everyday purchases
- 0% introductory APR for the first 6 months
- Unlimited cashback match for the first year
- No late fee on your first late payment
- Free access to your FICO score
- Fraud protection (credit monitoring of your Experian credit report plus alerts if there’s fraudulent use of your Social Security number)
- Free overnight card replacement
- Account freezing if you misplace your card
Discover It® Student Cash Back Card Feature Breakdown
In this section, we’ll look at some of the most notable features of the Discover It® Student Cash Back card.
Fees
Many credit cards require an annual fee (a yearly charge cardholders pay for the use of their credit card) or fees for processing your application. The Discover It® Student Cash Back card doesn’t have these charges, and most of the other fees are reasonable.
Here’s a breakdown:
- Annual fee: $0
- Late fees: Up to $40 (after your first late payment, for which you won’t be penalized)
- Foreign transaction fee: 0%
- Cash advance fee: $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance (whichever is greater)
- Balance transfer fee: 5% of the transfer amount (Discover may offer an introductory balance transfer fee of 3%; check terms to see applicability)
Note that this card boasts the usual Discover foreign transaction fee waiver, making it a good resource to carry abroad.
Interest Rates
Here’s are the interest rates you’ll be subject to pay for a Discover It® Student Cash Back card:
- Regular APR: 15.99%–24.99% (variable)
- Intro APR: 0%
- Balance transfer APR: 15.99%–24.99% (variable)
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 10.99% for the first 6 months (subject to offer availability)
- Minimum interest charge: $0.50
- Cash advance APR: 24.99% (variable)
As is often the case, the APR you’re offered will depend on your creditworthiness.
Grace Period
Normally, the Discover It® Student Cash Back card comes with a 25-day grace period (beginning on the first day of the new billing cycle). It’s a shorter grace period of 23 days in February.
If you pay your bill in full by the due date, your purchases during the grace period won’t accumulate interest. If you carry a balance from the previous billing cycle, charges in the grace period will accumulate interest.
Rewards
The Discover It® Student Cash Back credit card normally gives you a 1% cashback rate for everyday purchases (unlimited). However, it offers a 5% bonus rate on rotating categories up to a maximum limit. Unfortunately, this limit is a bit low, at $1,500 in spending per quarter.
For an example of the Discover It® Student Cash Back rotating categories, here are the 5% cashback category offers for 2022:
- Jan–Mar: Grocery stores, fitness clubs, gym memberships (excluding Walmart and Target purchases)
- Apr–Jun: Gas stations and Target
- Jul–Sept: Restaurants and PayPal
- Oct–Dec: Amazon.com and digital wallets
As an intro offer, you’ll also get double cash back in your first year of card ownership. There’s no minimum spending or maximum limit for this bonus.
You can redeem your rewards in many ways:
- Deposit money into your bank account
- Get a statement credit on your Discover bill
- Use your rewards to check out at Amazon.com or with PayPal
- Buy gift cards or e-certificates
Cash Advances
Discover It® Student Cash Back card allows cash advances. However, it charges cash advance fees of either $10 or 5% of the transfer amount—whichever is greater.
Credit Limit
The Discover It® Student Cash Back card, like most student credit cards, probably won’t give you a large credit limit. You can find out your credit limit by checking your statement or accessing your account at Discover.com. Or you can call (800) 347-2683.
If you need more credit, you can ask for a credit limit increase.
Credit limit increases
If you have a Discover It® Student Cash Back card, you can apply for a credit limit increase online, or you can call (800) 347-2683. However, if you want to get a credit line increase from Discover over the phone, you must be at least 21 years old.
Also, when you graduate, you can call to update Discover about your income and other personal information. Doing this may make you eligible for more credit.
Credit Score Requirements
Discover doesn’t reveal their minimum credit score requirements to get the Discover It® Student Cash Back Card. However, according to Experian, you can get it if you have at least fair credit, which means a FICO score of 580 or higher. 1
You can potentially qualify the card if you’re new to credit, as you don’t necessarily need a credit score to be approved.
Credit Reporting
The Discover reports every month to the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).
Credit Building
To build your credit score, you want your credit accounts reported to the three main credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The Discover It® Student Cash Back card does this, so it’s a great card for building credit.
Because your information will be reported to each agency, it’s important to keep up on your monthly payments so that your credit score can continue to improve. A good credit score opens doors for even better credit cards and loans in the future.
The Discover It® Student Cash Back card also gives you access to your FICO score (with TransUnion) to help you keep tabs on your credit-building progress.
Application and Approval
You can apply for the Discover It® Student Cash Back card online. You can also track the status of your application online after you’ve applied.
Managing Your Account
You can manage your Discover It® Student Cash Back credit card account online or through Discover’s app.
You can also make payments by phone if you call Discover at (800) 347-2683.
Alternatively, you can send your payment by mail. The address you should use depends on your current address. Review the address on your statement to find out which of the following addresses applies to you.
- PO Box 6103 Carol Stream, IL 60197-6103
- PO Box 29013 Phoenix, AZ 85038-9013
- PO Box 70176 Philadelphia, PA 19176-0176
- PO Box 71242 Charlotte NC 28272-1242
If you misplace your Discover It® Student Cash Back card, you can use the account-freezing facility that lets you block new cash advances, purchases, and balance transfers by using the Discover online portal or app. You’ll also get free overnight card replacement.
Plus, the Discover It® Student Cash Back card offers additional fraud protection:
- Monitoring of your Experian credit report with notifications whenever a new credit inquiry or new account is reported
- Alerts if fraudulent use of your Social Security number is detected on the dark web
Customer Service
You can use Discover’s app to contact customer service, or you can message a customer service representative online.
You can also call (800) 347-2683 or send mail correspondence to:
Discover Financial Services
P.O. Box 30943
Salt Lake City
UT 84130-0943
Should You Get the Discover It® Student Cash Back Card?
FinanceJar verdict
We highly recommend the Discover It® Student Cash Back card to US citizens studying in the US. You’ll be able to enjoy great cashback rewards (up to 10% in the first year) while getting a head start on building your credit.
However, you’ll need to be organized to make the most of your rewards. You may want to consider alternatives if you’d prefer a low maintenance card or a card that’s more widely accepted abroad, as Discover credit cards are less internationally accessible than Visa or Mastercard credit cards.
Who is this card for?
- Students looking for a starter credit card: Because of the minimal credit requirements this card has, it’s a good way for students to get a foot in the door with building a credit history. With credit reporting to the three bureaus, you’ll be able to start establishing your credit and hopefully grab some rewards along the way.
- Students from the US studying in the US: The Discover It® Student Cash Back card is not available to international students, as you need a Social Security number to apply, and the Discover network provides less extensive coverage abroad compared with Visa or Mastercard. As such, US students going abroad might be better off with a Visa or Mastercard alternative, while US-based students can highly benefit from the Discover It® Student Cash Back credit card.
Comparable Cards
To determine whether the Discover It® Student Cash Back card is right for you, take a look at how it measures up against other student credit cards on the market.
Discover It® Student Cash Back Card vs. Discover It® Student Chrome Card
The Discover It® Student Cash Back card and the Discover It® Student Chrome card only significantly differ in terms of the rewards they offer.
The cards are the same in most other respects:
- Neither has an annual fee.
- Both offer to double your cash back in the first year.
- Both have 15.99%–24.99% (variable) APR.
- Both offer introductory APR periods.
- Neither requires you to have a credit history.
The major difference between the rewards they offer is that you have to activate quarterly bonus categories with the Discover It® Student Cash Back card—otherwise, you just get a flat 1% cashback rate on everything—whereas you don’t have to do that with the Discover It® Student Chrome.
Instead, you just earn a standard rate of 2% cash back (for up to $1,000 per quarter in spending) on your purchases at gas stations and restaurants, then 1% cash back on everything else.
If you’re a student with no car and/or you rarely eat out, the Discover It® Student Chrome may not hold much benefit for you, and you’ll be better off with the Discover It® Student Cash Back card. However, you’ll need to be organized to benefit from its bonus 5% cashback rates, as you need to activate them every quarter.
Discover It® Student Cash Back Card vs. Journey Student Credit Card from Capital One
The Discover It® Student Cash Back card and the Journey Student Credit Card share the following features:
- A standard rate of 1% cash back on most purchases (although Capital One will boost this to 1.25% for every month you pay on time)
- No annual fees
- No foreign transaction fees
- Fraud protection tools
- Emergency replacement card services
The Journey Student Credit Card has a considerably higher APR at 28.49% (variable), and it doesn’t offer you any introductory APR discounts.
However, Capital One does offer one perk that might be very enticing if you’re a big Netflix or Hulu user. If you pay your credit card bill on time, you can earn $5 on credit toward streaming service subscriptions, and you can do this for 12 months. This means you can earn up to $60 in credit, which you can then use with more than 25 eligible media streaming subscription services.
If you’re a US student going abroad, it’s worth noting that the Discover network has limited coverage, whereas the Journey Student card is a Visa credit card, which you can use almost anywhere outside the US. If you’re studying in the US and aren’t likely to use streaming services, you’ll probably be better off with the Discover It® Student Cash Back card.
Discover It® Student Cash Back Card vs. Deserve® EDU Mastercard
The Deserve® EDU Mastercard and the Discover It® Student Cash Back card have several features in common:
- No annual fees
- No foreign transaction fees
- A standard rate of 1% cashback on all purchases
- Available to people with no credit score
- Rewards for recommending friends (you get a $30 referral bonus from Deserve® EDU Mastercard and a $50–$100 statement credit from Discover®)
However, there are also some major differences:
- Cash advances: You can’t get cash advances with the Deserve® EDU Mastercard.
- Cash back vs perks: Whereas the Discover It® Student Cash Back card gives you better cashback rewards, the Deserve® EDU Mastercard gives you a one-year free subscription to Amazon Prime (if you spend $500 in the first three billing cycles) and cell phone protection. You’ll have to weigh up which of these will be more beneficial for you.
- Application requirements: If you don’t have a Social Security number, you won’t be able to get the Discover It® Student Cash Back card, whereas the Deserve® EDU Mastercard is available to non-US citizens without a Social Security number.
If you’re going abroad, you’ll be better off with a Mastercard than a Discover card; international students will also only be eligible for the Deserve® EDU Mastercard. However, if you remember to enroll for the Discover It® bonuses (and, ideally, time some of your purchases to take advantage of the bonus categories), then the Discover It® Student Cash Back card might be the more rewarding option.
