Bankrate.com recently completed a study of 20 different credit cards from 10 different issuers and concluded that if one of your priorities is a card which will forgive your human errors, Discover is probably the card to apply for (or not cancel).
Looking at the fine print for one platinum card and one rewards car for each bank, they found the following significant differences:
- Most banks will raise your rates if you pay late once, or end up over the credit limit once. Discover will wait for you to make that mistake twice
- Discover, along with Capital One, have a range of overlimit fees instead of just one flat fee
- Discover’s grace period is 25 days, instead of 20-25
It’s not all hugs and puppies with a Discover card. For example, if you violate the terms of the credit agreement, your rate goes up to 29.99%, the highest in the industry.
Of course, no credit card is a wise choice to carry a balance on. Check the BankRate survey if you’re in the market for a new card; they’ve done most of the hard work for you.
Updated January 12, 2018 and originally published July 1, 2009.
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Definitely agree with the result. I’ve been with Discover since 1999 and I think it’s the best. I’ll give the worst award to Chase.
This is kind of interesting. Though I’ve never broken the credit card ‘laws’ it’s good there are orgs out there that will read the fine print for you.