Switching Purchases from MasterCard to Discover

For the next three months, I'll be switching over my purchases from MasterCard to Discover. Simply put, the next three months, Discover bumps up the cash back rate to 5% for the all important Home Improvement and Department Stores.

You have to sign up for the bonus after you login to your Discovercard account. Just click on the quarterly signup bonus and you should receive an email like:

Thank you for participating in our 5% Cashback Bonus program. We just wanted to remind you how easy it is to make your money worth More.

Just use your card at home improvement stores, department stores, and clothing stores from April 9, 2009 until June 30,2009, and get 5% Cashback Bonus on up to $400 in these purchases*. Remember, all your other purchases will earn up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus automatically.

Within one or two shopping trips, we'll hit the $400 limit, but it will be nice to save $20 (5%) on those purchases instead of the usual $4 (1%).

Somehow I missed the Warehouse Club 5% bonus in March, but since the only club we belong to is COSTCO -- and they only take American Express -- we would not have saved anything for that bonus.

July 1 is another important bonus that you need to sign up for. During July, August and September, you get a 5% bonus for purchasing gas on your Discover Card.

So for the next few months, I'll be pulling out my Discover Card instead of MasterCard to save an additional 5% of the purchase price.