Maria Adams, Credit Cards Moderator
@m_adams
The Discover categories for bonus credit card rewards are gas stations, restaurants, along with various rotating quarterly categories. When cardholders make purchases that qualify for their Discover card’s bonus categories, they earn extra rewards compared to the card’s base rewards rate. Some offers listed here are not currently available on WalletHub and may be out of date.
Discover Credit Card Categories for Bonus Rewards
- Discover it® Cash Back: Rotating quarterly categories
- Discover it® Student Cash Back: Rotating quarterly categories
- NHL® Discover it®: Rotating quarterly categories
- Discover it® chrome: Gas Stations and restaurants
- Discover it® Secured Credit Card: Gas Stations and restaurants
- Discover it® Student chrome: Gas Stations and restaurants
Discover rotating quarterly categories:
Dates |
Bonus Categories |
January - March 2022 |
Grocery Stores and Fitness Club & Gym Memberships |
April - June 2022 |
Gas Stations and Target |
July- September 2022 |
Restaurants and PayPal |
October - December 2022 |
Amazon.com and Digital Wallets |
Discover it Cash Back, Discover it Student Cash Back, and NHL Discover it earn 5% cash back on the first $1,500 spent in the quarterly categories combined. Unlike regular bonus categories, you need to activate rotating categories to earn rewards.
Whether a purchase falls into a card’s bonus categories depends on "Merchant Category Codes," which are assigned by the major credit card networks to merchants based on what kind of business they conduct. So if a merchant has the MCC for "Gas Stations,” for example, purchases made at that merchant with cards that include "Gas Stations" as a bonus category will earn bonus rewards.
If you’re looking to get a rewards credit card from Discover, it’s a good idea to pick a card that offers the opportunity to earn bonus rewards in your most frequent purchase categories. Alternatively, you might want to get a card that offers a flat rewards rate on all purchases, like the Discover it® Miles (1.5 miles per $1 spent on all purchases).

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