Charlie Smith, Member
@charliesmith
The Discover it® Cash Back categories for rewards include a broad range of everyday spending, such as grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and online retailers like Amazon and Target. Cash back categories are the types of purchases that cardholders can earn 5% cash back on, up to $1,500 spent per quarter.
Here are the Discover it Cash Back Categories for 2022
- January-March: Grocery Stores and Fitness Club & Gym Memberships
- April-June: Gas Stations and Target
- July-September: Restaurants and PayPal
- October-December: Amazon.com and Digital Wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Garmin Pay included)
The categories rotate every quarter, and any purchases in these categories over the $1,500 quarterly limit earn 1% cash back until the next quarter. Purchases that don’t qualify for the Discover it Cash Back card’s bonus categories also get you 1% cash back.
Purchases fall into a bonus category based on "Merchant Category Codes," which are assigned by credit card networks to merchants according to the type of business they're operating. Keep in mind that you need to “activate” the categories each quarter on Discover’s website. Fortunately, it’s a simple process – you’ll just have to log in to your online account and confirm the activation.
You can see the fine print for any exceptions to the categories on Discover’s website. For example, Walmart and Target don’t count as grocery stores.
It’s also good to note a few other Discover credit cards have the same categories as the Discover it® Cash Back card each quarter. They are the Discover it® Student Cash Back and the NHL® Discover it® credit cards.

Discover it® Cash Back
Ronan Agan, Member
@ronan_agan
The Discover it rewards categories change quarterly.
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