How do you apply for a Discover credit card?

A 700+ credit score is needed to get most Discover credit cards, but there’s no minimum credit score needed for a few Discover cards. You can get the Discover it® Secured Credit Card with a bad credit score (below 640). And college students don’t need a credit score, or any credit experience, to get one of Discover’s two student credit cards. But you need at least good credit for all the other offers, including Discover it® Miles and Discover it® Cash Back, two of the most popular options. Some Discover offers listed here are not currently available on WalletHub and may be out of date.... read full answer

If you’re not sure how your credit is doing, you can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub, the only site where credit scores and reports update daily.

Whether your finances aren’t so great or they’re right on track, you should be able to find a Discover card that works for you. Let’s take a look at Discover’s offers and what score you need to get approved.

Here’s the minimum credit score needed for each Discover card:

• Discover it Secured Credit Card: No minimum score, applicants with bad credit are eligible for approval (below 640).
• Discover it® Student Cash Back: Available to applicants with limited credit (less than 3 years of credit history).
• Discover it® Student chrome: Available to applicants with limited credit (less than 3 years of credit history).
• Discover it Cash Back: Good credit (700+) required.
• NHL® Discover it®: Good credit (700+) required.
• Discover it® chrome: Good credit (700+) required.
• Discover it Miles: Good credit (700+) required.

There aren’t any Discover cards that flat-out require excellent credit, currently. But we recommend a score of at least 700, which is toward the top of the good credit range, for the cards that require 700 credit for approval.

With that being said, it’s not just your credit score you should worry about. For example, Discover will consider other factors, such as how your income compares to your debt, along with your employment status, whether you own or rent your home, how many loans and lines of credit you already have open, and more.

Discover is a good credit card company because there are Discover cards for people of all credit levels, and all of them have $0 annual fees and $0 foreign transaction fees. Plus, Discover cards all reward cardholders with at least 1% back on purchases and will match new cardholders’ earnings from the first year as an anniversary present. Most Discover cards also offer 0% introductory APRs on purchases and balance transfers (with a standard variable rate applying after that).... read full answer

Discover cards are known for their 100 percent U.S-based customer service, and Discover has very few customer complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There are also user-friendly features such as “Freeze it,” which allows cardholders to temporarily turn off their card to prevent any unauthorized transactions. And Discover provides free monitoring to make sure customers’ Social Security numbers don’t show up on risky websites.

Reasons Discover is a Good Credit Card Company:

1. Discover has cards for people of all credit levels, from bad to excellent.
2. Discover cards do not charge annual fees or foreign transaction fees.
3. All Discover cards match your first year’s rewards.
4. Discover has highly regarded customer service.

Different Discover cards are good for different people, though. Discover has offers for cash back, travel, bad credit, students and more. One of the best options is Discover it® Cash Back. It offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent per quarter in bonus categories (which change every quarter and require activation), and 1% back on all other purchases.

The Discover it® Student Cash Back and Discover it® Student chrome are attractive choices, too. Both cards offer students better ongoing cash back rates than the average credit card offers. And applicants with bad credit can get 1 - 2% cash back on purchases with the Discover it® Secured Credit Card.

While all Discover cards are pretty good, there are some downsides. In 2018, Discover cut several key benefits from all of its cards. Those include travel accident insurance, purchase protection, extended warranties and return protection. And as far as global acceptance goes, you can use Discover cards at merchants in 200+ countries and territories. That’s third behind Mastercard and Visa. Both are accepted in more than 200 countries and territories.

But overall, Discover credit cards combine some innovative perks and attractive rewards into a single package. And since they don’t charge annual fees or foreign transaction fees, the cards’ rewards go right to you. Those are just a few reasons why Discover cards are good credit cards in general.

Discover it® Student Cash Back is aimed at applicants with limited credit, who can provide proof of student status. Discover does not publicly disclose any other requirements.