As much as I will bag on Chase for not releasing their Freedom’s rotating categories until 2 weeks before the beginning of the quarter, that approach certainly has its advantages over Citi and Discovers approach. Discover in particular announced their 2020 categories at the end of 2019. Spring and Summer is supposed to be the busiest time to travel, so it would make complete sense to have a category based on gas and ride sharing. With Coronavirus though, it doesn’t seem to make much sense anymore, so they’ve made an adjustment for the remainder of Q2.
The News
Discover has added Home Depot as earning 5% back for Q2 on their Discover IT card. This is in addition to gas stations, Uber, Lyft, and Wholesale clubs. Keep in mind that in order to earn the 5% you must have activated the offer before spending. However, if you’ve already activated the quarter, no action is required from you, the Home Depot is added automatically.
Final Thoughts
I don’t remember seeing anyone adding additional retailers to their rotating categories mid-quarter. However, from Discover’s point of view, this makes total sense. With travel demand being way down, people weren’t using their IT cards. On the other hand, with people being locked at home with nothing to do, many have turned to little home improvement projects here and there, which has shot up demand for home improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowes.
Have you done any home improvement projects while you were in lockdown? Let us know what you were able to do!
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