Because it’s all in-house. There is no Visa bank, so when you have a Visa card, your agreement is between you, Visa, and the lending bank. That’s why you have a Chase Visa, or Bank of America Visa.
Discover, however, is an actual financial institution, so their credit terms don’t stipulate or involve other institutions. And that may seem like nothing, until something goes wrong. I was a Bank of America banker for a decade (it was a different lifetime, I swear) and I can tell you my personal first-hand experience with problem-solving between the two companies is no comparison. The autonomy of Discover controlling both the assets and transactions affords them much greater and simpler power in cases of dispute or problems.
As somebody formerly in the industry, Discover is actually the only credit card company I ever recommend to anyone.
I’ve asked others, but since you’re definitely in the know about this stuff… it seems to me like it’s not accepted in very many places. So if that’s your only credit card, do you just have to hope a place accepts it or pay debit?
TBH I encounter very few places these days that don’t accept Discover, but yes obviously you should have a secondary means of payment for those rare cases.
As to that secondary means, honestly my recommendation depends on the person. If you are trying to build, repair, or reestablish credit, then unfortunately the fucked nature of the credit system practically requires you to secure more than one line of credit; since there is rarely coercive enough reason to double-up on a particular card company then simply making that second card non-Discover kills two birds with one stone.
If however you’re somebody with perhaps less discipline or a history of credit-related struggles, I would say maintaining good standing on a single card is good focus enough until you feel confident a second card won’t cause temptation struggles and would then, yes, recommend simply relying on your debit for non-Discover-accepting scenarios.
Thanks! All of this is interesting to me because I was really bad paying back bills in the 90s before autopay was a thing and I never got a credit card because of it and I sort of never got around to it since. I realize that’s a bad thing in this world, so if I ever do end up getting a credit card, it sounds like I should see about getting Discover first. I appreciate it.
Yeah I’m hesitant to fully endorse any financial company because, frankly, they’re all relatively evil, but I do genuinely believe Discover is one of the least evil of the bunch and thus would say they’re worth looking at when you’re ready to work on building/repairing credit.
For a lot of reasons I’m not going to offer anything resembling actual financial or other advice, but if you come across any simple questions or problems along the way feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll answer if I can.
Because it’s all in-house. There is no Visa bank, so when you have a Visa card, your agreement is between you, Visa, and the lending bank. That’s why you have a Chase Visa, or Bank of America Visa.
Discover, however, is an actual financial institution, so their credit terms don’t stipulate or involve other institutions. And that may seem like nothing, until something goes wrong. I was a Bank of America banker for a decade (it was a different lifetime, I swear) and I can tell you my personal first-hand experience with problem-solving between the two companies is no comparison. The autonomy of Discover controlling both the assets and transactions affords them much greater and simpler power in cases of dispute or problems.
As somebody formerly in the industry, Discover is actually the only credit card company I ever recommend to anyone.
I’ve asked others, but since you’re definitely in the know about this stuff… it seems to me like it’s not accepted in very many places. So if that’s your only credit card, do you just have to hope a place accepts it or pay debit?
TBH I encounter very few places these days that don’t accept Discover, but yes obviously you should have a secondary means of payment for those rare cases.
As to that secondary means, honestly my recommendation depends on the person. If you are trying to build, repair, or reestablish credit, then unfortunately the fucked nature of the credit system practically requires you to secure more than one line of credit; since there is rarely coercive enough reason to double-up on a particular card company then simply making that second card non-Discover kills two birds with one stone.
If however you’re somebody with perhaps less discipline or a history of credit-related struggles, I would say maintaining good standing on a single card is good focus enough until you feel confident a second card won’t cause temptation struggles and would then, yes, recommend simply relying on your debit for non-Discover-accepting scenarios.
Thanks! All of this is interesting to me because I was really bad paying back bills in the 90s before autopay was a thing and I never got a credit card because of it and I sort of never got around to it since. I realize that’s a bad thing in this world, so if I ever do end up getting a credit card, it sounds like I should see about getting Discover first. I appreciate it.
Yeah I’m hesitant to fully endorse any financial company because, frankly, they’re all relatively evil, but I do genuinely believe Discover is one of the least evil of the bunch and thus would say they’re worth looking at when you’re ready to work on building/repairing credit.
For a lot of reasons I’m not going to offer anything resembling actual financial or other advice, but if you come across any simple questions or problems along the way feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll answer if I can.
Sure, I get that. But it’s still good advice, so I appreciate it.