Best Discover credit cards for September 2025

Discover generally recommends at least a good to excellent FICO score, around 670 or higher. If you have poor credit or no credit, Discover offers a secured credit card that you can apply for with a security deposit. If you’re unsure if you'll qualify for one of its credit cards, you can always check Discover’s prequalified offers on its website.

You could potentially be preapproved for a Discover credit card through the issuer’s website, a third-party service like Bankrate’s CardMatch or even a personalized offer in the mail. Checking if you’re preapproved could give you an extra vote of confidence if you’re not sure of your approval odds and don’t want to waste a hard credit pull.

Naturally, the most accessible Discover credit cards are those available with no credit history: the Discover it® Secured and the issuer’s student cards. To decide which of the issuer’s other cards is best for you, consider using Bankrate’s CardMatch™ tool to potentially see prequalified offers.

Like many major issuers’ credit card rewards, Discover’s rewards won’t expire for the life of your account as long as it is in good standing.

Since many cardholders are eager to earn rewards, a key criteria for a card’s inclusion in our list is whether it offers impressive rewards value. This includes a card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, welcome bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories, as well as how closely those categories match the average person’s spending habits. In other words: Does the card earn rewards at a high rate in the most popular spending categories?

We use consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to get a reliable third-party measure of people’s spending habits. The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2023 was $77,280 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $6,000
• Dining out: $3,900
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,400
• Apparel and services: $2,000

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 26 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s welcome bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, welcome bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other cards in its primary category.

The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking.

Here’s a deeper look at the factors considered as part of a rewards card’s “Value” rating:

We also rate all cards based on how their ongoing average APR compares to the average APR you’ll find other cards in their primary category. However, the impact of an especially high or low APR on a card’s overall score depends on its primary category.

For rewards-earning cards, this factor has only a minor influence on the card’s score and whether the card is included in our list, since rewards card users generally try to avoid carrying a balance. That said, rewards-earning cards may get a solid boost in score and be more worthy of inclusion in our list if they also offer an intro APR on balance transfers or new purchases, since such offers aren’t always present on these cards.

Interest rates and intro APR offers play a much larger role in a card’s score and whether it’s included in our list when the card is designed specifically for users looking to save on interest charges, such as dedicated balance transfer or low-interest cards. 

Other fees considered include cash advance and late payment fees, along with penalty APRs. 

Along with rewards value and cost, we consider other factors that could give cards great long-term value, like flexible rewards redemption and especially unique and valuable perks.

We rate rewards-earning cards based on the restrictions they impose on earning and redeeming rewards and consider this when deciding on a card’s inclusion in our list. 

These restrictions could include only allowing users to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requiring users to meet a certain earning threshold before they can redeem rewards. We also examine whether points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also evaluate each card’s perks based on their value, usefulness and uniqueness. Cards that offer top-tier benefits like airport lounge access or travel credits are likely to stand out, but we also aim to highlight cards that offer valuable under-the-radar perks, like cellphone protection or one-off credits for everyday expenses like dining and streaming services.