Discover Launches Checking, Debit Service with Rewards Lure (Feb. 28, 2013)
Feb. 28, 2013
Discover Financial Services is taking on the likes of online banking specialists Simple and Moven with Discover Cashback Checking, introducing a mainstream debit card, to be processed on its Pulse network. Initially targeting only select Discover credit card customers by invitation, Discover’s new banking service carries no monthly fees or minimum balances and includes checking, mobile check deposit and bill pay, plus 10 cents cash back with every debit card purchase, check or bill-payment. Customers who also make unlimited ATM withdrawals through the surcharge-free MoneyPass ATM network. Discover plans to roll out the product broadly next year.
By adding a checking account to its expanding array of online “direct banking” products, including consumer and student loans and CD accounts, Discover is targeting rewards-hungry customers that want greater convenience and a mobile-centric approach to financial services, Patricia Hewitt, a debit expert at Mercator Advisory Group, tells Paybefore. “Discover presumably is going after super-users by inviting credit card customers that use its mobile platforms to go after the best candidates for its various direct banking services,” she says. “The fact that Discover is a full-service banking operation means they can go after competitors on multiple fronts and they are doing so, targeting emerging online banks like Simple and Moven and established players like Capital One and USAA that also have strong direct banking programs.”
