Understanding your Bill from Discover

One of the biggest credit card companies in America, Discover nonetheless has continued the tradition of including lots of fees within your credit card agreement. Additionally, some people may not be fully clear about their APR rates. Let’s examine both of these major questions and see if we can help you understand your Discover bill when it finally comes in the mail or over the internet.

What’s On Your Discover Financial Services Statement

Discover as a relatively busy bill statement page, with an account summary on the left-hand side and a credit score if you’ve opted in to the service right beneath it. Additional payment information and other rewards are located on the right side of the page, one on top of the other. The thing to pay the most attention to is “fees charged”, which is located in the aforementioned account summary box near the bottom.

What Are the Extra Charges You Might See?

As Discover primarily issues credit cards, there are a number of extra fees or charges you might see on your bill that you don’t understand. Let’s dive deep into these now:

• APR, or annual percentage rate for purchases: 23.24%. This is the percentage of interest you will accrue for purchases you make on your part. This rate, like the other APRs discussed further, may vary depending on the Prime Rate
• APR for balance transfers: 23.24%. Same as above, but for transferring your balance from card to card
• APR for cash advances: 25.24%. This is higher as it’s only incurred when you ask the bank to “forward” you some cash ahead of time
• Minimum interest charge: $2. You’ll be charged this interest regardless of your actual interest rate, so this is the lowest your bill can ever grow
• Balance transfer: this fee is added to the amount you want to transfer whenever you shift balances from account to account. It’s 3% of the total
• Cash advance: this fee is either $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance you make. Discover charges you whichever is more expensive (obviously)
• Late fee: this fee is waived the first time you pay late, but every time after that is another $37
• Returned payment: this fee is incurred whenever Discover has to return a payment, like a check that bounces. This can be up to $37 but varies depending on the amount returned

Unlike some other credit card and financial services companies, Discover does not charge you a penalty APR under any circumstance and also doesn’t include an annual fee. This means that, if you can stay on top of your payments and keep track of the correct dates, they could be an affordable choice for many.

How to Contact Discover Financial Services

Discover is available to help you 24 hours a day if you want to dispute a charge or if you have questions about their other financial services and offerings. You can contact them only by phone – they do not have a chat option at this time.