Consumer complaint received 2020-07-26
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: PA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
I received an ad from Discover about their " Discover it Cash Back '' credit card, signed up, and was accepted. I started using the card on XX/XX/2020, and continued to use it regularly through the current time ( XX/XX/XXXX ). In the original ad, Discover had a list of features with check marks indicating the features that this particular Discover card had, as well as which of four other non-Discover cards had the same features. As you might imagine, the " Discover it '' card was the only one that supposedly offered all of the features. One of the features that was particularly attractive to me was this : " Redeem your rewards for cash at any time '' ( see attached scan of ad ). None of the other cards listed were supposed to offer this feature. I thought it was strange that the Discover ad listed the " XXXX XXXX XXXX Cash Rewards Credit Card '' as NOT having this feature. I have that card, and my cash back generally posts within about 24 hours of the time a transaction posts, and I can cash it out any time ( even before a statement is generated, and even if I only have {$0.00} in cash back ). The only reasonable explanation for this statement would be that the Discover card being advertised did not even make me wait for the 24 hours after posting ( as my XXXX XXXX card does ). So, when I started using my Discover card and cash back did not immediately become available, I felt a bit deceived. However, I did not immediately contact Discover about this issue. I did contact them to ask when my statement date was, and I was told it was the XXXX of each month. So, I assumed that by today ( the XXXX ), my statement would be generated and I would have access to my cash back for the transactions that had posted. Again, I feel that this would already be contrary to what was promised ( that Discover would offer my cash back at " any time '' when XXXX XXXX supposedly did not ), but I was willing to wait until today. Upon checking my account today, no statement was generated, and no cash back was available. I contacted XXXX, and they claimed that since I had a new account, my first statement would be delayed until the XXXX of the following month XXXX XXXX XXXX. After being given that response, I finally decided to bring up my issue with the availability of cash back. I also asked why, when I asked what my statement date was, was I told that it was the XXXX, with no additional details that there would be no XXXX statement. I expressed that I was already irritated that cash back was not immediately available, as the ad indicated, but now that they were pushing it back an additional month, I really needed to know why the ad was false. I was told that I would have access to my cash back at any time, but only once it was issued on my statement date. While I feel that it is deceptive not to have explicitly disclosed that on the ad, I suppose that legally, that's a statement they could make. However, I asked that if they considered that policy to be allowing their customers to " [ r ] edeem [ their ] rewards for cash at any time [, ] '' how did they justify stating that XXXX  XXXX 's XXXX card did NOT offer that feature, when I can literally request cash back in any amount within 24 hours of the transaction posting, even with no statement being generated. They did not have a reasonable answer to this question. As a result of Discover 's falsely represented ad, I signed up for their card. In doing so, my credit score was lowered. Of course, I knew my credit score would be lowered applying for a credit card, however, I also expected that, if I was accepted, I would actually be given the features promised in the ad, which was ( among other things ), more/better access to my rewards than what is offered on my XXXX  XXXX XXXX card. In contrast, I am offered drastically less access than on that other card.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation