Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Discover is now part of Capital One

discover.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 94 posts

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#71

Post by lxgr »

ethbr1 wrote: post #70
lxgr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed – Discover has great customer support. Their tech stack, however, seems terrible. They had a very messy migration of their Zelle integration and in the process seem to have broken things for many of their checking customers. Personally, I could neither use it, nor enroll my email address or phone number previously enrolled at Discover with any another bank for several months! Capital One seems to have a much m…

Underappreciated reason, when system observations are made: - Discover was founded in 1985 (credit card only, by Sears) and began banking in 2006(?) - Capital One was founded in 1994 (credit card only) and began banking in 2005 Legacy systems suck , especially if the parent company has underinvested in IT modernization for decades. Delta? Southwest? And younger companies don't have to deal with the pre-digital legacy…

Counterpoint: Amex has been issuing charge cards since the 50s, and their tech seems leagues ahead of Discover, for both charge/credit cards and checking accounts (based on my first impressions for the latter; I haven't really used their checking account as my main account).

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#72

Post by jdeibele »

trollbridge wrote: post #25
jedbrooke wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as I understand it, Discover gets to charge higher fees on debit cards (than eg visa and mc) due to some regulatory carve out, so capital one wants to take advantage of this and Discover’s payment network

Yes. This is exactly the same special advantage that American Express also has. However, Amex lacks enough know-how and presence in retail banking to really be able to issue enough debit cards to leverage this the way Capital One could. The effect of this is that merchants end up hating taking Amex since it costs more, and I foresee Discover (which is even more niche) ending up the same way - there will simply be no…

I only have a Discover debit card. Discover pays 1% back on its debit cards, which is unusual. I have idly wondered why they did that. The fact that they're not subject to the restrictions on debit fees makes it clear why.

I shop for name brand stuff at Winco, a grocery chain in the Northwest US that doesn't take credit cards and makes you bag your own groceries. I'll be curious to see if they stop taking Discover debit cards if the fees increase.

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#73

Post by [deleted] »

the_sleaze_ wrote: post #58
hombre_fatal wrote: post #45

Ugh. Moving back to the US after a decade abroad, I had to get credit cards to rebuild my nonexistent credit. Discover and Capital One both had deposit-based credit cards for credit building, so that's what I started with. Discover's customer support system was polished and felt like a small company. I'd always speak to a polite native English speaker. When I gave authentication information to the pre-call robot (lik…

Opposite experience. I love Capital Ones interface, and their customer support is good. Usually I'll get a customer support agent state-side. > the rep who sometimes gets mad at me for it That's an ...unusual customer support experience. > my Discover card kept me up to date with it's upgrade status My capital one card does the same, it periodically requests updates to my income after which my credit line increases.…

[deleted]

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#74

Post by jdeibele »

chasil wrote: post #66
trollbridge wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soon you'll have to put up a "no Discover accepted" sign right next to the "Amex not accepted" sign.

What I am actually seeing are restaurant receipts with "price for cash" and a higher "price for credit." I am not seeing this for groceries or other goods. I understand that the "Durbin Amendment" had something to do with this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durbin_amendment

Had an eye exam this morning and I needed to do a $30 co-pay. Pulled out a card to pay and I was asked if it was a credit card. I said yes and she said there'd be a 3% fee for using a credit card. I switched to my Discover debit card, which pays 1% back.

My only recent experiences with this with transactions over $10 was a small restaurant and a construction project where they took the deposit on a card but would charge a 3% fee if we didn't pay by check. Many of the local convenience stores charge a fee to use a card.

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#75

Post by Kon-Peki »

greenavocado wrote: post #59
JCattheATM wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or customers start bailing because no one accepts their cards and the whole thing backfires...

What C1 has to do in the short-term is give customers a deal they cannot refuse to get them hooked. They can bag em and tag em later.

Discover has something like 150-200 different card designs that people can choose from, and they let you change them out almost as often as you want. You can even have more than one active at a time - perhaps keep one for your professional adulting wallet and another for your wild nightlife wallet.

Better marketing around this would likely improve signups.

I've had one in my wallet since college; it has never been a primary card for me. But I recently needed to choose a new one and scrolled through the options on my phone. From the small photos, I chose something that looked like some sort of abstract painting. When it came in the mail, I realized that it was not a painting at all. It was way more interesting than I had imagined. And indeed, it is the only credit card I've ever had that has received compliments. Does that influence how often I pull it out of my wallet as opposed to the other cards in there? Perhaps...

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#76

Post by tristor »

This feels weird to me. Capital One is an everyman's card company, where Discover was always a niche player for upper middle class people, primarily competing with American Express. I have a feeling that Capital One will degrade the Discover brand greatly, although in recent years they had been trying to move downmarket anyway.

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#77

Post by mindslight »

lxgr wrote: post #61
hombre_fatal wrote: post #45

Ugh. Moving back to the US after a decade abroad, I had to get credit cards to rebuild my nonexistent credit. Discover and Capital One both had deposit-based credit cards for credit building, so that's what I started with. Discover's customer support system was polished and felt like a small company. I'd always speak to a polite native English speaker. When I gave authentication information to the pre-call robot (lik…

Agreed – Discover has great customer support. Their tech stack, however, seems terrible. They had a very messy migration of their Zelle integration and in the process seem to have broken things for many of their checking customers. Personally, I could neither use it, nor enroll my email address or phone number previously enrolled at Discover with any another bank for several months! Capital One seems to have a much m…

From what I remember last time I checked, Discover supported OFX Direct Connect while Capital One did not. So there can be downsides to a "modern" tech stack.

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#78

Post by plumeria »

lxgr wrote: post #61
hombre_fatal wrote: post #45

Ugh. Moving back to the US after a decade abroad, I had to get credit cards to rebuild my nonexistent credit. Discover and Capital One both had deposit-based credit cards for credit building, so that's what I started with. Discover's customer support system was polished and felt like a small company. I'd always speak to a polite native English speaker. When I gave authentication information to the pre-call robot (lik…

Agreed – Discover has great customer support. Their tech stack, however, seems terrible. They had a very messy migration of their Zelle integration and in the process seem to have broken things for many of their checking customers. Personally, I could neither use it, nor enroll my email address or phone number previously enrolled at Discover with any another bank for several months! Capital One seems to have a much m…

> they're the only US credit card issuer I know of that actually supports 3DS without any ugly hacks that usually mean trouble when shopping at a foreign merchant that requires it

Is there a good wiki or database that tracks which issuers have good 3DS support?

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#79

Post by ToDougie »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #45

Ugh. Moving back to the US after a decade abroad, I had to get credit cards to rebuild my nonexistent credit. Discover and Capital One both had deposit-based credit cards for credit building, so that's what I started with. Discover's customer support system was polished and felt like a small company. I'd always speak to a polite native English speaker. When I gave authentication information to the pre-call robot (lik…

My experience with Capital One is very positive. Their support is always solid and wait times are reasonable. The app and the website work well, though they have introduced some dark patterns in recent years. They periodically increase my credit line without prompting.

Re: Discover is now part of Capital One

#80

Post by relaxing »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #45

Ugh. Moving back to the US after a decade abroad, I had to get credit cards to rebuild my nonexistent credit. Discover and Capital One both had deposit-based credit cards for credit building, so that's what I started with. Discover's customer support system was polished and felt like a small company. I'd always speak to a polite native English speaker. When I gave authentication information to the pre-call robot (lik…

One note on raising credit limits- Capital One will raise your limit just like every other lender — they want you to have as much debt as they think you can make interest payments on.

Probably once you had the increased available credit from Disco their models said giving you more was too much risk.

Post reply on HN