Using Discovery Bank’s rewards to get big discounts

Discovery Bank customers using the bank’s rewards programme can get up to 50% off on their fuel spend and 75% off on international flights.

MyBroadband analysed Vitality Money’s features to see what customers must do to maximise the rewards they receive from it.

Vitality Money is Discovery Bank’s rewards programme where users can earn rewards based on how well they spend their money.

This is determined by five controllable financial behaviours that Discovery uses to assign users points.

Based on how well users perform given these five behaviours, they are awarded points, which determine their Vitality Money status, which determines their rewards.

The controllable financial behaviours are as follows:

• Having enough savings
• Managing short-term debt
• Having the right types of insurance
• Being on track for retirement
• Managing property investments

The maximum number of points users can earn for each behaviour depends on their banking card colour or annual income, whichever is highest.

For instance, if users earn R349,999 or less or have a Gold card, they can earn a maximum of 30,000 points for having enough savings behaviour.

On the other hand, users who earn R350,000 and above and have a Platinum, Black, or Purple card can only earn a maximum of 25,000 points for the same behaviour.

The Vitality Money rewards levels are blue, bronze, silver, gold, and diamond. These are determined by the amount of points earned.

Blue status, for example, is for users with 39,999 points or less, and Gold status is for users with 80,000 points and above.

Users also have the opportunity to reach Diamond status if they surpass 80,000 points and have a certain amount saved with Discovery relative to their annual income or card colour.

This means users who earn below R349,999 and have above 80,000 points, for example, can reach Diamond status if they have at least R20,000 saved.

Discovery calculates your points for each controllable behaviour in the following ways.

Having enough savings. Discovery considers whether you have enough easily accessible emergency savings and several non-retirement savings. To receive the maximum number of points, users must achieve their savings goal, which is three times their gross monthly salary.

Managing short-term debt. Discovery calculates these points based on how much of a user’s salary they use to pay off short-term debt every month. These payments must comprise less than 5% of a user’s salary to maximise points.

Having the right types of insurance. Users earn points by having the right type of insurance, which Discovery says is life insurance, short-term insurance, and medical aid insurance.

Being on track for retirement. Points are calculated by comparing a user’s monthly retirement contributions, accumulated retirement savings, and income to a target relative to their age. Maximum points can be received if a user is on track to retire by 65 with 75% of their preretirement gross income.

Managing property investments. These points are calculated based on a user’s excess savings plus the value of properties they own. To earn maximum points, a user’s long-term assets minus secured debt needs to be greater than or equal to their long-term asset target.

Five financial behaviours	Maximum points earned based on gross annual income or card colour
	R349,999 or below, or a Gold card	R350,000 or above, or a Platinum, Black or Purple card
Having enough savings	30,000 points	25,000 points
Managing your short-term debt	30,000 points	25,000 points
Having the right types of insurance	25,000 points	25,000 points
Being on track for retirement	10,000 points	10,000 points
Managing your short-term debt	5,000 points	5,000 points

Vitality Money status	Points for non-retired clients	Points for retired clients
Blue	39,999 points or below	34,999 points or below
Bronze	40,000 to 59,999 points	35,000 to 52,499 points
Silver	60,000 to 79,000 points	53,500 to 69,999 points
Gold	80,000 points or above	70,000 points or above
Diamond	80,000 points or above + Discovery Bank savings	70,000 points or above + Discovery Bank savings

Annual income or card colour	Savings needed to achieve Diamond Vitality Money status
R349,999 or below, or a Gold card	R20,000
R350,000 to R849,000, or a Platinum card	R40,000
R850,000 or above, or a Black or Purple card	R100,000

Vitality Money customers then start earning rewards based on their status.

One such reward is lowering the personal borrowing rate when spending credit by up to 7%.

Others include earning Discovery Miles that can be spent at partner stores.

For instance, users can earn up to 75% cash back from Woolworths and Pick n Pay, which can then be spent at stores such as the iStore, Toy Kingdom, and Nandos.

The percentage earned depends on a user’s Vitality Money status.

Many partners also offer discounts based on a user’s Vitality Money status. Emirates Airlines and many other airlines, for example, offer discounts of between 10% and 75% based on a user’s status.

The tables below show the earning partners, discount partners, and spending partners part of the Vitality Money rewards programme.

Earning partners
Partner	% of spend earned in Discovery Miles
Emirates Airlines, Woolworths, Pick n Pay	Up to 75%
DisChem, Clicks	Up to 50%
GoSmokeFree	Up to 25%
BP, Uber, Shell	Up to 20%
Contiki, Royal Caribbean, World Leisure Holidays	Up to 15%

Discount Partners
Partners	% Discount
British Airways, Qantas, Airlink, CemAir, FlySafair, Lift, SAA	Between 10% and 75%
Virgin Active	Up to 75% off
Shell, BP	Up to 50% off
Uber	Up to 40% off
Europcar, Tempest Car Hire	Up to 25% off

Discovery Miles spending partners

Babies R Us, Cape Union Mart, Coricraft, Dial-a-Bed, Exclusive Books, Forever New, Golfers Club, Game, HP Store, Hirsch’s, Incredible, iStore, Toy Kingdom, Loot, Makro, Nandos, Nespresso, NetFlorist, OldKhaki, OneDayOnly, Takealot, The Pro Shop, Sunglass Hut, Tread Miller, Toys R Us