Getting the Discover it Miles card is a long-term play. With no annual fees, the card is also a long-term keeper for both increasing the number of open accounts and increasing my overall amount of credit. The latter provides a cushion between my month to month spending and showing high utilization on my credit report.
The balance transfer is a short-term play. The new Discover it Miles card offers 0% interest for 18 months. I had some debt parked on the AMEX card at 0% while I invested my free cash flow on another goal. That goal is met. Now I can start paying down the balance that has been parked.
Unfortunately, having a balance instantly carried over from another card makes it less advantageous to use the new Discover card for spending that will earn my the end of year matching bonus.
After completing this first year with one Discover card, I may very well apply for the regular Discover it Card as well. Other blogs have mentioned that discover will not issue two new cards within the same year. Thus the wait. The purpose of the second Discover it Card will also be to increase the number of open accounts and overall available credit. On that note, I may have to sit back and wait six months to apply for my next personal credit card. I have been too aggressive recently, which is driving down my credit score. This limits my ability to qualify for some of the more desirable cards, primarily because the average age of accounts is less than one year. I need my accounts to season a bit.
In the meantime, I would like to put the Discover it Mile card through some tests. I understand that Discover's customer service is great. In addition, they seem lenient with their fees, not that I expect to bump into one of the typically penalized situations.