Discover Financial Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MWD), operates the Discover® Card brands. We offer a variety of Cards to meet the needs of individual Cardmembers, including the Discover Classic Card, the Discover Gold Card, the Discover Platinum Card, The Miles Card from Discover Card and an array of affinity cards. Additional services include Discover CDs and Money Market Accounts, auto insurance and home loans. discover card, discover platinum card, discover gold card, discover gas card, wal mart discover card, discover card application, discover student card, card discover online card discover services Discover card

Discover Card is one of the four major credit card brands issued primarily in the United States, with over 50 million cardholders. The Discover Card was originally introduced by Sears in 1985, and was part of Dean Witter, and then Morgan Stanley, until 2007, when Discover Financial Services became an independent company.
 

Most cards with the Discover brand are issued by Discover Bank. Discover Card transactions are processed through the Discover Network payment network. As of February 2006, the company announced that it would begin offering Discover Debit cards to banks, made possible by the Pulse payment system, which Discover acquired in 2005.
 

 
History
At the time the Discover Card was introduced, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. It had purchased the Dean Witter Reynolds Organization (brokerage) and Coldwell, Banker & Company (real estate) in 1981, as an attempt to add financial services to its portfolio of customer services. Together with the Discover Card, this was named the Sears Financial Network. Early Discover Cards bore a small embossed symbol representing the Sears Tower, the company's headquarters at the time.
 

Discover and Novus retired acceptance markUnlike other attempts at creating a credit card to rival MasterCard and VISA, such as Citibank's Choice card, which was test-marketed prior to the introduction of the Discover Card but reissued as a Visa card in late 1987, the Discover Card quickly gained a large national consumer base. It carried no annual fee, which was uncommon at the time, and offered a typically higher credit limit than similar cards. Cardholders could earn a "Cashback Bonus," in which a percentage of the amount spent would be refunded to the account (as high as 1%), depending on how much the card was used. The Discover Card was also noteworthy for being the only credit card accepted by the U.S. Customs Service to pay customs duty.

However, the plan to create a one-stop financial-services center in Sears stores was not as successful as Sears had hoped, and its promotion of the Discover Card was thought both to hurt Sears turnover and to restrict the card's potential. Other retailers resisted it, as they believed they would be helping their competitor. After Discover was introduced, Sears stopped accepting competing credit cards, alienating customers and adversely affecting sales.

In light of these developments, and of strong competition both from Wal-Mart and from so-called category killers such as Toys "R" Us, Sears began to face difficulties in the late 1980s. Sears sold its financial businesses in 1993, and began to accept MasterCard and Visa again. The Discover Card became part of the Dean Witter financial services firm. Dean Witter Discover merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997.

Discover Card also has a sign located on the top of One Times Square below the flagpole which drops the New Year's ball. It displays information and new offers for the company and also displays the countdown during the New Year celebration.


Raising Rates
In the latter part of 2007, Discover Card began raising interest rates on many of its longer-term customers, typically to the Prime Rate plus 14.74% (which in October 2007 equated to a 22.99% annual percentage rate). Customers who request the reasons in writing for the decision are notified that the increase is based on any (and not necessarily all) of the following characteristics:

Account open longer than 12 months
APR less than 20.00%
Account not used monthly
Thus, Discover Card is turning upside-down the traditional "brand loyalty" model, by penalizing long-term, value-conscious customers, citing that this is a "competitive business decision." Customers affected by the rate increase are able to opt out by canceling their accounts.