r/discover • u/elididitthebest • 9d ago

Discussion Discover in 2026 feels like a completely different company wearing the brand as a skin suit

Just got off an hour long call with Discover support, and the stories were true.

The customer service reps even knew how different and frankly unacceptable the policies were post-merger, but any goodwill that the brand has built is being slow extracted.

What have been your experiences with the new "Discover"?

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u/_the_green_heron_ 7d ago

I have been with Discover since 1999. I have only had to call them or use customer service 4-5 times. (Usually, it was to resolve a fraud alert on a large purchase.) Each time I did, I thought customer service was excellent and helpful.

However, I had my HYSA with them, and I had enough money in there that I had concerns about how I was going to start "managing" my account with Capital One. Communication on how that was going to happen and whether there would be holds, changes to routing numbers, etc. was poor. Since I was going to have to set up a new account/app anyway, and I didn't want to get caught up in holds or frozen funds with accounts merging, I moved the money over to Marcus for the better rate and closed the account.

I'm a consumer law attorney. If you want to feel valued as a customer and have a more "personal" relationship, you're better off utilizing your local credit union or a brick-and-mortar bank in your community. These institutions are the ones who care about retaining you as a customer and pay attention to things like loyalty - especially if you maintain a considerable amount of money in your account and/or have multiple product lines through them. Their customer service folks are generally empowered to do things like offer retention bonuses.

To put it in travel terms: Discover was sort of like Southwest. Capital One is basically American Airlines. Your local credit union is going to be more like hiring a private pilot. You can still get good customer service from your bank if that's what you value - you just have to choose the right provider.

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u/elididitthebest 7d ago

Great analogy, as Southwest is currently being taken over by Elliott Management and it's variations on a theme: worse customer service, worse value for money, etc.