Discover card offers periodic 5% cashback bonus programs for purchases at certain vendors. To activate this bonus you have "sign-up" by calling them or from the website. Why do they require this activation instead of automatically applying the bonus? As far as I can tell, you aren't agreeing to anything other than accepting the bonus percentage.
You're correct that you're merely agreeing to what behavior you choose to be rewarded for. One other fact: if you don't act to sign up for a rewards program, in some cases they will choose one for you by default. If it's not the program you want, you must do the work to ask them for your choice.
Discover, like many major credit extenders, knows that they make their most money from those who are lazy, ignorant, self-indulgent, procrastinating, are ashamed of themselves, frightened of authority figures, or defiant.
On the one hand, it is unprofitable to give things away (i.e., cut their own profits) without requiring any effort on the part of the consumer. Along this line, a consumer must now request his/her cashback bonus after it has been awarded: one can no longer wait without any effort for a check or a balance credit. For every day that the consumer delays (including the month waiting period to get the credit on your bill), Discover "enjoys the float," i.e., your won bonus sits in its interest-bearing account earning money for them, because you haven't requested that they surrender the funds you've won.
The smokescreen is that Discover now gives you many options on how to deploy your bonus, as much as doubling its value at some participating vendors. The fact is, you must not only sign up for how you will accrue bonus money, you must request the buying power (gift certificate) or funds once you've won it.
On the other hand, Discover realizes that it has competition, and it must offer rewards that are competitive with other lenders' rewards programs. They are certainly aware of how they rank in rewards comparisons, and they have hidden incentives for the most inquisitive, aggressive consumers. (Call them on the phone and politely ask about solutions they have, AFTER you've told them in a pleasant voice that you're thinking about moving your business elsewhere, unless they can do something today. Keep them talking – interest rates, balance transfers, credit limits – and answering your questions; get them off their scripts. You'll discover that they have an entire department of people hired to keep you as a happy, paying customer.)
So, for one, it offers a relatively high 5% cashback bonus on the first $1,200 in gas station purchases and repairs in your billing year. Again, choices and choices, but underneath, you must do as much work as its focus groups and marketing research department say you must do without your getting so inconvenienced that you quit and try a competitor's rewards.
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