Discover Misleads Cardholders, Will Issue $200 Million Refund — Dollars and Sense

Do you have a Discover card? If so, you can expect to receive a refund.

According to an announcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Discover plans to issue $200 million in refunds to about 3.5 million cardholders due to questionable telemarketing practices that were found to misinform customers.

Discover Financial Services must also pay $14 million in split penalties to the two financial watchdogs, who say the bank leaned on their customers with double-talked gibberish to convince them to purchase things like identity-theft protection, credit-score tracking and payment protection. To make things worse, the CFPB and the FDIC also uncovered a Discover card bonus program for those employees who successfully signed customers up for these credit-protection programs.

Cardholders who may have purchased credit protection from telemarketers between December 2007 and August 2011 will receive a cut of the $200 million refund to the tune of about $57. Refunds will be paid to all of the affected customers by early 2013, according to the CFPB and the FDIC.

Discover Bank fully agreed to issue this multimillion-dollar consumer refund. According to a company spokesperson, "We have worked hard to earn the loyalty of our card members, and we are committed to marketing our products responsibly."

[CNN]