Study shows Discover has milder rate practices than others

According to a research conducted by Bankrate.com today when it comes to credit card practices Discover Financial Services has relatively mild rules. The personal finance Web site studied two cards each from the top 10 issuers, including Discover More and Discover Motiva.

Thus, in case a cardholder violates any part of the credit agreement all issuers would surely fine him/her. Discover raises rates only when a user pays late or his/her account is over the credit limit twice. Meantime, USAA Federal Savings will raise your rate if you miss two months of minimum-due payments. Others will raise your rates if you make one mistake.

Besides, the researchers also analyzed the grace periods. Thus, it was found that grace periods ranged from 20 to 25 days. Capital One, Discover, USAA and Wells Fargo all had 25-day grace periods.

In April, Discover announced it was hiking interest rates on a "small percent" of cardholders and moving to more variable rates.