Q: How does the Discover million dollar giveaway work?

A: Being that their motto is “It Pays To Discover” it comes as no surprise to me that they decided to run a sweepstakes like this. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this Discover card sweepstakes repeated every year.

When does the contest run?
The Discover Card million dollar sweepstakes takes place from January 1st through December 31st (so all year long).

How do you enter?
Discover cardmembers receive one sweepstakes entry for each purchase they make using their card. During 2011, Certain categories of spending receive 9 extra bonus entries per transactions (so 10 entries total per purchase). These bonus categories change each month.

No purchase, card application, or transaction is necessary to enter the sweepstakes: those without a Discover card can enter once per day by mailing in their info on a 3 x 5 inch piece of paper along with a self-addresses stamped envelope. But of course, it’s obviously much simpler to play by just using your Discover card.

What are the prizes?
The Discover card million dollar sweepstakes is actually giving away a lot more than a $1,000,000. Here are the prizes for 2011:

• Daily – 150 Discover gift cards ($25 each)
• Monthly – $25,000 for you and $25,000 for the school of your choice
• End of Year – $1,000,000 grand prize

After the sweepstakes ends (12/31) there will be one grand prize winner randomly selected from all the entries over the course of the year. This grand prize winner will be awarded $1,000,000. Unlike the lottery which pays installments, this prize will be given in one lump sum for the entire amount…. pretty cool, huh?

How many total winners will there be?
According to me calculations, 150 daily winners x 365 days = 54,750. Then when you add in the monthly prizes (12) and the one grand prize winner, I suppose that would mean there will be a total of 54,763 winners from the Discover Card sweepstakes in 2011.

When are the winners notified?
From what I gather, winners are notified via mail in the days/weeks following each daily drawing. The $1,000,000 grand prize drawing won’t take place until January of next year, so obviously that winner won’t know until around that time.

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