Discover Financial Services says it posted a profit in the fiscal second quarter as consumers spent more on their credit cards and gas prices rose.

The company also set aside $724 million for bad debt, 44 percent less than last year.

In premarket trading, shares rose 5.2 percent to $14.74.

The company earned $184.9 million, or 33 cents per share, compared with a loss of $148.9 million, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier. Discover says earnings were cut by 13 cents per share because it redeemed $1.2 billion of preferred stock in the period.

On average, analysts expected the Riverwoods, Ill., company to earn 11 cents per share on revenue of $1.62 billion.

Discover card sales volume grew 6 percent to $23 billion.