I've got to hand it to CapitalOne

[Sidewinder]

Coupla months ago I caved and added that "CapitalOne Shopping" extension to my Chrome browser.  It scours the interwebz for discount & promo codes you might not know are out there for websites you're shopping at.  Most of the ones it finds are expired or otherwise inapplicable, but it has found at least one that saved me $20 when I was buying nutrition supplements from Garden of Life.

 

Also there was a limited-time offer last week for 30% cash back at CVS.com.  I scored ibuprofen 500-count ($5.60 off because CarePass), Sundown fish oil 300-count (buy 1 get one for 99¢ but they do that so often with Sundown that they may as well just cop to having marked up the price 100% the rest of the time), for $52.40, and just now got the confirming email from C1 that they are indeed processing my fifteen yes FIFTEEN DAMN DOLLARS cash back.

 

Maybe these cards o' theirs (mine are both $0 annual fee) aren't as useless as we thought...

 

[hdporter]

8 hours ago, Sidewinder said:

Coupla months ago I caved and added that "CapitalOne Shopping" extension to my Chrome browser.  It scours the interwebz for discount & promo codes you might not know are out there for websites you're shopping at.  Most of the ones it finds are expired or otherwise inapplicable, but it has found at least one that saved me $20 when I was buying nutrition supplements from Garden of Life.

 

Maybe these cards o' theirs (mine are both $0 annual fee) aren't as useless as we thought...

 

 

I'll give you this one.  I integrated it with my browser about a year plus, and according to it I've racked up $68 in discounts on the fly, plus $73 in shopping rewards that can be redeemed (I believe) on purchases as select websites, or to purchase gift cards.

 

The other browser extension I have loaded is "Honey".  I've been active for a little over 3 years and have accumulated $20 in discounts and $76 in cashback (can redeem as PayPal deposit, among other options).

 

True, this is basically chump change, but I don't have to do anything to score the credits.  Pop-ups activate when shopping online to activate available credits and you merely click to confirm activation.  (I can only benefit from one per purchase:  activating an Honey offer when I have a Capital One Shopping credit activated merely swaps them out).

[FoxSamual]

They keep nagging me to load this extension and I keep ignoring them because I'm highly skeptical it won't spy on other online activities, presumably they're monetizing this somehow.

 

Only way I'd contemplate using this extension would be in a totally separate Chrome instance only used for online shopping and nothing else.

 

[Sidewinder]

10 minutes ago, FoxSamual said:

They keep nagging me to load this extension and I keep ignoring them because I'm highly skeptical it won't spy on other online activities, presumably they're monetizing this somehow.

 

Only way I'd contemplate using this extension would be in a totally separate Chrome instance only used for online shopping and nothing else.

 

 

Yeah I mean it works with Chrome instead of with a C1 account; the $20.15 that CapitalOne saved me at Garden of Life was on a purchase that I paid for with a BofA Visa.

 

What's in it for them, then?  Data harvesting.  But if C1 hadn't scored the scoop, "Sidewinder buys supplements at Garden of Life!!!" then BofA and Google still scored it anyway.  It all goes into the swirling galaxy o' Big Data.

 

That being so, what's the point of passing up the $20.

 

[FoxSamual]

1 minute ago, Sidewinder said:

That being so, what's the point of passing up the $20.

 

A few things:

 

1. Google is fairly transparent by tech standards and makes it easy to purge and/or prevent the collection of data that would typically be retained.  Can I download all my data from C1 and delete all or part of it from their systems?

 

2. The less organizations that build a profile of me the better, IMHO.  You may not be able to stop Organization A, but you do not have to surrender to Organization B.  The more organizations in play the more likely you are to become a victim of a data breach.

 

3. My issue isn't with the "Sidewinder buys stuff from Garden of Life!" scoop but rather my fear that the extension would be collecting data on all websites I visit.  Obviously BofA and C1 now have that "scoop" on you, no way around that, but presumably you don't want them knowing about all the time you spend on Creditboards, lol.

 

4. I work in cyber-security and security is almost always an afterthought for extensions like these, even ones developed by major corporations like C1.  It represents an increased attack surface that increases your vulnerability to bad actors.  I would not authorize such an extension on a business computer under my charge. 

 

I'll consider the extension, knowing how much it has saved you guys, but I'd only do it in a separate browser instance as I said, which somewhat minimizes the fears documented above.  I would only use that browser instance for shopping and very probably only for checkout, everything else could be done in different extensions, for both privacy and security reasons.

 

 

[brainchasm]

I'm doing the Rakuten/AMEX shuffle.

And since I'm the one that buys all the technology at my work, I'm making a killing!

 

[FoxSamual]

4 hours ago, brainchasm said:

And since I'm the one that buys all the technology at my work, I'm making a killing!

I got 8% through Capital One offers for LG right around the time I had to buy a number of $1,500 monitors for our creative team. 😍

[dysonrichard801]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the CapitalOne Shopping extension. It's always great to find ways to save money, especially when shopping online.

[binaryhermit]

I'm assuming they get part of their $$$ from affiliate programs?

[hoapres]

Capital One shopping extension has saved me some money.  

[RehabbingANDBlabbing]

And don’t forget the Cap1 extension for making virtual cards. I think they are the only card issuer I have that issues virtual cards for individual websites. 

[dysonrichard801]

It sounds like you've had some positive experiences with the CapitalOne Shopping extension and the cash back program. It's always nice to save some money and get a little extra back on your purchases. While not every deal or promo code may be applicable or available, it's worth checking to see if there are any savings opportunities out there. It's also good to hear that the cards have no annual fees and can provide some benefits. However, as with any credit card, it's important to use it responsibly and make sure you can pay off any balances in full to avoid accumulating interest charges.

[hdporter]

3 hours ago, dysonrichard801 said:

It sounds like you've had some positive experiences with the CapitalOne Shopping extension ...

 

@dysonrichard801:  You've entered a few posts that appear to take the form of pasted text from another source.   As a courtesy to others, the source of any text that doesn't originate with you should be properly attributed.

[8ball]

45 minutes ago, hdporter said:

 

@dysonrichard801:  You've entered a few posts that appear to take the form of pasted text from another source.   As a courtesy to others, the source of any text that doesn't originate with you should be properly attributed.

I would just assume one of the Chat AI programs. 

[hdporter]

7 hours ago, 8ball said:

I would just assume one of the Chat AI programs. 

 

I might assume it's the great and wonderful oz.  It's inappropriate to post any text, in any forum, that doesn't attribute a source (unless it's your own original narrative).

 

And, yeah, if the source is an AI bot, I'd be interested in knowing the specific one.

[8ball]

16 hours ago, hdporter said:

 

I might assume it's the great and wonderful oz.  It's inappropriate to post any text, in any forum, that doesn't attribute a source (unless it's your own original narrative).

 

And, yeah, if the source is an AI bot, I'd be interested in knowing the specific one.

I don't know which one he's using but I use https://www.perplexity.ai/