Here are more ways to save on every purchase, like flying to Boston! Photo by: Evan Berman

I recently discussed how AmEx Offers can be a great way to save. As I mentioned, AmEx, Chase, and Citi have similar systems whereby you add an offer to a card, make a purchase, and earn the reward. Capital One is slightly different and warrants a separate review.

Note: this article may be confusing– Capital One has 2 separate systems that are similarly named. 1 does not require a Capital One card while 1 does.

Capital One Offers

Capital One Offers does require a Capital One credit card. Navigate to your account home, then find the offers section. Select “see all offers,” which will pull up a list of all of the offers, as shown below. One negative in comparison to other banks is that there is no way to filter these offers. You’ll need to go through them all to find the complete list.

Unlike other banks’ offers, you must click through the offer to get the cashback. As such, you cannot use other shopping portals or a different card than the one you use to click on the offer. This cashback is in the form of statement credits, unlike Capital One Shopping below.

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping can be very valuable. First, let me clarify that anyone can use Capital One Shopping, regardless of whether they have a Capital One credit card. It is a shopping portal and as I’ve discussed before, shopping portals are a great way to earn extra points and/or cashback on online purchases. You must click through this portal to receive the statement credit, which means that it is impossible to “stack” offers i.e., earn rewards through more than one method.

Capital One Shopping offers return in the form of “cashback” which can be used only to redeem for gift cards. These options can be extremely valuable, up to 30% back. For example, check out this offer I received for hockey tickets:

Pro tip: Capital One Shopping offers deals based on your activity. So, if you need to buy something, search the product, add it to your cart, then exit out. Wait a few hours to a day and you should get an offer to earn cashback. Case in point, I was about to purchase hockey tickets and did that. Within 24 hours, I received the above offer. 30% back is a great deal, especially for something I was already planning to buy!

How to Access

There are 3 separate ways to access Capital One Shopping. The first is a browser extension, the second is the app, and the third is via emails. The screenshot above is from an email I received, though I also have the browser extension installed. One advantage of this method is that you can also try discount codes that Capital One has identified as working for the website.

Summary

Capital One has 2 ways to earn cashback from spending, Capital One Shopping and Capital One Offers. While Shopping does not require a credit card with CapOne, Offers does. Both require clicking through the link in order to earn the reward. Shopping earns cash back in the form of statement credit while cashback from Offers can be redeemed for gift cards. If you have a Capital One card (or don’t, with Capital One shopping), this is a great way to save!

Evan