How To Use Capital One Shopping To Save Money & Earn Rewards

Key Takeaways

• Capital One Shopping is available to anyone, not just Capital One cardholders, and has partnerships with numerous online stores.
• Capital One Shopping also has a free browser extension that instantly displays the best coupons and cash-back rate as you browse.
• Capital One Shopping will send you targeted offers based on your shopping history that can lead to huge savings.

Capital One Shopping is a shopping portal designed to help you find the best deals and save money on all of your purchases. You don’t need a Capital One credit card to use it, and it’s different from Capital One Offers which you’ll find in your Capital One account. Plus, a lot of the deals are targeted, so it’s not as simple as using a portal like Rakuten where everyone has access to the same deals.

Don’t worry, though, because Upgraded Points has you covered. In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know about Capital One Shopping and how to use it to potentially save big bucks on your next purchase.

What Is Capital One Shopping?

Capital One Shopping is a shopping portal that can help you save money on your online purchases. While it’s a Capital One-branded portal, you don’t need a Capital One credit card to use it.

The other important thing to know about Capital One Shopping is that you don’t earn straight cash-back. Instead, you earn your cash-back in gift card format. While that’s not quite as good as actual cash, there’s a wide selection of gift cards to choose from.

Here’s a look at your gift card options when redeeming Capital One Shopping rewards:

*Gift card options can change at any time.

What’s the Difference Between Capital One Shopping and Capital One Offers?

Capital One Shopping can be easily confused with Capital One Offers, but they are completely different.

Capital One Shopping is a shopping portal that earns cash-back in the form of gift cards. You don’t need a Capital One credit card to access Capital One Shopping.

Capital One Offers are found in your Capital One account and are only available using Capital One credit cards. These discounts are activated when you click through the link found in the Capital One Offers section of your online account.

The cash-back earned from Capital One Offers is applied as a statement credit on your account.

Bottom Line: Capital One Shopping and Capital One Offers sound similar but are very different. Capital One Shopping earns cash-back in the form of gift cards and you don’t need a Capital One credit card to access Capital One Shopping. Capital One Offers are only available if you have a Capital One credit card. Cash-back earned through Capital One Offers comes as a statement credit.

How To Use Capital One Shopping

Ready to shop with Capital One? The first thing you need to do is visit CapitalOneShopping.com and create an account, then you’ll be able to see the available deals. Just like any other shopping portal, you’ll need to click through the provided link to make your purchase to receive rewards.

Then you’ll complete your purchase as you normally would. Be careful not to click around to other sites or shopping portals, or your purchase might not track with Capital One Shopping.

Capital One Shopping Browser Extension

The real “magic” happens when you install the Capital One browser extension for Chrome. With the extension, you’ll automatically be able to see the cash-back rate and best coupon codes for the store you’re shopping.

If you don’t have the Capital One Shopping browser extension added, you’ll see a message inviting you to add it. Just click the link to quickly install the extension.

If you plan to shop through a different shopping portal, but have the Capital One Shopping browser extension installed, watch your coupon codes carefully. The Capital One Shopping browser extension can add coupon codes automatically, which may make your purchase ineligible for rewards through other shopping portals.

Bottom Line: The Capital One Shopping browser extension for Chrome allows you to automatically see and apply the best coupon codes and cash-back rewards for each website you visit.

Targeted Offers

The unique thing about Capital One Shopping is that it sends out targeted offers. If you sign up for email notifications, you’ll receive offers based on your shopping history, and these deals often offer huge savings.

For example, I was doing some price comparisons on a specific item and ended up getting an offer from Capital One Shopping to save 35%!

You can customize how many notifications you receive and where you receive them from Capital One Shopping in your online account under Notifications.

Hot Tip: You’ll get targeted offers, often for huge savings, when you sign up for Capital One Shopping emails and notifications.

Different Offers for the Same Merchant

You can access Capital One Shopping offers 3 main ways — through the website, through targeted email offers, and through the browser extension. The thing to keep in mind is that the offers can be very different depending on how you access them.

Here’s an example that shows 3 different offers for the same store all available at the same time.

I got this targeted offer in my inbox for $40.80 in shopping rewards at Macy’s for a product I had looked at the night before, which was equivalent to about 12% back.

While that’s great, when I clicked on the link and looked at the deal through the browser extension, it was actually for 24% in rewards, which would be about $80 for this item — twice what was offered through email.

At the same time, the offer through the Capital One Shopping website was only for 2.5% rewards on gift cards.

This example shows offers ranging from 2.5% to 24% back for the same store on the same day. As you can see, Capital One Shopping offers can vary drastically depending on how you access them — via an email link, the browser extension, or through the Capital One Shopping website.

Hot Tip: Capital One Shopping will send you targeted offers based on your search history. Pay close attention to these because sometimes the offers you receive in your inbox can differ from cash-back percentage being offered through the browser extension or the Capital One Shopping website.

Missing Cash-back

Any time you use a shopping portal, it’s a good idea to keep track of your orders and expected rewards. Even when you do everything right, orders can track incorrectly or not at all.

The order from the screenshot above with the 35% shopping rewards offer didn’t track in Capital One Shopping. After waiting 30 days (the required minimum time), I sent in a missing rewards request, and much to my surprise, I got an email within 2 days stating that the rewards would be added manually.

To request missing Capital One Shopping rewards, click on Help and then scroll down until you see Where are my Rewards?

Stack With Card-linked Offers

You can save even more when using Capital One Shopping by paying with a credit card that has a card-linked offer. Since you don’t have to use a Capital One credit card with Capital One Shopping, you can take advantage of any card-linked offer including these popular ones:

Be sure to add any offer you want to use to your credit card before you make a purchase through Capital One Shopping.

Unfortunately, you can’t stack Capital One Shopping with Capital One Offers since both shopping portals require a unique click-through.

Capital One Shopping Mobile App

There is a Capital One Shopping mobile app available via Google Play or Apple.

How To Redeem Capital One Shopping Rewards

Once you’ve earned Capital One Shopping rewards, you’ll need to redeem them. After logging in to your account, hover over your name to get a drop-down menu and then click on Redeem Rewards.

Then you’ll be able to see your gift card options. You can add all or part of your rewards to a gift card (in whole dollar amounts only).

You can also purchase a gift card in an amount that’s higher than your earned rewards by paying the difference with a credit card. Either way, you’ll need to add a payment method to your account — either as payment for a gift card that’s larger than your rewards balance or as authorization for a gift card that is purchased solely with Capital One Shopping rewards.

Orders can take 24 to 72 hours to process. When your gift card is ready, a redemption code will be emailed to you.

To access your gift card,  open the email and select Click to claim now!This will take you to your Capital One Shopping account where you can view and print your gift card. You’ll be able to use the gift card in-store or online.

Bottom Line: Capital One Shopping rewards can’t be redeemed as straight cash-back, but instead can be redeemed for a wide selection of gift cards.

Final Thoughts

Capital One Shopping is a shopping portal that offers cash-back rewards (via gift cards) and an easy way to see and apply store coupons automatically. If you sign up for emails, you can get personalized offers for stores you frequent often and you can install a browser extension that allows you to automatically see rewards and coupons. One of the main things to remember about Capital One Shopping is that you don’t need to have a Capital One credit card to use it.

The cash-back you earn through Capital One Shopping is awarded in gift card format, so it’s not quite as good as straight cash-back, but it can still be a great way to save money on your purchases.