Complete Guide to Saving Money with Capital One Deals

There are many ways to save money when you swipe a credit card at a given merchant. Many TPG readers are probably familiar with some of the more popular options, such as Amex Offers and Chase Offers. Citi Merchant Offers has also recently added more cards, expanding to more customers. However, you may not know much about Capital One’s similar platform.

Capital One Offers launched in 2020 and has grown since then, expanding the number of offers, their quality, and the number of customers who have access to them.

However, Capital One’s site is a little different from others, in that it functions more like an online shopping portal than a repository of discount opportunities.

Here’s what you need to know about Capital One deals and how they can help you save money when you shop online.

What is the Capital One Offers platform?

The Capital One Offers site hosts a program that provides account credits when you make select purchases with your Capital One credit card. Like Amex Offers, Chase Offers, and Citi Merchant Offers, you must add an offer to your card before making a purchase.

Capital One Offers provides cash back as an account credit after eligible purchases at over 100 merchants. Whether your card earns miles or cash back, you’ll get these offers in the form of cash back. Unfortunately, there is no bonus miles option in its place.

The terms state that credits may take up to three billing cycles to post to your account, and the offers are only available to U.S. cardholders. When you’re signed in to your account on either platform, you can find the offers in the app or on the website.

Related: Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most Value from Your Capital One Points

Which cards give access to Capital One offers?

All consumer (personal) credit cards issued in the United States by Capital One are eligible for Capital One offers, as long as the account is in good standing. Unfortunately, business credit cards are not eligible for these offers.

Therefore, cash-back-earning cards from the Savor and Quicksilver card families are eligible. Additionally, Capital One mileage-earning cards, such as the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, also participate.

How to Find Capital One Deals

You can access Capital One offers from the issuer’s website and mobile app. Start by logging into your account, then find “Shopping Credits” on the right side of your user portal. Click “View All Offers” to go to the Capital One offers page.

Additionally, if you are in the card management area for one of your credit cards, you can search for “Shopping Credits.” You will find this under your current balance and payment details. From there, click “View All Offers” on the right side to see all the offers available for your card.

Inside the mobile app, after you log in, all you have to do is scroll down. You can access Capital One offers at the bottom of the page by clicking “View All Offers.”

What offers are available with Capital One Offers?

Unfortunately, the deals are not grouped or organized in any meaningful way. There is no option to sort them alphabetically, nor can you filter them by category or merchant. There are deals for different types of spending, such as travel, meal kits, shopping sites, and more.

Therefore, you will need to search for deals using the name of the merchant you are interested in. You can also search with a keyword, such as “hotel” (as shown below). Unfortunately, this type of search is not always reliable and may not find everything you expect.

In this example, several hotel brands are included in the results. However, the search also showed results for online travel agencies such as Priceline and Booking.com, as well as unrelated results for West Marine and Stubhub.

The upside to this setup is that you don’t have to worry about which offers are tied to which of your credit cards. With Amex Offers, you might see an offer on one of your cards but not on another—a card you might prefer to use at that merchant. Capital One Offers isn’t tied to a particular card, so it can be used with whichever card you prefer to use at that merchant. This lets you choose the best card to earn the most miles or cash back, depending on your spending category.

Related: Best Rewards Credit Cards for Every Bonus Category

How to use Capital One offers

Whether you use the app or the website, you can click “Save Now” on any offer. This will take you to the offer details page. Here you can read the applicable terms.

For example, if you use the IHG offer below, you will only receive the credit after your stay and only if the stay is completed within one year of booking. So, if your booking is nine months from now, you will only receive the credit after you complete that stay. This can be a long wait (and tracking) period for your statement credit.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, click the “Continue with Merchant” button and complete the transaction with an eligible Capital One credit card. It is important that you use the link provided and do not change the URL in your web browser’s address bar. It contains important tracking information to ensure Capital One knows you took advantage of this offer.

After completing the offer on the merchant’s website, you’ll see a “Welcome Back” page on Capital One Offers. This page reminds you of the applicable terms and that many offers can take up to three billing cycles to complete the refund, unless your offer has a different timeline, as in our example above.

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Related: Get Even More Rewards by Adding This One Small Step to Your Online Shopping Routine

What to Know About Capital One Offers

Now that we understand how to find and use Capital One deals, there are a few important things you should know.

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It works like a shopping portal

Capital One Offers is like an online shopping portal. You need to follow the links associated with the offers, keep the window open, and make sure you don’t change the URL in your browser’s address bar. Altering anything in this process can mean your transaction won’t be tracked with Capital One, so you won’t get your money back.

You cannot accumulate promotions

Because Capital One Offers operates as a standalone shopping portal, you cannot combine these offers with other offers. In fact, the terms of the offers state that adding coupons, discount codes, or clicking through to other portals means you will likely lose any account credit from Capital One Offers.

On the other hand, both Amex and Chase offers simply need to be activated on a participating card. You are then free to make the qualifying purchase through a site like Rakuten (although additional restrictions may apply).

Compare these offers with others

Since you cannot stack Capital One Offers with other shopping portals, discount codes or coupons, you should consider whether other offers are better. Getting 3% back from a Capital One offer may be less valuable than the ability to stack multiple offers by shopping differently.

Reading the terms is important

Each offer has its own unique terms. Large sections of these will be the same, but it’s important to note the terms before using an offer. Pay attention to how long it may take to receive your cash back. Also, be aware of exclusions on things like trial subscriptions, gift cards, and items placed in your cart before you activate the Capital One offer.

Some offers can be used more than once

While some offers can be used multiple times, others cannot. Be sure to note this in the terms of a merchant’s offer. If you can only use an offer once, be sure to purchase everything you want in one transaction. Returning later for a second purchase on these “one-time use” offers means you will not receive any cash back on subsequent transactions.

Your credit may not be issued to the card used for the purchase.

Each offer includes this cool part: “If you have more than one Capital One credit card, we may apply the statement credit to any active credit card account that is open and in good standing.” That means you could pay for an offer with your Capital One Venture X but get the credit on your Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card. Be sure to check all eligible cards you have to make sure your cash back is posted as expected.

Related: How Credit Card Merchant Offers Can Save You Hundreds of Dollars Every Year

In conclusion

The Capital One Offers site offers discounts on a wide range of purchases on many of the issuer’s most popular cards, including Venture Rewards and Venture X. Unfortunately, these offers cannot be combined with other ways to save, including shopping portals, coupons, and most discount codes.

For this reason, you should always check what offers are available on all your credit cards and various online portals to make sure you are getting the best deal. If Capital One Offers has the best deal available, you should know how to find and use it after reading this guide.

For more information, check out our guide to the best Capital One cards.