Do Credit Card Co.’s Online Marketplaces Really Save You Money?

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(Free-Press-Release.com) August 29, 2011 -- If you’re one of those savvy online shoppers that clicks through to a merchant’s website from your credit card company’s online rewards marketplace, you probably feel pretty good that you’re getting a discount or extra rewards that other people miss out on. And while many times it does end up being a better deal, there are other times it’s merely masquerading as one.

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Do Credit Card Co.’s Online Marketplaces Really Save You Money?

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If you’re unfamiliar with credit card companies’ online marketplaces, they’re “portals” that redirect you to the websites of some of your favorite merchants, usually with the promise of a discount or extra rewards points/cash back for using that credit card. Even MasterCard themselves have one – the MasterCard Marketplace. How it typically works is that you would log in to your credit card account and find a link for the “rewards marketplace” (or something similar). Once on the marketplace page, you'll find a bunch of retailers your credit provider partners with. Next to each retailer is a link to the retailer’s website, and a listing of the discount or extra rewards points you will earn by using that specific link and credit card. Clicking that link will either do one of two things: 1. It’ll simply track the link so that your credit card company has a record of you going to the merchant’s regular site, or 2. It'll send you to a completely different landing page for the merchant -- one that is specifically for the cardholders of that particular card or credit provider. Either way, the majority of people simply browse the merchant’s website, purchase something, and get their extra discount or rewards points, all the while feeling great that they just got a little extra something more for knowing to use the marketplace link. The problem is that it can be a false sense of accomplishment, usually in one of two instances.

The first instance is when linking to the merchant’s site through your credit card company’s site. Sometimes, you may find you don’t have the ability to enter online coupon codes as you can on the merchant’s regular site. As we mentioned earlier, when you click through from the credit card provider’s website, it can take you to a different landing page, which in many cases can end up being a separate but “equal” website. Everything looks the same, feels the same, etc., yet the merchant modifies the site slightly by specifically removing the ability to enter coupon codes. The idea is that since you are already getting extra rewards of some kind, you shouldn’t be able to “double dip” by also using a coupon or promo code. You may end up saving more with the coupon code than with using your credit card company’s marketplace link, so be sure to do the math to see which way will save you more.

The second instance is when clicking through from your card company’s site, landing on the merchant’s separate landing page, and the prices displayed are different than those on the regular site. If you were to compare the prices of the same items between the regular site and the “linked” site, you may find the linked site has higher prices. It seems that the obvious reason is to mitigate any loss from the extra discount, rewards points, cash back, etc. Recently we saw this when going through the process of purchasing an extended warranty from Squaretrade through Discover’s ShopDiscover marketplace.

While the price of a regular warranty extension on Squaretrade’s linked site through ShopDiscover was the same as their regular site, the price of adding accidental damage protection was actually more. Discover gives you a 20% cashback bonus with Squaretrade by using the ShopDiscover site, which seems like a great deal. But if you’re getting accidental damage protection however, it won’t be the full 20% cashback that you’d be receiving. That’s not all though. To make matter’s worse, on top of the price difference, the same SquareTrade ShopDiscover landing site won’t let you input a discount code either! We found a 25% discount code online that works on SquareTrade’s regular site, which means that by using the discount code on the regular website instead of the ShopDiscover linked site, you’ll not only pay a cheaper rate (if getting accidental damage protection), but you’ll also get 25% off the total!

So just because you’re one of the minority that is keen on using the marketplace portals of your credit card company, it doesn’t always mean you’re getting a better deal. While in many instances you are getting a better deal, we always recommend taking the time to search for online coupons and compare a merchant’s regular website to the one you land on through your credit card provider. When you do all of that, then you will truly be the savviest of online shoppers.

More information can be found online at http://www.thecrediteer.com

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