Update 3/24/23: Reader Tracy commented to point out that Safeway / Albertsons / et al is back. But that’s not all — many useful options have been added, including DoorDash, GrubHub, Hotels.com, Xbox, Saks, and more. That’s an encouraging sign that we may continue to see more useful options added. Personally, I think I’ll probably redeem for some amount of DoorDash cards. Newly added options include:
- Safeway / Albertsons / Vons / Shaw’s / ACME / etc
- DoorDash
- GrubHub
- Hotels.com
- Xbox
- Saks
- Athleta
- AutoZone
- Bath & Body Works
- Callway
- Chewy
- Cinemark
- Adidas
- H&M
- Old Navy
- NFL Shop
- Omaha Steaks
- Soma
- Stitch Fix
- Under Armous
- White House / Black Market
- Wine.com
- Zappos
Unfortunately, Walmart hasn’t returned, but there are some decent additions. The original post follows.
Yuck: Reader Bill points out that Capital One Shopping has removed the option to redeem shopping rewards for Walmart gift cards, which subsequently led me to notice that they also removed Safeway gift cards. That’s a big-time bummer to me as these were the most cash-like of the redemption options (my family buys a lot of general groceries at Walmart and obviously Safeway is also a grocery store chain). I hope this is temporary, but I noticed that there have been some other card options removed (and some added), so I feel like this is probably just a shift in redemption options. That will stink if they don’t continue to rotate in options like Walmart and Safeway.
For those unfamiliar, Capital One Shopping is a shopping portal that is open to anyone — no Capital One card or account is required to use the shopping portal and its associated browser extension (See: Digging the Capital One Shopping Browser extension and C is for confusion: Capital One Shopping vs Offers vs Travel Offers). While the fact the portal is open to anyone is certainly a big upside (an upside that is only eclipsed by the frequent insanely-good targeted offers like 30% back at sites like Hertz, Lenovo, HSN, and Belk….24% back at times from sites like IHG, GiftCards.com, and TireRack…and plenty more), the downside of the way the portal is set up is that the “cash back” you earn can only be redeemed for gift cards through Capital One Shopping.
Unfortunately, Capital One Shopping has made some unannounced changes in the gift card redemption options, taking away some popular retailers and adding some other options. Here are current gift card redemption options:
Just last night, Walmart was still a redemption option, but today it is gone. That led me to notice several differences with previous gift card redemption options, with a few brands removed and several added:
Gift cards no longer available for redemption at Capital One Shopping:
- Walmart
- Safeway
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Petco
New options to redeem Capital One Shopping rewards:
- Boscovs
- Dicks Sporting Goods
- Express
- CVS
- SiriusXM
- Shutterfly
- Fitbit
- CDCFoundation (donation)
- Guitar Center
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (donation)
I put together the above lists based on a screen shot I used in a post last year. There has been no notification of changes in gift card options. I’m not sure how new the “new” options are, but I only recently noticed several of them (within the last week).
Overall, this is a huge disappointment for me. I had viewed Capital One Shopping rewards to be nearly cash-like because I frequently get ordinary groceries at Walmart and I knew that many others could do the same at Safeway. Now the list is a bit more niche. While there is a wide range of retailers represented that certainly could be useful, most people probably won’t find many options where they spend money with regularity (aside from perhaps eBay and the home improvement stores). In many cases, these gift cards could often be purchased at a discount (which typically isn’t the case with retailers like Walmart or grocers like Safeway), so this reduces the value of Capital One Shopping returns since it narrows the field of potential uses and narrows the list to gift cards that you could often buy at a discount elsewhere.
Hopefully this is only a temporary change — I’d love to see popular retailers like Walmart and Safeway return. I had heard some reports of problems with Walmart gift card redemptions, so perhaps this is connected to that, though since there have been several changes I feel less confident that’s the case. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that Capital One brings them back.
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eBay gift cards are gone now too
Should have grabbed my eBay card if knew beforehand they remove options. Damn it.
Uuugh. Huge disappointment. You can pretty much but anything on ebay. Such a bummer. The only thing worth using is maybe the Lowe’s card.
eBay GCs back
Just a heads up that Chewy gift card redemption is not a good idea while there is still is a 25% Capital One Shopping cashback reward available as the gift card is taken off your purchase total and thus the purchase amount is much lower. With Walmart gone as a redemption offer, I redeemed $240 for gift card at Chewy thinking it would be a payment against the purchase of $300 of dog food (with the purchase still being $300). But instead the purchase then becomes $60.
So for now, I’ll just leave the $240 sitting in Chewy (once you put it gift card/pin in it’s put in your account) and use it later when I can’t find a 25% back offer at Chewy.
If I knew this was going to happen, I would have probably got a Safeway or Lowes gift card instead.
How long does it take for the gift card codes to come?
I ordered Safeway on the 5/18 and today is the 22nd already?? thanks
I haven’t redeemed for Safeway, so I’m not sure on that one. DoorDash cards have been instant for me. Some other brands have been ~24hrs.
Interesting, maybe they are backlogged…
I redeemed a Safeway gift card a few weeks ago and it came almost immediately via email. Within minutes, maybe you should try again. Have you logged back in to see if your balance shows the transaction.
I actually got both of my redemption codes the same day I posted the question on this blog lol maybe it has something to do with the dollar amount. Each of my redemption was around $250. What was your value?
I don’t see targeted offers anymore. Now all rewards are under 10%. Is it just me?
Same here..it seem to be lowest.
I hope it comes back.. i am holding some big purchase for it
Oh I see. It’s a relief I thought I was in a restricted list or something (just did some big purchases for gift cards) since the reward has been extremely low these days for me. Yeah hope it will come back soon.
With the removal of Walmart, I doubt I’ll be using Cap One Shopping much anymore. They usually have higher rates compared to other services but all the other major ones let you redeem directly to PayPal which is obviously much better.
Walmart was almost as good as real money as it’s down the street from me and do all my food shopping there. I guess I’ll just cash out at eBay and buy some stuff I really don’t need. Oh well.
I doubt Walmart comes back. They are suing Capital One
Giftcards.com is missing from the app today, even though I’ve used it before. It still shows up in the extension though and on the website.
Did your 24% at Giftcards.com actually pay out and not get clawed back (yet)? I have a similar offer, but since it’s too good to be true I expect they’ll take it back eventually. Thanks.
I haven’t even looked at it in the app recently since I’ve had the 18% back offer on the website / via the extension. Greg had reported his paying out when he got 24%. Mine is pending at 18% from a few orders, but not yet payable. The email had said to be on the lookout for it to become payable in about 30 days, which is coming up soon on my first order. We’ll see!
mine giftcard.com started showing redemption rewards but no more 18% cash back.
Bring back Walmart!
Safeway is gone again, along with Home Depot, Dicks, and Ulta
[…] HT: Frequent Miler […]
Safeway not showing for me.ETA: OK, 2/3 of way down the screen, a white card with very tiny print shows a number of grocers, including Safeway. Just missed it the first time.
Nick, is there a link to a comprehensive list of gift cards from redemptions?
Sure. Log in, go to your account, and hit “redeem”. This should take you right there: https://capitaloneshopping.com/my-rewards/redeem
Bingo. Thanks.
Looks like Safeway (Albertson’s, etc.) is back.
And they added a bunch of other good ones! I’m working on an update. Thanks for commenting!
Nick, Walmart is still an option if you go directly to the URL here. I just redeemed $100 this morning.
https://capitaloneshopping.com/gift-card-checkout/B010383
Do you have link for home Depot?
Anyone have the Home Depot one?
“Offer not available” when trying to checkout
If you redeem for Staples/Office Depot/Office Max gift cards, could you then use that gift card to purchase fee-free Visa/MC gift cards?
Or do they have a rule against using Staples gift cards to buy Visa/MC gift cards?
No, you cannot buy gift cards with a Staples GC
Can I get Xbox gift cards from any of those stores like GameStop? Since they’re not available on Dell anymore.
Xbox is an option directly
Xbox gift cards? Where?
I updated the post last night. They added a bunch of new redemption options — see the paragraph at the top of the post. Xbox is now an option.
A word of caution on the Fandango gift card option. I foolishly thought the Fandango card would be good for movie tickets AND Fandango Now/VUDU redemptions but it’s not. It’s only good for movie ticket purchases which is disappointing to me.
A credit card sponsored shopping portal devalued after getting a lot of sign ups. I’m just surprised they didn’t try charging an annual fee.
Is there something going on in general with gift cards? Rakuten gift cards has been under construction for months. I would buy there gc’s to get high return on everday spend like pet supplies.
I’m sitting on a ton to redeem, just hadn’t done it yet. Losing Walmart will heavily reduce my cap one spending…
Yup. Really stinks now. BeFrugal moves back to 1st for me. I have $1300 unused right now and another $1000-$1200 in pending.
To liquidate for the next couple of months get CVS gift cards and buy Covid tests and then get reimbursed through your insurance
You better do this by May 11th’ish. When the Covid emergency ends the insurance claims for this will move to policyholder-shared expenses and apply towards your deductible instead of straight reimbursement.
and then do what, throw away the useless tests?
Glad gamestop is still there. I’m using my rewards to get a ps5 for free. But they badly need either Walmart, Target, or Amazon. Best buy would be a good option to. Guitar center feels like a weird one
Yeah, I was looking for Safeway cards about 2 weeks ago and they were gone, but Walmart was still there at the time. Who knows, but I sure hope Safeway comes back.
Safeway is out everywhere. Even Amazon no longer carries it.
Has anyone found an effective way to cash this out? So far I am reselling some of these gift cards and taking 85% of the value back in cash.
Wondering if anyone has a more effective way
Man I just redeemed for Wally gift cards 2 days ago, what a drag!
Wow! Huge devaluation for me
can we redeem for staples vanilla giftcards? That would be a easy way to get around this issue. i just earned $70 from giftcards.com for purchasing a giftcard.
Wish they had Costco in the program.
This is a brutal deval. Do we know if any of these stores allow you to purchase other gift cards with them?