Capital One Shopping is a public shopping portal (no Capital One credit card required) that offers rewards dollars that can only be redeemed for gift cards to select merchants. Over time, they have offered some broadly useful merchants like Walmart, Kroger, Safeway/Albertsons/Vons/etc, DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats among others. Sadly, none of the merchants in that sentence are available anymore (each having been removed at different times, some returning for a time and disappearing again). While I have long been willing to mostly look past the limitation of only being able to redeem rewards for gift cards, it’s been really frustrating to see high turnover in the redemption options over time.
Quick Thoughts
A reader reached out today to say that they thought that ebay gift cards had been removed as a redemption option. Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be correct (I still see ebay among the gift card redemption options), but it was nonetheless a good reminder to publish a post about which options have been removed and which remain.
For many, redemption options like Kroger, Safeway, and Walmart made the utility of the rewards earned through Capital One Shopping almost as good as cash. Portal rewards are never quite the same as cash given the delay in payouts and if you’re using gift cards at Kroger or Safeway, you’re missing out on earning a bonus category for that spend. Still, given the monster payouts frequently offered by Capital One Shopping, it has been easy enough to overlook the limitation of gift cards.
However, given the loss of popular redemption options noted in the first paragraph, some readers might think twice about whether they want to collect portal rewards through Capital One Shopping given the uncertainty of redemption options.
Personally, I’m still happy to use Capital One Shopping. Just yesterday, I got offers like 35.5% back at Get Your Guide, up to 36% back at Expedia (usually good for tours and activities), 40% back at Klook, 15% back at Vrbo, 25% back at Agoda, 15.5% back at IHG, and many more. The payouts tend to be enough higher than what I see elsewhere that I’m confident I will get enough value out of the rewards even with a more limited set of redemption partners. However, that won’t necessarily work out for everyone.
Out of the redemption options available at the time of writing, I would say that the most broadly useful and/or relevant to travel are:
- ebay
- Lowe’s
- Home Depot
- Instacart
- Hotels.com
- Celebrity Cruises
Personally, I’m still happy to redeem for Hotels.com and I’ll surely have occasional uses with other merchants. For instance, I buy stuff from L.L. Bean from time to time and don’t otherwise see their gift cards discounted. I’ll buy a holiday gift from Bass Pro Shops now and then, etc. Still, you’ll want to more closely track the redemption options if you don’t find the gift card options as useful.
Here is a full list of available gift card redemptions at the time of writing.
- REI
- Expedia Global Hotel Card
- Shutterfly
- Home Chef
- 1800Flowers
- Etsy
- StubHub
- The Container Store
- Lowe’s
- Home Depot
- Omaha Steaks
- The Children’s Place
- Carter’s / Oshkosh B’Gosh
- Groupon
- Office Depot / Office Max
- Allbirds
- Columbia
- Lands’ End
- Ulta Beauty
- Macy’s
- Vistoria’s Secret
- Cabela’s
- Boscov’s
- Ace Hardware
- Soma
- Instacart
- PetSmart
- NFL Shop
- MLB Shop
- Nordstrom Rack
- Unfer Armour
- Chico’s
- Hanna Anderson
- Zappos
- Hulu
- Athleta
- Advance Auto
- White House Black Market
- Chewy
- Staples
- CVS
- Bass Pro Shops
- Michaels
- DSW
- GAP
- Adidas
- Sephora
- ebay
- American Eagle
- L.L. Bean
- Callaway
- Banana Republic
- Hotels.com
- Barnes & Noble
- Kohl’s
- Old Navy
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- H&M
- SiriusXM
- TJ Maxx / Marshalls / Home Goods / Sierra / Home Sense
- Stitch Fix
- Celebrity Cruises
- Sling
- Petco
- Belk
- Lane Bryant
- Asos
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ebay is gone.
between that and walmart this is useless now. scammers
It’s so weird how it has different options for different people.
I still have ebay. I also still have Hotels.com, the Expedia Global Hotel Card, Lowes’s, Home Depot, Staples, TJ Maxx/Marshalls, Macy’s, StubHub, and Etsy, among many others (those are just the places I noticed where I tend to spend some money annually one way or another).
For me Lowes is gone, Ace is gone, eBay is gone, Home Depot is gone. Basically the last of everything that I would regularly spend on has been removed. Used to be Kroger and Home Depot. What good is it if I am getting gift cards to places that I don’t really care about. I’m not actually saving money. I guess I’ll switch to buying my dogs food at Petco. When they is gone, they’ll be nothing left I really care about lol
They just removed alot recently.
Can you use a Lowes gift card to buy a gift card to another store?
No. I don’t know of any stores that let you buy a gift card with a (store) gift card.
Ebay is gone!!! why!!
Doesn’t show eBay for me as of right now…
Bummed about losing Safeway/Albertsons. But, hopefully it’ll come back eventually. (As Nick notes, several stores have come and gone, and come back again.)
I do still see eBay listed among my available options. That said, the last time I used an eBay gift card from C1S, I ran into a strange fraud alert that blocked my transaction and locked any gift card credit I had on my account. It was quite an ordeal to get it all sorted out with eBay phone reps, submitting requested documentation, etc. Eventually got my funds returned and was able to buy what I wanted (several days later), but it was stressful enough to give me pause about using eBay gift cards again (which I had used many times before, esp. ones from C1S).
FWIW, I don’t think it necessarily had anything to do with getting the gift card from C1S. Also, in talking to the phone rep, it was clear to me I was far from the only one running into this fraud alert issue when trying to use a gift card for purchase.
Does anyone know how long it takes to receive the gift cards once you cash out? Need a new car battery today and thinking of Advance Auto GC. Thanks
I literally just cashed out an instacart GC and got it instantly in my email this morning. Added directly to my Instacart account and good to go.
Perfect thank you!!
In my experience, it’s pretty much instant. I often have my wife let me know when she’s in line for an eligible store, and then I’ll buy a C1S GC right then and text her a screenshot once it arrives (which is moments later).
Not making any guarantees, of course. But, that’s how it’s worked for me, numerous times.
For me it has varied from instant to more than a day.
Lame-o… At least keep Grubhub
i see different redemption options on different accounts that I have. One home depot got pulled, the other still has it.
Does anyone have experience with the Celebrity cruise gift card option and willing to share? I’m considering this as an option to cash out my capital one shopping account. It sounds like these gift cards are pretty restrictive (only on a new booking and at time of booking but can’t use for deposit, possibly only up to 1k/stateroom?, only can be used for fare).
The wording on the website is pretty harsh but we were able to use a physical gift card (bought in store) to purchase wi-fi and drink package on a cruise 1 week prior to boarding (cruise cost was fully paid by this time). This was in March 2025.
I just love reading this on the day that Rakuten closed my accounts 🙁
What!?! Do you know why? I’m not even aware of shenanigans with Rakuten but I’ve gotten a bunch of friends and family to adopt the portal!
Someone shared your Flyertalk report with me, too, but I didn’t notice any detail. Can you provide any information / context as to the cause? Either here or via email at mailbag at frequentmiler dot com.
I put your list through a sorter to make it easier to read. Thanks for updating the list. Losing Albertsons really stinks for me.
1800Flowers
Ace Hardware
Adidas
Advance Auto
Allbirds
American Eagle
Asos
Athleta
Banana Republic
Barnes & Noble
Bass Pro Shops
Belk
Boscov’s
Cabela’s
Callaway
Carter’s / Oshkosh B’Gosh
Celebrity Cruises
Chewy
Chico’s
Columbia
CVS
DSW
eBay
Etsy
Expedia Global Hotel Card
GAP
Groupon
H&M
Hanna Anderson
Home Chef
Home Depot
Hotels.com
Hulu
Instacart
Kohl’s
L.L. Bean
Lands’ End
Lane Bryant
Lowe’s
Macy’s
Michaels
MLB Shop
NFL Shop
Nordstrom Rack
Office Depot / Office Max
Old Navy
Omaha Steaks
Petco
PetSmart
REI
Saks Fifth Avenue
Sephora
Shutterfly
SiriusXM
Sling
Soma
Staples
Stitch Fix
StubHub
The Children’s Place
The Container Store
TJ Maxx / Marshalls / Home Goods / Sierra / Home Sense
Ulta Beauty
Under Armour
Victoria’s Secret
White House Black Market
Zappos
indeed ebay is gone
Same for me
Vistoria’s Secret?