Paribus Review – Will It Help You Save More Money?
If you shop online, you’ve probably been a situation where you bought something only to find that shortly after, it’s being offered a lower price. When you add up how many times this has happened over the course of time, your potential savings really add up.
Major retailers will typically refund you the difference between your purchase price and discounted price. The catch is that you must catch these price changes within a certain timeframe.
Keeping up with all the online shopping purchases you’ve made isn’t realistic. You’ve probably caught an online purchase or two that have been offered for a lower price. But the majority of them you’re missing because you’re not specifically paying attention to them all.
This is the problem that Paribus was made to solve. Paribus is a service designed to monitor your purchases so you can save money when there is a price drop. So, should you be using Paribus? That’s what we’ll decide in this complete Paribus review. Let’s get started!
How much does Paribus Cost?
Paribus is completely free to use. Since it is a free service, Paribus doesn’t cut off your refunds, charge you to sign up, or add in any sneaky additional fees.
Paribus History
Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh created Paribus in 2014. The goal of the company was to help people learn to save money on their online shopping purchases. after they’ve bought something.
The Paribus app saves people time to find the best price for an online purchase by tracking price drops and getting you reimbursed.
Using the price-adjustment policies of many of the major online retailers, Paribus users have saved over $29 million. Capital One acquired the company in 2016.
How Does Paribus Work?
Paribus is like having an assistant whose job is to look through your online receipts constantly to ensure you have the best price. Paribus works by knowing all the rules so it can apply rebates and discounts on your online purchases.
You must give Paribus access to your accounts like online retailers like Target so it can save you money.
Here is an example of how the Partibus app could work: Let’s say you bought a new flat screen tv from an online retailer. The shipping on your new tv is delayed, however, so you must wait an extra week from what you were expecting.
Then the tv’s price drops by $250 the next week. Paribus discovers this price adjustment to get you a refund of $250. It also finds out that in the rules of the retailer, you are eligible to be compensated for the shipping delays.
In the end, Paribus is able to get you more than $250 back on your purchase due to the sale price and the shipping delay. Who wouldn’t want to get $250+ dollars of their money back?
How much Money can Paribus help you Save?
This can really depend on how many online purchases you make and how many rebates/discounts that Paribus can find.
Given that the service is free and it does a lot of the work for you, signing up for it only benefits you.
Keep in mind that in some cases, you’ll have to do some legwork in getting certain refunds. That may mean doing something like filling out an online form to receive cash back.
It’s also important to remember that you’re not probably not going to save several hundred or thousands of dollars per year.
Paribus Features
Mobile App
The Paribus mobile app is only available on iOS and through the web. Android users will need to use the website if they wish to sign up for Paribus.
Retail Price Drops
Paribus monitors your email inbox for purchases that have been made over the last 30 days for changes in price. It looks at each of your online purchases through each retailer and if prices drop, Paribus will look to see if you have an eligible claim to receive money back.
If it finds recent purchases that are eligible, it will request a refund on your behalf through an automated process or provide you with the instructions on how to make a refund request.
Since policies differ by the retailer, Paribus can not only find you extra money but also save you time.
Successful claims result in getting credit for the difference on your original form of payment or receiving store credit.
Online Purchase Tracking
The primary purpose of Paribus is to look for future price drops.
It needs access to your email to do this so you must give Paribus permission to your email account. Paribus can receive third-party access to most major email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
Once you grant access to Paribus, it will review your online shopping receipts from over 25 retailers including Home Depot, Best Buy, Walmart, Costco, and Target.
Using the Paribus dashboard, if you provide your amazon login credentials you can track your Amazon account purchases too.
Shipping Delay Compensation
Not only does it have its price protection tool for online stores, but Paribus monitors and can get compensation for late deliveries.
This service is for Amazon Prime members. If you make a purchase on Amazon and the product arrives after the guaranteed shipping date, Paribus will provide you with instructions on how to compensate.
Returns
We all have busy lives where we’re constantly juggling multiple responsibilities. So even though we have decided to return something we’ve bought, sometimes we miss the return window.
Since retailers all have different policies with returns, staying on top of every one of them is hard, if not impossible. This free service will tell you how long you have to get your money back on a return to make it easier o you.
Using the app, you can see all your purchases and the latest date you can return it. Definitely a handy feature, especially for those who like to purchase and return many of their Amazon purchases.
Is Paribus Legit?
You must give Paribus access to your email account to use its service. So you’re probably concerned about your personal information being shared with the company.
Rest assured, Paribus has security features to keep your information safe. Let’s discuss what makes Paribus safe.
Paribus uses AES 128 encryption to store all your data. It does not store your email’s login information either.
Their multilevel security includes firewalls, intrusion detection, and everything else you can think of to make it difficult for their systems to be compromised.
You will never have to worry about Paribus selling your data to a third party. They’re not in the business of selling your data.
Plus, since Paribus is owned by Capital One, it follows its policies when it comes to data.
The company does not have access to your bank account either.
If you are still wary of allowing Paribus to access your email account, you can always create a new one that’s used only for online shopping. That way you get the benefit of automated price comparisons without worrying about them having access to your personal messages.
How to Create a Paribus Account
To start having Paribus monitor your shopping accounts, you need to create an account on their website or download the app on iOS.
You must have a valid email address to connect Paribus to. It is capable of working with most of the popular email providers out there.
If your email provider does not work with Paribus, creating a Gmail account to shop online is recommended. Gmail’s Mail Fetcher feature can be used to review emails from another email account so Paribus can review older purchases.
Paribus Pros
It’s Free
There is no cost to using Paribus ever.
Saves you Time and Effort
Many of us don’t have the time and effort to put into price-checking research. Letting Paribus do it for you frees up your time to do other things that are probably more fun.
Can Speak to Retailer on Your Behalf
In certain circumstances, Paribus is able to communicate with the retailer when there’s an applicable refund claim. That means you don’t need to get involved at all in the process.
Save Money on Online Purchases
Obviously, the best thing about Paribus is that it can help you save when shopping online. You get assurance that the price you paid is the best deal out there.
Directly Pays You
Receiving payments from Paribus is simple and easy. Paribus will directly send you the money for most refunds through your bank account.
You provide that information during the rebate process. You are not charged a fee for this transaction.
Typically, the refund is sent as soon as the retailer issues the refund. There’s also no minimum amount to receive a rebate.
Paribus Cons
Needs Access to Your Email
This might be more of a con to some, more than others. But third party apps like Paribus will need to review any receipts found in your email.
Monitors only Select Merchants when Shopping Online
Paribus doesn’t work with every merchant out there. Especially if you purchase from smaller online shops, they probably won’t be able to find savings for you.
Here is a list of retailers that works with Paribus:
- Old Navy
- Macy’s
- Best Buy
- Bloomingdale’s
- Newegg
- Target
- Staples
- Athleta
- Walmart
- Kohls
- L.L. Bean
- Loft
- Anthropolgie
- Wayfair
- Office Depot
- Neiman Marcus
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Costco
- Home Depot
- Sears
- Bonobos
- Zappos
- J. Crew
- Gap
- Crate & Barrel
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Banana Republic
- Nordstrom
Paribus Competitors
Paribus isn’t the only personal finance tool out there that can save you money. Here are a few of the competitors that you might consider using too.
- Digit App – This app’s goal is to help you save more effectively. It finds excess money in your account and saves it automatically.
- Shopkick – Unlike Paribus, Shop is geared more towards people that like to shop in person. It’s almost like signing up to be a mystery shopper though. You are asked to go into a retail store and complete certain tasks. You are credited a “kick” for completing tasks that can be traded for gift cards.
- Rakuten – This free service finds you ways to get your money back at the time of sale, instead of after like Paribus. There are over 2,500 stores part of their platform so you’re bound to find savings.
Final Thoughts: Paribus Review
Customer Service
You shouldn’t run into any issues using Paribus as very few people have reported any complaints. But it’s always nice to know that help is readily available.
Paribus has an online help center that should suffice. It is full of useful information and tips. There are also FAQs which you’ll likely find the answer to your question that you can reference.
A customer service phone number is not available. If you need to get in touch with someone, you can send them an email.
Paribus claims that the majority of their messages are answered within two business days.
Security
Is Paribus safe? That is an important question considering they have access to your email account. By all accounts, the security protocols that Paribus has in place are secure and follow security standards.
Costs and Fees
Rounding out this Paribus review is its costs and fees. When you sign up for Paribus, you are getting a free service that will save you money. Can’t find anything negative about that right?
The company does have to make money though so the trade-off is that you’ll regularly see targeted ads. Paribus compensates itself through its ad partners.
Yes, the ads can be annoying sometimes. But the fact that you’re getting its services like easy price match refunds for free is worth it.
Ease of Use
Setting up your Paribus account takes minutes to do. One hiccup with its service is that it can only certain email providers work with it.
Paribus requires access to either an Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo mail account. So if you don’t have one of these providers, you will need to create a separate account.
If you don’t like the idea of using a different account for your online shopping, you can always just have your shopping-related emails forwarded to the new account.
Once you are signed up for Paribus, it works automatically so there’s very little you need to do.
Paribus Review: Bottomline
Paribus shines for users who make purchases with the many retailers that they support. It is free so there’s really no downside to using it to save a couple of bucks.
It is safe, secure, and easy to use. That makes it a great service to go ahead and sign up for.