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Honey Gold is a handy browser extension that provides attractive cash back offers ranging from 0.1% to sometimes 20%. In this Honey review, we cover all you need to know about Honey (PayPal Rewards), including how to use it, how Honey makes money and more.
If you sign up using our link below, you will earn a $5 sign-up bonus (worth 500 points).
on Honey’s website
Our Rating
4.5
Sign-up Bonus
$5
500 Honey points
Pros
Cons
How Honey Saves You Money?
Honey Gold was founded in 2012 and is being used by over 17 million people worldwide. Paypal acquired Honey Gold in 2020 for $4 billion and it became part of PayPal Rewards. Honey saves you money by offering cash back deals at various online shopping websites, such as Target, Walmart, Home Depot and many others.
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Overall, there are several ways that Honey Gold saves you money.
1. Honey Gold (PayPal Rewards) Sitewide Cash Back
When you make a purchase at a particular website, you earn a fixed storewide cash back. This storewide cash back range anywhere from 0.1% to 10% (sometimes even 20%).
For example, we often shop online for our grocery at Vitacost.com owned by Kroger.
You can see that Honey offers 4% cash back for purchases here. Based on our shopping experience, this cash back % can change over time. During holidays, it can go up to 8% for Vitacost.
2. Special Cash Back Offers
The second method Honey Gold saves you money is by providing special offers. For example, when I select this whey product at Vitacost, Honey will offer me additional cash back in a dollar amount.
This special cash back offer is 5% in this case. But, it could be as high as 10%-20%. And, that is on top of the 4% sitewide cash back. You can see the entire list of products with additional cash back on the Honey Gold website for a specific merchant.
3. Coupon Codes
The other method Honey Gold helps you save money is by scouting the internet for all possible coupons. Further, they will try all found coupons at checkout for you automatically. Not all coupons are successful though, which is typical. But, in certain instances we still were able to save thanks to Honey.
4. Price Drop Lists
Another way Honey Gold helps you generate savings is through price droplists. Once you find a product you like, you can add it to a so-called drop list. There, you can specify a max price you are willing to pay. Once the product price drops below your threshold, you will get a notification from Honey by email. We used this feature on several occasions and it is very handy.
5. Price Comparisons
Finally, Honey Gold can compare prices across several websites and let you know if the price is in your favor. For instance, here Honey compares prices across three online shops for this whey product.
Likewise, I can see the price history for the past three months and decide whether the current price is attractive.
Disadvantages of Honey Gold (PayPal Rewards)
1. Merchant Availability
As you can see, the Honey Gold cash back, coupons and special deals can add up to big savings. The catch is that Honey may not available at places you use to shop. For instance, Amazon is not part of Honey PayPal Rewards.
Also, the sitewide cash back varies and could be very low. For instance, it can be a measly 0.1% on Walmart. The benefit is that it does not take any effort to get even this 0.1%.
2. International Availability of Honey PayPal Rewards
Another frequent question, especially among international users, is which countries Honey Gold available in? According to Honey, it is available in the United States, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom. It may be available in other countries. But, the offerings there are likely very meager if they exist at all. You need to try and see what’s available.
3. Redemption Options
Another drawback of Honey is that its redemption options may be limited depending on the country. For example, in the US you can redeem your rewards for cash, gift cards or PayPal shopping credits. In other countries, you may be limited only to gift cards for a group of certain online stores.
How to Use Honey Gold (PayPal Rewards)?
1. Desktop Extension Browser
First, install the Honey browser extension, which is available for major internet browsers. Honey will also prompt you to create an account. Next, if you have an adblocker, you need to either disable it or make an exception for Honey to work.
After that, it is very easy to get rewards. Once you browse a shopping website, the Honey extension will let you know if any deals are available. For instance, Honey tells me that I can activate a sitewide cash back from 1% to 2% on Adorama.
Frequently, Honey also lists additional Honey cash back bonuses, if available.
2. Honey Gold Mobile App
The second option is to use Honey app on your mobile device. Honey Gold is available on Android and the Apple iOS iPhone devices. To take advantage of Honey cash back offers, you need to shop via Honey’s in-app browser though.
We discovered that the Honey app is a little limited in terms of functionality compared to the desktop version. For instance, you do not have the option to add an item to the Honey droplist directly from the merchant’s website. You will have to do so from the Honey app’s dedicated page for the merchant. Not exactly convenient.
How to Redeem Honey PayPal Rewards?
Once you rack Honey Gold points, you can redeem them for gift cards in all countries where PayPal Rewards are available. 100 points are worth $1. Additionally, US customers can convert their points to PayPal shopping credit or cash. To get cash deposit, you need to have a PayPal account though.
How Honey Makes Money?
The other question that pops to mind is how does Honey make money? The answer is simple: through affiliate marketing.
Every time you make a purchase, Honey Gold gets a small cut at no extra cost to you in exchange for referring you to the merchant. If we look at the adblocker exception file for Honey, we see a very long list of affiliate networks that Honey participates in.
Naturally, getting cash back deals and discounts from Honey comes at the expense of giving up some of your privacy. It is a personal decision for each of us to make. We personally do not mind letting Honey track our activity on the web in exchange for discounts and cash back.
Final Takeaways
So what is the verdict for Honey Gold? Will it work for everybody? If you are in the US or Canada, Honey Gold could be a great tool to save money with little effort. The catch is that Honey is available only at select online shopping websites. If Honey Gold is not available at a particular website, you can use their coupons or track price changes.