Capital One Business Deals Review — Discounts from Top Brands

I’ve worked for enough small businesses in my day to know that every successful small-business owner loves nothing more than getting a good deal. Those that don’t tend not to last long. Unless they use Capital One Business Deals, in which case they might prosper in spite of themselves. Capital One Business Deals is the best online discount portal for small business owners that I’ve encountered to date. It offers more than 100 useful discounts from name brands like Priceline, Dell, ADP, Choice Hotels, and many more. 

Capital One Business Deals is free for all users and doesn’t require a separate Capital One account, though you can create an account using your existing Capital One business credit card login if you have one. There’s little downside to creating an account and browsing its offers. See why you should, and how to get the most out of your membership.

What Is Capital One Business Deals?

Capital One Business Deals is an online platform that offers exclusive discounts and deals on essential small-business purchases. You’ll find dozens if not hundreds of deals in popular expense categories like office supplies, communications, sales and marketing, HR and benefits, and business travel. It’s free to sign up for Capital One Business Deals, and you don’t need a Capital One bank account or credit card account to join.

Capital One Business Deals’s team of small-business experts prenegotiates the offers that appear on the platform. To take advantage of an offer, simply click the link on the Capital One Business Deals offer page and you’ll be directed to the merchant’s site to complete the purchase.

How Capital One Business Deals Stacks Up

Capital One Business Deals competes with several other small-business deal and discount platforms. Most, including Novo Perks, require a financial account with the associated financial institution (in this case, Novo, a small-business fintech). 

Capital One Business Deals doesn’t, of course. But that’s just one point of distinction between the two. See how Capital One Business Deals and Novo compare.

What Sets Capital One Business Deals Apart?

Capital One Business Deals is much more than a bulletin board featuring generic business discounts. It’s a carefully curated collection of prenegotiated deals that you won’t find anywhere else. 

Capital One Business Deals stands out for other reasons too. If you’re wondering whether a Capital One Business Deals account is worth it, these three in particular stand out.

• Doesn’t Require Another Capital One Account. Most Capital One Business Deals competitors only offer deals to people who’ve already applied for a separate financial account, usually a bank account or credit card. This adds a time-consuming step and may includes a credit check, raising the risk of denial. By contrast, Capital One Business Deals is open to all small-business owners, even those without existing Capital One accounts.
• Totally Free to Join and Use. Capital One Business Deals is totally free to join and use. There’s no premium membership, no annual fee, and no other financial hoops to jump through. This is exceedingly rare among competitors, many of which charge unavoidable fees on associated bank and credit card accounts. 
• Impressive Breadth of Offers. Capital One Business Deals offers much more than “usual suspect” deals for office supplies, cell phone plans, and business software. You can snag deals on travel, computing equipment, childcare, even wine and spirits here. 

Key Features of Capital One Business Deals

Capital One Business Deals is built around an ever-changing collection of curated, prenegotiated deals for small-business owners. Understand these core features and you’ll understand how it works.

Capital One Business Deals Deals

Capital One Business Deals exists for one reason: to help small-business owners save on the essential products and services they use to run their businesses (and enrich their personal lives too).

Log into Capital One Business Deals and click the “deals” tab to see the entire spread of currently available deals. Specific deals come and go, so check back often.

When you see a deal you like, click on it to visit the deal page. Some deal pages have more than one opportunity to save — for example, a recent Verizon deal offered a choice between “12% discount on eligible business plans and up to 60% off smartphones” and “$150 off Device Payment Plan.” 

To take advantage of a deal, click “Get Deal” on the deal page. You’ll be redirected to the merchant’s website to complete the transaction. 

Offer Categories

Capital One Business Deals segments its offers into several different categories:

• Travel
• Finance & Legal
• Technology & Productivity
• Web Presence
• HR & Benefits
• Communications
• Office Needs
• Sales & Marketing

You can see all these categories on the Filter tab on the left side of the deals results page. To narrow your results, tick the checkboxes to see deals from those categories only. 

Capital One Business Deals doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of deals — about 145 at last check — but if you’re looking for only Communications or only Finance & Legal deals, the filter comes in handy.

Industry-Specific Offers

Click the “Categories” tab at the top of the screen to see another view of Capital One Business Deals deals, segmented by industry and use case rather than product category. 

If you run a construction company or retail business and want deals relevant to what you do, this tailored view is useful. The deals behind the panes are the same as you’ll find on the general Deals page, just curated for your specific needs.

City-Specific Offers

Capital One Business Deals has some city-specific or region-specific deals too. These aren’t super common, but they’re useful for particular types of services, such as parking. 

Below, you can see parking discounts at Way.com for business owners in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia. And the location matters — Capital One Business Deals members in Chicago and Philly save an extra $5 per month over members in L.A.

Advantages of Capital One Business Deals

Why bother creating an account with Capital One Business Deals? “It requires almost no effort,” is one obvious answer, but there’s a lot more to like here.

• Totally Free to Join. Capital One Business Deals is totally free to join and use. It took me less than a minute to create and confirm my account.
• Wide Variety of Opportunities to Save. Capital One Business Deals offers more than 100 high-quality savings opportunities, and some deals feature multiple ways to save. After creating my account, it took me less than five minutes to find a deal that could save me — conservatively — about $340 per month.
• No Need to Apply for a Capital One Credit Card or Bank Account. Capital One Business Deals bears the Capital One name and imprint, but it’s its own thing for all practical purposes. Membership is open to all, not just existing credit card holders or bank account customers.
• Offers Are Prenegotiated & Exclusive to Capital One Business Deals. Capital One Business Deals prenegotiates all offers, which means two things. One, you won’t find them anywhere else, though similar offers may lurk out there. And two, you don’t have to worry about the merchant reneging on the deal, as long as you meet all requirements spelled out in the offer’s fine print.
• Stack Cash Back on Top of Deal Savings. Capital One Business Deals offers generally can’t be combined with other offers from the same merchant, but you can earn cash back on eligible purchases with your go-to small-business credit card or money-saving browser plug-in (like Capital One Shopping).
• Easy to Browse and Find Offers. Capital One Business Deals has enough active deals that simply browsing through them all is tedious. Good thing it has helpful filtering and segmentation tools that make it easy to home in on the deals that actually matter to your business. 

Disadvantages of Capital One Business Deals

Capital One Business Deals isn’t perfect, though it’s pretty close. Consider these potential drawbacks before creating your account here.

• Need to Create an Account to See Specific Deals. This is a relatively minor drawback since creating a Capital One Business Deals account is fast and free, but it’s bothersome for nonmembers seeking particulars on deals before they join. The screenshot below shows what you see when you try to view deals when you’re logged out.
• Not Guaranteed to Be the Best Available Deal. Capital One Business Deals deals are exclusive, but they’re not guaranteed to be the best available deal from participating merchants. You might find a deeper discount elsewhere, so don’t be afraid to look.

Is Capital One Business Deals Legit?

Yes, Capital One Business Deals is legitimate. It’s backed by Capital One, one of the biggest financial institutions in the United States, and boasts hundreds of favorable reviews by verified users.

Capital One Business Deals also isn’t the first solution of its kind from Capital One. It’s cut from the same cloth as Capital One Shopping, a browser plug-in and app that helps shoppers find a better price on digital purchases. Business Deals is definitely its own thing, but it’s reassuring to use a small-business deals portal built by a company that knows a thing or two about saving money.

Alternatives to Consider

Capital One Business Deals is the most comprehensive small-business discount portal I’ve encountered, but it doesn’t quite have the space to itself. These alternatives could make sense if your business has very particular needs.

Final Word

I’m trying to keep an open mind as to why one wouldn’t want to sign up for Capital One Business Deals, but I can’t get there. 

Capital One Business Deals is free to join, doesn’t require a connected financial account, and has an impressive breadth of deals on business products and services. With very little effort, I’ve been able to find hundreds of dollars in savings for myself alone — and I’m just little old me, not a business that earns millions of dollars in revenue each year.

My advice: Sign up for Capital One Business Deals. It could be the highest-ROI decision you make this year.