What Is Paribus – Scam App, Or Legit Opportunity To Save Money?
Paribus is a company that can do the leg work for you when it comes to earning money back from your past transactions.
Sometimes, if a product goes up in price within a certain amount of time, you could be eligible for a refund on the difference.
Paribus tracks data such as your electronic receipts and certain store policies and identifies potential savings.
They then aim to make it easy for you to claim your money back.
For anyone who just doesn’t have the time, (or inclination) to do this sort of stuff, Paribus could be a good potential option – seeing as you really don’t have to do any work for it and could make a saving.
However, there are some complaints about this company and some privacy related aspects to using this service that some people will be uncomfortable with.
Take Note: This opportunity is currently only available in the US and Puerto Rico.
Company: Paribus, founded in 2014.
Cost: Free to join.
Money Making Opportunity: Savings/cashback
Overall Rating: Legit. There are a couple of reasons why Paribus may not be for you – (which I will discuss during this review). However, this App is free to download and could save you some reasonable money, if you shop regularly with the online stores they are connected with.
How Paribus Works
Paribus is an app currently available on IOS and you can download via the App store. You can use it on your PC/laptop as well.
It’s not currently downloadable in Google play right now, but they are looking to bring it back again soon to android phones.
Paribus has the ability to track your receipts online and figure out over time; whether there is a price drop on the items you’ve purchased and whether you’re eligible for money back.
So many stores will have conditions in their T&C’s about things like sales or price drops…
They state that if you make a purchase within a certain time scale and the price of that item drops; then you will be entitled to a refund of the difference.
It may be that you have 14 days from your order to claim back any difference in price, if there is a change within this time. It could be 30 days, or three months. This will all depend on the store.
So, say you shopped at Bloomingdale’s online and the item you bought was $200… then, a few days later, the price drops to $150. Well, in this case you’d be eligible for a $50 refund.
In most cases, you’re probably going to be looking at a smaller refund per item, but you get the idea!
There will be some time frame within which you have to claim and this will vary from company to company, so you can imagine how difficult it would be to keep track of with multiple purchases!
Many people simply don’t take advantage of this fact; (many people don’t even know about it at all).
Of those that do know about it and try and keep on top of it, how many just forget about it?!
Another perk of using this App is… If a company they work with has a delivery policy; (such as you get a delivery charge refund if your order is late) Paribus also tracks this and will contact the company for a refund on your behalf if your delivery is overdue.
Paribus just does a lot of the work that most of us probably either forget to do, find too much effort to keep track of, or don’t even know about half the time.
It’s also completely free. Paribus used to charge a commission for the refunds they made and now they don’t – so, it’s a bigger reason to give it a go.
Paribus & Your Email
However, using Paribus does have a downside.
That is, you need to allow the App access into your email account in order to track your purchases and receipts.
It’s not just any minor access into your account either; but the ability to delete/send and read.
While this isn’t anything you need to worry about, (the app isn’t tracking your personal email, or deleting emails from your girlfriend or anything…) some people may just feel this is one step to far and an invasion of privacy.
Once Paribus is granted full access, the app will automatically track your purchases and receipts and inform you if you’re entitled to a refund.
So, while this could be a perfectly good opportunity to save money for many people – if you’re concerned about your privacy online and against allowing Apps have this sort of access to your accounts and email; then you may want to skip this one!
It’s worth noting that Paribus do use a high quality line encryption – the only information they retrieve from your email inbox is purely related to your transactions online and your details aren’t suddenly going to be sold off to third parties – you may want to check out their privacy policy here.
What Stores Does Paribus Work With?
Also, there would be no point signing up unless you actually shop at the stores Paribus works with! You can check out a list of those stores here.
They do include stores you know well – such as Amazon, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, GAP and Home Depot.
How Does Paribus Pay?
You don’t have to reach any pay-out threshold before you can get your refund – as soon as you’re eligible for a refund, you can just get that sent directly to your bank account.
What Do Other People Say About Paribus?
After I checked out a variety of comments on the web – Paribus has plenty of good feedback.
A majority of the time, the feedback is good. But there are some people who seem to struggle to really benefit from this App and haven’t received any refunds – despite claiming to have made a lot of purchases.
How much success you do have though, will require on a number of factors – including what type of purchases you make and how often you shop online.
By contrast, some people have had an amazing result from using the app, getting refunds running into hundreds of dollars.
For an App that requires very little effort on your part, it could potentially be worth your time if you do make a lot of purchases online.
It’s worth checking the full T&C’s at Paribus for each store as well, as some conditions could be subject to change.
At the time of writing, Paribus has 4 stars on the APP store.
Paribus Pros Vs Cons
PROS
- They do all the work here, you barely do anything and potentially you can benefit here.
- If you shop a lot at the stores they work with, you could potentially make some big savings.
- There is now minimum withdrawal limit, they simply send the refund to your bank account directly.
- Paribus is free and simple to set up.
CONS
- They need access to your email account – including the ability to read, send and delete messages. This will be something that stops some people from using the service, (but it wouldn’t be a hassle free service if they weren’t able to access this information independently).
- Only available in the US & Puerto Rico at the time of writing.
- Some people won’t get enough refunds that they think it’s worth staying with… if you’re interested, the best thing you can do is just try it and see… you can just delete the app if it doesn’t work out for you.
- Paribus isn’t fault-free – some people claim they haven’t always had a refund flagged up, even when prices did drop in the allotted time.
Conclusion: Is Paribus A Scam? Or Legit Service?
Paribus is a legit company, that does provide a useful service – for those who shop regularly at the stores they are connected with.
It’s not going to be for everyone – but if you like the idea of getting cashback on your purchases when the price drops and not having to be the one searching, it could be worth you checking it out.
After all, it’s free…. Worth a try?
I do remember that sinking feeling I’ve had before…. When I’ve walked into a store having recently paid full price for an item and seeing it there at 50% off…. Ouch.
Worse still, this whole time, there may have been some policy where I could have got a refund for the difference and I didn’t even know.
I will definitely be checking the T&C’s next time I make a purchase!
Do you have any experience using Paribus? I’d love to know! Let me know in the comments.
Are you interested in MORE than just saving online?
If you want to make more than a bit of a saving here and there, there are lots of different ways you can make money online.
Whether it’s an extra $50 a month… to a part time, or full time income. There are options out there on the net; (with different levels of time and effort investment of course!).
Check out some of the posts below that could help.
- 40+ ways to make your first dollar online.
- How to make $100 a day online.
- How to make money from a simple blog.
All the best,
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