Honey – A Quality Service To Save Money, or a Scam?

Honey is an extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera that allows you to automatically scan sites like Amazon and similar online shops to find the best deals available on a specific product. If you’re looking at a product and there’s a better price available from somewhere else, Honey will notify you. Likewise, if there’s a coupon code available, Honey will apply it.

However, as a browser extension, Honey requires certain permissions that may seem invasive. Extensions can access things like your browsing history, login information, and more.

How can you be sure that you aren’t being suckered into a scam? Is Honey actually good at saving you money, or is it another ploy trying to get you to put your data into their hands?

Let’s take a look at Honey to figure out whether you should download this popular extension or leave it far away from your browser bar.

Does Honey Actually Work?

For some people, Honey seems too good to be true. Does it really save you any money?

The way Honey works is pretty straightforward. Once added to your browser, the app adds an extension to the store pages of most major digital storefronts online.

When you install the app, you’re asked to sign in with either Google or Facebook or create a new Honey account with your own email and password.

The feed has deals and money-back ideas, and if you log in, this stuff can be personalized to your tastes. Though the feed might be helpful to some, others may find their time better spent by skipping the installation here and just making a new account.

Using Honey

For the sake of this review, let’s use Amazon as the place to test Honey.

When you load a product page on Amazon, you’re greeted with some new icons on the page below the name of the item. The box to the left details the price history for the product and the number of price changes that have occurred in recent history.

Hovering over this icon allows you to open a link to Honey, but to see the price drops, you’ll need to open a new window. You can view the price history for up to 120 days.

To the right of that price, the history option is a small ‘h’ with a plus sign. Clicking this allows you to add the product to your drop list. The drop list feature allows you to track the price of a product and be notified when the price drops.

The next place Honey shows up is in your cart. This is where Honey automatically finds and applies coupon codes to items in your cart.

Open the extension in your browser bar. Honey will automatically tell you whether or not you have a high chance of finding a coupon code for your products.

Even if it indicates that you have a low chance, you can still try to find a coupon code. The extension will automatically begin running through possible options for your coupon codes, immediately inputting them into the product to try to save you, the end consumer, some cash.

The tool is quick and easy to use. It only takes a couple of clicks to save money. After finishing, Honey will either choose the best coupon code or tell you that you’ve already got the best possible deal.

If you’re looking for the easiest way to save money when shopping online, you’ll find it difficult to find something better than Honey.

So, yes, Honey does actually work. However, if your main concern relates to your privacy while using the extension, read on to learn more about Honey’s privacy policy.

Things to Consider

You need to be careful and consider what you’re giving to Honey. As the saying goes, if you aren’t paying, you’re the product. There are definitely concerns to be had regarding your data and privacy when using Honey.

Honey Gold

So, let’s discuss how Honey makes its money to earn back its operating cost while also turning a profit. The company explicitly says on its site that data is never sold to third parties, and the company has an extensive privacy policy.

Still, it’s important to note that Honey does end up gathering information on you as you shop. It’s no more data than something like Google or other utilities on the web have, but for those who avoid products like Gmail, Honey is most definitely not for you.

Honey primarily makes its money by either featuring special deals with certain storefronts—they create a deal with the company and receive a certain share of the cash you spend with the coupon code in return—or through something called Honey Gold.

To many, Honey Gold may ring alarm bells as soon as they see it. Honey Gold is offered to you as soon as you create an account with the product, but there’s a good chance you didn’t look into it too much when you made your account.

It’s a rewards program. One that gives you a certain percentage back when you shop at partner websites. You do have to activate the extension, which makes it a bit more secure than your usual utility.

Basically, once you’ve earned 1000 points (spent a thousand dollars), you gain a $10 gift card for stores like Amazon or Walmart. It’s effectively a 1% credit on your purchases. Not bad, right?

Privacy Policy

Overall, Honey is pretty respectful of your privacy. Unlike other websites, Honey has done its best to be clear and upfront about privacy concerns.

Their privacy policy is pretty easy to read and understand, and in May of 2018, they published a manifesto on their site surrounding Honey and privacy. This made it clear that the data they collect goes towards building a community and crowdsourcing information as it pertains to deals and working coupon codes.

To their credit, Honey makes it clear what data they collect on their website, and uninstalling the application is easy and simple if you don’t agree with their own privacy policy. If you’re concerned about the data they collect, definitely read that piece in the link above.

In summary, Honey collects your device ID and IP address, your browser type, your operating system, how you engage with websites, and URLs. Of course, the extension gathers data for Google Analytics, but you can opt-out by visiting the website.

All things considered, Honey has indicated that it protects your data and does not sell it to third parties. Though, if you’re particularly concerned about your privacy, you may not want to add this extension to your browser.

Final Thoughts

So what’s the bottom line?

We’re giving Honey a recommendation as it is a great way to save money online. However, if you aren’t comfortable with their privacy policy, you shouldn’t use the app.

Know any other great ways to save money online? Share them in the comments!