Payment aggregation (or shopping cart aggregator) is a payment method that allows you to pay for the goods of different merchants in one transaction. The main advantage here is that you can compare prices, analyze discounts and sales before making the final decision on the purchase.
There are three ways to do this: directly through the payment aggregator service, through a free or paid mobile application or through a merchant's online store.
Payment aggregation services also allow you to monitor your spending and improve your budget planning by analyzing transactions from different merchants in one place. In general, payment aggregators have no affiliation with any of the retailers they provide their services for. They do not store any data or save any credit card information.
The first service was launched in 2007 and there are over ten popular services at the current moment. In this article, we have gathered reviews for all of them to help you choose the best one out there!
How does it work?
In order to use a payment aggregator, you need to create an account and link your credit cards. Afterwards, you will be able to browse the partner stores and save them in a personal list of "favorites". Usually, there is also an option for setting up automatic alerts on great deals so that users can know when they are at their best price.
The main feature is the option to compare prices. Let's say, you are planning a trip to Disneyland with your family and have found five tickets online. All of them are sold by different retailers so you can go through the list of all of them on one aggregator service website or application. The aggregator will show you which retailer has the lowest price at any given moment.
There are also aggregators, which can search for the best price across multiple services in the same time period. One of them is the Best Price Guide. It will tell you what's better to buy right now: Amazon gift card or one from eBay? Or maybe Target gift card or Gap gift card? You can see it as a universal search engine for gift cards.
If you have ever been to a physical store and tried to find the same thing online, you know how frustrating it can be! Savings catcher from Target is a good example as it scans receipts from stores and compares prices with those on Google Shopping or Amazon so that users can receive cash back just by using their app.
Another way to save money with aggregators is to make use of coupons. Many services offer discounts through coupon codes which are sent out by the retailers themselves. The coupon can be claimed when checking out, used for future or current purchase or even given away as a gift (like this one). Some websites also send you coupons for your favorite stores by email to your inbox or mobile phone.
What are the benefits?
Payment aggregators give you the possibility to browse for deals, search for gift cards and make purchases without navigating across different online retailers' websites, which saves much time. That's exactly what HABITUDE does - saving users time by giving them all the best options in one place.
They come in handy for comparing prices across multiple stores. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy something on eBay than shopping directly on the retailer's website. Or maybe you can get a Target discount or Best Buy voucher with which you can save money at your local store?
It is important to note that some of the services have been accused of being a scam. The worst thing that can happen is to register with one and then find out that you were scammed! In other words, it may be necessary to do some research before you start using any particular aggregator website or application.
Another thing worth noting is the fact that most aggregators are free to use and the ones that have a paid service are usually charging less than one dollar. Yes, you read that correctly - less than one dollar. You can think of it as a small fee for keeping track of special deals for all your future purchases.
