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Capital One offers you a different loan APR depending on your Web browser
With Firefox 3.6 and 4.0 I experienced significantly lower rates than Chrome 8 and Internet Explorer 9 -- 3.1 percent versus 3.5 percent! That could be thousands of dollars over a three- or five-year car loan.
Whether this is truly bias towards one group of users, or just a case of Capital One doing some A/B testing, we'll probably never know. It's fun to imagine that one browser demographic could be considered more intelligent and/or financially sound, though...
[via Hacker News]
Comments
30
Subscribe to commentsjValdronNov 2nd 2010 1:05PM
Perhaps Mozilla's trying to buy out people in a new way?
kojo87Nov 2nd 2010 1:06PM
this is absurd! Chrome is the only browser i use. if i got stuck with a higher interest rate because of that i would bolt to the nearest Capital One and flip shit on the first employee i saw.
Drew GreenNov 2nd 2010 2:40PM
I'd love to be able to view that exchange of words.
ministeriumNov 3rd 2010 10:31AM
Then you're an idiot for yelling at an employee that has no control over the situation. Get over yourself and act like an adult and you'll get farther in life.
Estoy0noNov 2nd 2010 1:18PM
I'd rather get a loan from a credit union anyway. Interesting study for them, and in some ways it makes sense to me to classify IE and Chrome together - but I wouldn't bother with them. My credit union is offering everyone as low as 2.75 anyway...
cynthia.ramboNov 3rd 2010 9:21PM
Flock has the same rates as Opera - very low!
AvrsionNov 2nd 2010 1:20PM
Opera seems to be even cheaper at
New auto loan rates as low as
2.70% APR
Used auto loan rates as low as
4.09% APR
Refinance auto loan rates as low as
3.94% APR
Sebastian AnthonyNov 2nd 2010 1:21PM
Goddamn OPERA!
I always knew Opera users were more conscientious.
AvrsionNov 2nd 2010 1:22PM
I'm interested in how high the IE6 rates will be!
Jash SayaniNov 2nd 2010 1:25PM
Good to know! Next time I;ll use firefox when I need a loan. LOL
RMNNov 2nd 2010 1:26PM
I Got these even lower rates using Chrome 7
2.30% APR - New Auto Loans
3.59% APR - Used Car Loans
3.54% APR - Auto Loan Refinancing
AemonyNov 2nd 2010 1:30PM
This is weird... But the .4 increase between the browsers makes me think it's nothing more than testing going on, or something.
Opera 10.63:
New auto loan rates as low as
2.30% APR
Used auto loan rates as low as
3.59% APR
Refinance auto loan rates as low as
3.54% APR
Firefox 4 beta 6:
New auto loan rates as low as
2.70% APR
Used auto loan rates as low as
4.09% APR
Refinance auto loan rates as low as
3.94% APR
Chrome 7 (stable):
New auto loan rates as low as
3.10% APR
Used auto loan rates as low as
4.49% APR
Refinance auto loan rates as low as
4.34% APR
AemonyNov 2nd 2010 1:33PM
Internet Explorer 9 beta:
New auto loan rates as low as
3.50% APR
Used auto loan rates as low as
5.09% APR
Refinance auto loan rates as low as
4.84% APR
r3loadedNov 2nd 2010 1:34PM
I'm getting 2.7%, 4.09% and 3.94% in Chrome Dev build ;)
Lauren N.Nov 2nd 2010 1:42PM
I had the same rates as the Opera user while I was using the Firefox 4 beta. This is super intriguing. I really hope it's not all a coincidence, because it would be an interesting study.
toddNov 2nd 2010 1:57PM
"That could be thousands of dollars over a three- or five-year car loan.".. Not really. A $50,000 car loan over 5 years would cost $823 more with the largest difference shown on the screenshot posted (5.09% vs 4.49%). Still a sizable difference and totally bizarre that they'd show different rates based upon your web browser choice -- but "thousands of dollars" is an exaggeration of the facts, unless you're buying a $150,000 sports car (at which point spending another $2k is probably not that big of a deal)
Sebastian AnthonyNov 2nd 2010 1:57PM
I actually thought about that as I wrote this story.
And yeah, my defence is that I was thinking of a really expensive sports car.
We all drive Aston Martins in the UK don't forget!
Brian!Nov 2nd 2010 1:55PM
I bet the rates change depending on your credit score anyway. "as low as" is never what anyone gets anyway.
How about everyone apply with different browers and report their accepted rates, heh.
David GrantNov 2nd 2010 3:21PM
FireFox 3.6.12 under Mac OSX 10.6.4
new car 2.30%
used car 3.59%
refinance car 3.54%
Maybe the critical thing is not browser/OS but ZIP code. I'm in Iowa.
Jonathan SadowskiNov 4th 2010 3:26PM
It's actually just an A/B (or split) test... if you look at the cookies the page uses, one of them is the test buckets that you're in...
caponeaf_split=exp1%3DD_exp2%3DD_exp3%3DD_exp4%3DD_exp5%3DD_exp6%3DD_exp7%3DD