Do Firefox Users Pay More For Car Loans?

RandyOo writes "Someone wrote in to The Consumerist to report an interesting discovery: while shopping online for a car loan, Capital One offered him different rates, depending on the browser he used! Firefox yielded the highest rate at 3.5%, Opera took second place with 3.1%, Safari was only 2.7%, and finally, Google's Chrome browser afforded him the best rate of all: 2.3%! A commenter on the article claims to have been previously employed by Capital One, and writes: If you model the risk and revenue of applicants, the type of browser shows up as a significant variable. Browsers do predict an account's performance to some degree, and it will affect the rates you will view. It isn't a marketing test. I was still a bit dubious, but at least one of her previous comments backs up her claims to have worked for a credit card company. Considering the outcry after it was discovered that Amazon was experimenting with variable pricing a few years back, it seems surprising that consumers would be punished (or rewarded), based solely on the browser they happen to be using at the time!"

Comments

Oh, come on

[elrous0]

First of all, if this were an indicator, it would seem logical that Internet Explorer users would trend lower incomes than anyone else. Anyone educated enough to even be using an alternate browser on a PC is probably educated enough to be making more money than your run-of-the-mill user. At least with Safari it kind of makes sense. Anyone using an Apple has enough extra money to waste it on hipster cred.

Of course these opinions are soley those of a Firefox user who likely makes considerably more than the average schlub who's surfing the internet for porn between his shifts at Denney's.

Re:I wonder

[commodore64_love]

I would expect the SAFARI browser to be highest, since there's a near-1 probability it's a Mac User and they are used to paying ~$1000 for a bottom line computer where a PC user (like me) only needs to pay $200 or so. Therefore the Mac user is like to not mind overpaying on the interest rate too.

Bah da dum.

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