If you love saving money, then I’m sure you’ve been down this road before. Just picture it, you are at your favorite online merchant, shopping for a new piece of clothing for that hot spring wardrobe. You add a new blouse to your cart, and there it is, “enter your coupon code here”. You say to yourself “a discount opportunity!”. But you don’t have a coupon code. So what do you do? You go to Google and you enter the “merchant’s name’ + “coupon” and Google gives you a whole bunch of sites claiming to have a coupon code from that merchant, for your new blouse. You click on the first search result, and you see plenty of merchant offers, but alas, no coupons! Then you go back to the next site down in the search results, and YES, there is a coupon code for 15% off. Great! You’ve found one! You copy the coupon code “BIGSAVINGS30”, and paste it into the little rectangle to get your discount, but much to your dismay the following message is flashed in red, “coupon is expired” or “coupon invalid” or “coupon not recognized”. We’ve all be been down this road of online coupon disappointment. Well, I’ve got some helpful tips for you to avoid this path, and hopefully, save big on your next purchase!
My tips for getting working coupons:
1. Always, and I mean ALWAYS subscribe to the merchant newsletters. Folks, this is the easiest way to get a working coupon. Also, most merchants send out exclusive coupons that are not available on coupon sites.
2. Go to a coupon site that has comments for each coupon and expiration dates. I often read the comments for each coupon to see if the coupon worked. This is a great time saver.
3. Check the restrictions listed for the online coupon. Most good coupon sites will list important restrictions for the coupon they are promoting. This is very important because the product you’re trying to purchase may be restricted to several product categories.
4. Sometimes there are NO coupons available, and the coupon is embedded in a link. I’ve noticed that a lot of merchants are moving away from coupon codes, and moving more towards a clickable link that you can click and get a discount applied. So take off your blinders, and read each offer to see if it “click to activate” coupon. Please note that you may have to add and remove that product from your cart, to see the discount.
5. Search for a coupon code BEFORE you start shopping. Go to your favorite coupon site, and browse for coupons. For example, I’ve frequently seen 30 to 40 percent off the Banana Republic coupons published, which can be applied to a wide variety of products. Also, you’ll know the coupon restrictions before you start shopping, so you can avoid a lot of frustration.
I hope these tips can help relieve some of the frustration of using coupon codes. Finally, please keep in mind that it’s just shopping, and it should be a fun and pleasant experience!
Leave a Reply