The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is almost upon us, a day that has become its own faux-holiday as consumers drive to the malls at ridiculous hours and wait in long lines for discounts. But some of us prefer to stay in a warm bed and sip coffee, not mentally up to the torturous proposition of enduring the mall craziness. By doing so, we’ll lose out on all of those specials and great discounts, right?
Not necessarily – IF you shop online and take advantage of discount codes. Discount codes – also called promotional codes and wrapped into the online coupon model – are a clever, easy way to save a boat load of money on your internet purchases – with no driving to the mall or scouring the newspaper and clipping coupons.
Companies who transact purchases on their websites have you fill out the usual information – name, shipping address, billing information, etc., but there’s a little box on their web forms that we often just pass over: the little unassuming box prompting you to enter a Discount Code, or Promotion Code. If you have the right code, you’ll automatically receive a discount on that purchase, with no caveats or mail in rebates or any funny business.
However, if you’re like me, the only problem is you never have a discount code.
We’re going to change that today, because I’m going to show you how a few quick searches to the right places around the web before your next internet purchase can get you a free discount code to use.
The savings vary greatly – sometimes it’s just 5%, but other discounts can go up to 50% off, or other packages or promotions that will amaze you. Why do companies do this? Some of it is the same phenomenon as coupons – it’s free advertising, and a loss leader (they might not make money on the discounted shaving razor you buy but they’ll make plenty on the packs of razors and the bathrobe you also buy when you’re on their site.) Companies also offer discount codes to their employees, test buyers, to encourage Internet shopping (less overhead to pay,) and to attract certain target markets.
In the end, you have a lot of codes floating around out there, but these sites will help you find, organize, and use them for the best savings.
The following site descriptions from a 3rd party website that tracks them. Remember to never enter sensitive financial or personal information online without safeguards, and these sites are just a place to find discount codes and coupons to use elsewhere, not to transact any purchases themselves.
Covering more than 30,000 online stores and currently offering over 150,000 online coupon codes, RetailMeNot is one of the best sites on the Web for the online shopper. A strong community helps separates the good codes from the unreliable, so there’s no need to hassle through what works and what doesn’t. The ones retaining high success rates are your best bets.
CurrentCodes offers tons of online coupon codes and is updated frequently. Its huge database covers hundreds of popular online stores and you can find the codes you’re looking for easily by browsing by merchant, alphabetically, or by category. The website lists everything out plainly, providing the code, a short description of the offer, and the expiration date.
According to the website, it searches consumer emails, forums, blogs, merchant sites, and newspapers for any coupon codes from online retailers. Covering just about every store out there, CouponCabin has got a lot of publicity over the years and remains one of the best sites on the Web for getting a deal when shopping online. Be sure to try out searching for coupons locally by zip code and signing up for their weekly newsletter.
Find free online coupon codes at GoToDaily not only for your favorite stores, but also for books and magazines, hotels, electronics, and a lot more.
A vast supply of rebates and coupon codes to over 1,000 stores are at your fingertips on Ebates. Sort through all of them by store, category, or what kind of deal is being offered, like codes for free shipping, money off, and free gifts. The cash back shopping website makes it simple.
Incorporating some 15,000 stores and over 100,000 coupon codes, WebbyPlanet is another great place to start saving. The website’s online discount shopping directory allows users to search and shop for items at discounted prices.
Buxr is a social bargain hunting community. The website’s members share hot shopping deals, including those elusive coupon codes, and they’re all voted on by the community based on hotness. New deals are found and posted everyday, making Buxr a unique but effective site to locate a good discount and save money.
Search for the best deals and coupon codes at Savings.com. The website’s members vote for the best ones, covering brand name and recognizable merchants to lesser-known online stores. Savings.com’s lengthy and well-written About Coupons page also provides readers with pretty much everything you need to know about coupons.
With coupon codes to most leading U.S. online stores, it’s just click and save with CouponSmarter. The website claims to be the world’s largest coupon source, searching merchant sites for discount offers that can save you up to 30% or more on your online purchases.
We find and list ALL of the coupon codes and promotional codes that can be found. Be naughty with us by using these codes for added discounts when shopping online. We choose to focus our attention on codes only, because our mission is to have absolutely the best database on the Internet.
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