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Simply Thrifty

Searching for Coupon Codes?

by Noel on November 27th, 2006

couponsFirst things first: What is a coupon code? A coupon code works on the internet in the same way a coupon works at a supermarket. Online stores like Amazon and Barnes and Noble offer coupon codes that give you a percent or dollar discount off your order.

The obvious advantage of coupon codes is that they allow you to save some money on your online purchases. A not-so-obvious disadvantage of coupon codes is that they aren’t well-publicized. People who don’t know about coupon codes can make purchase after purchase from an online store without ever taking advantage of any discounts because they don’t know these discounts exist.

It is possible to learn about coupon codes by searching internet sites, but many of the sites are personal homepages and are not always be up-to-date. Some sites specializing in coupon codes, such as CurrentCodes.com, have full-time staff trained to find coupon codes for online stores all over the internet and confirm whether these coupon codes are currently available for use.

A new site, RetailMeNot.com, lists coupon codes for all kinds of online stores. It works on the same principle as Wikipedia: it’s fueled by user submissions. Like Wikipedia, it is vulnerable to people submitting coupon codes that don’t exist. But also like Wikipedia, users themselves help maintain RetailMeNot.com. Because users visit the site not only to look for coupon codes but also to submit coupon codes they know about, bad codes are spotted very quickly. Once a user draws attention to a bad code, it’s removed from the site in 8 hours or less.

In the same way that Amazon users review books and other products on the site, RetailMeNot.com users can review the coupon codes they find on the site by voting whether or not a certain coupon code worked for them. The overall success rate of each coupon code is displayed, allowing users to see which coupon codes are most effective.

Coupon code sites improve with use, so start searching for discounts and save money on your online orders now.

via Consumerist and CurrentCodes
(image from freewebs.com)

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POSTED IN: Finances, Free Stuff, General, Web Resources

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