Online Coupon Codes: How to Use Them

Online Coupon Codes: How to Use Them?

Do you have a bunch of coupons sitting in your drawer, but you don’t know what to do with them? 

The holiday season is something everybody looks forward to. Partly for the holidays and partly for the huge end of season sales. 

If you’ve been good all year long, now is the time to go out and get some shopping done! Not only are the shop windows full of sales and offers, but you can get discounts on products with coupons as well. 

Coupons can be used both in walk-in stores and online stores. If you prefer to shop in your pj’s, you can shop your favorite products online and still get coupon savings 

We’re going to tell you exactly how you can use these coupons to receive the maximum benefit from your shopping experience. Are you ready?

Terms You Should Know

Coupons can be paper, digital, they can be scanned or used as codes. Coupons don’t fit in one box anymore they are everywhere and comes in many different forms.

Rewards

Rewards have many different names. They’re discounts you can receive on future purchases. 

Stacking

Stacking is where you “stack” more than one type of discount to get the best deal possible. that can mean a rebate offer stacked with an online code. Sometimes stores even allow you to stack their store codes, say a 20% code plus a free shipping code. When you find an offer where you can stack you know you have found a deal.

Coupon Code

All businesses want to attract customers by generating coupon codes. Because it’s a tried and true method to bring in more sales. 

Coupon codes are a string of characters a shop generates so that you can purchase something you like at a discount. They can be issued by retailers through newsletters, their own websites, or social media. 

Promo Code

A promo code is a code that when used at checkout can give you discounts. The codes are sometimes clues to what type of discounts you’re getting. For example, FREESHIP100 may mean that you can get free shipping with a minimum purchase of $100. 

The Different Types of Coupon Codes

You can receive discounts on products using different types of coupon codes, such as:

Bonus Items

When retailers issue ‘bonus item’ coupon codes, it generally means that you receive a free gift with your purchase. It may be represented as FREEHAT20, which could mean that with every $20 purchase, you receive a free hat. 

Shipping

Free shipping is a great way to encourage customers to buy in bulk. When a customer purchases products of certain amount, they won’t have to pay for shipping. For example, receiving free shipping on a purchase of $200 or more. 

$X or X% Off

Sometimes retailers give discounts by deducting a certain amount of money, such as $20 off or 20% off. Make sure to take advantage of these offers!

How Can You Find Online Coupons?

Usually, retailers will list all available and valid coupon codes on their websites. If not, there are other places you can find good coupons. 

One popular choice of customers is dealnews.com. You can just search the store that you want to shop and the website will show all the coupon codes available. Click this link as well for some amazing offers https://overstock.getyourcouponcodes.com

Google can also help you find coupon codes. All you have to do is type ‘coupon codes’ and the name of the store or the product that you are looking for. 

To optimize the search, type in the model number or the brand of the product that you want. Browse brand websites to find out all the promotions they’re offering so that you don’t miss out!

What’s more, stores also issue coupon codes on their social media pages. So, make sure to check all of their social media pages for coupon codes. 

How to Use Online Coupon Codes

You can use coupon codes on a retailer’s website or through websites that offer promotions for various retailers. When you add a purchase to your cart before checking out, you’ll usually see a box that says ‘coupon code’ or ‘promo code’. 

All you have to do is type the coupon code or promo code in the box to receive a discount on the product. Just make sure that you don’t accidentally place an order before applying the coupon code. 

How to Tell a Real Vs. Fake Coupon

Fake coupons are dangerous. Not only will you not get the discount you were hoping for, but the coupons can also steal your personal information and infect your computer with malicious viruses. 

What they do is lead you to a scam website, where they steal your private data, spread malicious viruses and also hold your computer for ransom. Some of them may even ask for your credit card information to obtain the deal.

Here are a few ways you can ensure you’re not being scammed and the coupon you have is authentic:

Legitimate Sources

Some scam coupon codes on Facebook may look real, but are they? For a coupon to be real, it has to come from the original website, Facebook page and email account. 

Unless a coupon code website is reliable and trustworthy, you should stick with getting your coupon codes from the original website and social pages of the brand. Most importantly, don’t let the too good to be true discount fool you. 

Fake Branding

Scammers are known to make fake branding logos. Low resolution and grainy logos give this away. Even the fonts may be too shady and not match the real logo. 

Big companies maintain quality control in their marketing campaigns, but scammers don’t have that qualification. So, the cheats may use awkward language and typos in their fake coupon codes. 

Unrealistic Deals

The discount on a real coupon code will make more sense than a fake one. For example, a sale on a 2 liter drink makes more sense than a 20-ounce bottle. 

50% to 100% off on anything sounds too shady. If it sounds too good to be true – dig a little to make sure it’s legit before you dive in.

Don’t Give Away Your Information

If a coupon code leads you to a website that asks for your credit card details, leave it immediately. The coupon is very likely fake in this case. No company needs your credit card info to give you a coupon code.

In the same way, when a website asks you to download anything to get the benefit of a promo code, don’t do it. A legitimate website will never ask you to download anything. 

Take Away

Wise budget planners only buy products when they’re on sale. They collect coupons from everywhere so that they can use them when they need to. 

However, it’s also important to be aware of potential coupon scammers. In order to keep your financial and personal information safe, you should only rely on coupon codes issued by the original brands and retailers. 

Coupon codes are not only beneficial to businesses, but also for customers. It’s a great way for stores to attract customers and for customers to get great deals.