A.  Briefly, "coupons" are ways to buy what you want but buy it a bit cheaper. An online retailer often offers special discounts in order to promote their site. How they publicize their discounts differs. Many offer printable coupons which can be redeemed at your local store. Others offer online discounts, redeem able when purchasing online. A current trend is to offer e-mail coupons obtainable when the consumer has signed up for the sites newsletter, become a "site member" or completed a survey questionnaire.

Typically, they will offer a discount off a minimum purchase. The most common values today are $5 off a purchase of $15 or more, $10 off of $35 or more, free shipping, or a "free item" with purchase. Many times they give points for spending which can be collected and redeemed later for products.
The most common types of coupons are "first-time buyer" introductory savings, special links to hidden pages on the retailer's website, or a special code to be entered in the "Gift Certificate" or "Coupon" space upon checkout.

Q.   Are they available to everyone?

A.  Usually the answer is yes! Some special savings are offered only to those who have become "members" of a particular site. The trick is to find the coupons for the products that you are most interested in purchasing. That is where I am here to help! My job is to constantly hunt down the best bargains and coupons offered online. When we find one, it will get posted to this site.

Q.  How long are they good for?

A.  Most coupons have an expiration date which will be posted, when known, along with the listing, here on this site. If the expiration is "unknown" go ahead and give it a try! Many time the value pages are left "live" by the retailers but they are not actively promoting it.

Q.  Why did my coupon come up 'expired'?

A.  Sometimes, coupons expire before their posted expiration date. Retailers allot so much in dollars per promotion. Often, they under-estimate and the special is far more successful than they expected. If, for example, a retailer offers a "free pen" with each purchase and they run out of pens earlier than planned, then they must make the decision to inactivate the offer. What we, the consumer, may view as fraudulent advertising, is more a case of poor planning regarding that particular promotion, by the retailer.

It is for that reason that if you see a super good coupon offer posted, we encourage you to use it quickly.

If you do come across a coupon posted here which is inactive, we would appreciate you dropping us an e-mail so that other consumers do not follow the same disappointing path.

Q.  How Do I Use Them?

A.  It depends on the type of coupon. The most common two are special links to hidden pages on the retailer's website, or a special code to be entered in the "Gift Certificate" or "Coupon" space upon checkout.

If the coupon is a special link, then that page will explain what you then need to do. Often times the discount will automatically be applied to your purchase at checkout.

If the coupon has a "code" you will need to supply this code generally at time of checkout. Look for a space called either "Gift Certificate" or "Coupon." Enter the appropriate information and a new screen showing your adjusted amount will appear. Prior to finalizing the transaction, verify that your savings have been adjusted to your total purchase price. If the code is rejected you may receive the opportunity to use another code, if applicable.

Q.  What are the restrictions?

A.  Generally, coupons are restricted to one coupon use per household. If there are five coupons for a particular retailer, you can use each one once. Often times there may be "first time purchasing" restrictions. Most do not allow for more than one coupon or savings per item or what is referred to sometimes as "piggy-backing" coupons which means if an item is already discounted at a special price, the coupon may not be eligible.

Coupon Codes + Rebates = Free
You can get some fantastic deals by combining online coupon codes and rebates. These sometimes result in freebies or cheapies worth $50, $100, or even more.

The world of online retailing is a very competitive place and there are always discounts and perks being offered to win customers. The brick and mortar stores rely on weekly sales to motivate buyers. The online merchants use discount codes in the same manner.

One problem is that these codes are not usually advertised on the online stores. The main purpose of the discounts is to get buyers to come to the sites, so normally they will not tell you about them if you are already there. You need a place to locate the codes before you go shopping. You need to check out the coupon code sites.

Although many of the discounts are for first time buyers, the online retailers have started to offer more deals for returning shoppers. Typically the codes can only be used once per customer. Some stores run multiple concurrent codes and allow each one to be used once.

You will find a wide range of discounts. Codes for $10 off $30, $30 off $150 and the like are quite common. While these are nice discounts, they certainly are not freebies. You will, however occasionally find a dollars off code with no minimum purchase.

Even better than the no minimum purchase are the real deals that can result from combining a coupon code with a big rebate. You can find these combinations yourself if you spend enough time searching. Often, the various coupon code sites will point out the best of these deals. You can also check my Freebies Forum for posts about these deals or share the ones you have found. I've seen deals like a CD-ROM drive for free and a color printer for $11. These deals don't happen every day, but when they do they are sweet.