Editors Note: This is a guest post by the Coupon Sherpa, a source of reliable online, printable and grocery coupons. You can download the free Coupon Sherpa iPhone app with in-store mobile coupons, or check out more great tips from the Ask Coupon Sherpa blog.
Online coupons are becoming part of daily life. With so many options to save money on merchandise sold via the internet, you should never pay full price. But if you’ve been under a rock, here’s a crash course on how to use online promo codes:
1. Head to your favorite store, like Macys.
2. Add stuff to your online cart.
3. Find the “promo” or “coupon” code box.
4. Open a new window.
5. Grab an awesome online coupon for Macy’s.
6. Go back to the first window and type in the coupon code (usually several numbers and letters).
7. Click “check out” and pay.
8. Done. Great stuff for less without wasting gas or your sanity.
If you’re moderately frugal, it’s a good day when you find an online promotion for something you need. But the seriously cheap among us feel that we could somehow save even more, that this online coupon code gig is just a piece of a larger price-slashing puzzle. The biggest hurdle online shoppers face in trying to get even greater discounts is the one coupon code per purchase qualification. With more than one coupon code, we can always place a separate order to redeem it, provided shipping is free. But this is a time-wasting hassle.
The best-kept secret in saving on purchases is to instead use online coupon codes in conjunction with discounted gift cards. That’s right. Buy gift cards online for less than face value, like buying a dollar for 75¢. Just who sells these below-list-price gift cards and how do we know they’re legitimate? Here’s how it works:
1. Shopper A gets a gift card to Motherhood Maternity from Aunt Jean. Unfortunately, she’s not pregnant. She’s just been eating too much Ben & Jerry’s.
2. Rather than let the card melt under her car seat, she sells it for less than face value through a gift card site (see below).
3. Shopper B has been eating too much ice cream as well, but she’s actually expecting. She purchases the Motherhood Maternity gift card for 10% off the listed value.
4. Shopper A gets cash for something she’d never (at least within the next nine months) use. Shopper B gets up to 30% off her purchase with a resold gift card without paying tax or shipping (in most cases).
That’s the basic structure of buying and selling gift cards for a discount. These are not cards manufactured illegally or bogus offers. Someone has a card that will never be used, so with the help of a middleman site it is sold to another shopper for less. Be careful to only buy gift cards with an amount that you plan on spending–a $600 gift card to Anthropologie for $420 sounds attractive, but not if you only plan on buying a tank top. Plus, you’ll probably not use the full amount of a big gift card anyway. Comdata estimates that nearly 40% of gift card holders don’t use the full amount, leaving nearly $5,000,000,000 in annual “spillage” (or spoilage), money leftover on all cards purchased. Your best bet is to purchase a gift card for an amount lower than needed.
Take this example:
1. Shopper B just had her baby but needs some bigger clothes for a few months. She heads to Macy’s.com with an online coupon that gives her free shipping off a purchase of $75 or more in women’s apparel.
2. She adds a pair of jeans ($59) and a top ($18.99) to her cart. Estimated shipping for Shopper B’s purchase is $14.95, but after typing in the Macy’s coupon code DENIM in the box above the original subtotal of $97.62 is reduced to $82.67.
3. Shopper B is super smart because she shopped for discounted gift cards through Gift Card Granny, a gift card resale site that compares prices across several sites. She buys a $50 Macy’s gift card for $45, which brings her total to $77.67.
4. Her total savings including the Macy’s free shipping coupon and the Macy’s gift card is $19.95, or 21% off.
The most vital lessons learned here are 1.) someone else’s trash is your treasure; 2.) retailers fully expect you to leave a balance on your gift card; and 3.) combining gift cards with online coupon codes will save you between 10-30% more off your purchase. If you’re into finding new ways to beat the system, welcome to the next level!
