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Using discount and coupon Web sites
By Aviya
Kushner • Bankrate.com
The more traditional click-to-save coupons at FatWallet
can be useful if you happen to want to buy something anyway, but
the site's forums can trap shopping addicts and chronic bargain
hunters. Shoppers all over the country post links to various online
manufacturers' coupons, and it's hard to resist checking out the
deals.
So is a bargain site better than what you can find
on your own? One deal at FatWallet offered 50 percent off any item
on Joann.com, the fabric and crafts store. At the checkout, you
plug in your code. If you go to Joann.com directly, you'll see the
same 50 percent offer. But what FatWallet does is alert you to the
existence of that offer -- pretty helpful stuff if you can't spend
10 hours a day searching the Web for bargains.
Convenience ... and hassle
FlamingoWorld.com, like CoolSavings.com, will e-mail coupons and
sale news to your inbox. The difference with FlamingoWorld is that
you can choose the stores you want to hear from. The vast list of
merchants includes giant retailer JCPenney. Clicking on the links
alerted me to a sale on a KitchenAid gadget set, and it led me to
another link to a free-shipping deal through the store's Web site.
Some of the links I tried, though, did not lead to current sales.
Another frustration of the bargain sites is how much
personal information they ask for. FlamingoWorld partners with SmartSource
to offer grocery coupons. To get a simple supermarket coupon, I
was asked to go through a "quick registration" that wanted
my name, my mailing address, my age, my gender and whether I have
a cat or a dog. It seems like a lot to divulge, and if you don't
fill in all the blanks, you won't get the coupons e-mailed to your
inbox.
MyCoupons.com offers a selection of 2,273 coupons
at last count. Unlike FlamingoWorld, it does not ask for age or
gender, but it does want a snail-mail address and a phone number
in addition to an e-mail address and a full name. Many of the grocery
coupons were for gourmet items, and the paltry discount still wouldn't
make those foods a bargain.
Personal information risk
Some sites ask for more information than others. The problem with
MyCoupons.com is the amount of work -- and risk -- involved in getting
a simple coupon. I tried to click on a $5 coupon book offer from
McDonald's, and realized that I'd have to try a "free offer"
to get one. A "free offer" is one of those buy 12 CDs
for a cent deals, or a tryout of AOL Broadband service.
Those offers are often not that easy to get out of,
and signing up for $40 a month of a service seemed a big risk for
five $1 fast food coupons. A professional shopper might be able
to sign up for all the freebies and get out just in time, but it's
risky for amateurs.
Links to enticing offers may be out-of-date or broken
down, and the bargain sites can't always help you if you complain.
Deals -- plain and simple
DealCatcher.com seems most reasonable on the privacy front, with
only an e-mail address required to get the newsletter. Unlike the
other sites, it has links to financial deals like a 2 percent savings
account through ING Direct. It provided current and legitimate links
to savings on ink cartridges and books. Like FatWallet.com, the
deals were available to all surfers on the companies' sites, but
what DealCatcher offered was an alert that these deals existed.
Another plus is the freebie option. CleverMoms.com
offers a daily site of freebies, which recently included a free
small popcorn at Loews Theaters, a free one-year subscription to
Ladies Home Journal, and a free mousepad.
After surfing a few sites, the bargains seemed
to repeat. But then I was surprised by Amazing-Bargains.com, which
offered fantastic deals on magazines. Thirteen issues of Money,
the financial magazine, were advertised at $3.99, and 15 issues
of Fast Company were also available for $3.99 -- compared to $14.75
elsewhere. Other magazine prices seemed pretty attractive, too,
and then I saw a banner for a reduced-price down comforter. That's
the lure and the danger of these sites -- there's always a new deal
that will get you to click.
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