Thursday, August 13, 2009

Finding Coupon Deals

Using coupons has always been a great way to save money on the things that you buy regularly, and avid coupon fans will be happy to attest to that. Many people believe, however, that taking the time to find the right coupons is too difficult to make it worth their trouble. This really doesn’t have to be the case, however, and the money you save using coupons is well worth finding out how to find the best coupon deals in the easiest way possible.
Online coupons have given a whole new meaning to saving money, and many people are beginning to realize just how easy it is to find them and use them. One way to find online coupons is to simply use an Internet search engine and search for online coupons for the merchandise that you are considering buying. Another way is to use some or all of the many online coupon web sites that are available. Online coupon web sites focus almost exclusively on giving consumers information on what online coupons are available at any given time, and how and where consumers can use them to save money. One of the best ways that online coupon web sites help consumers is by listing “coupon codes” for various online stores. Coupon codes are coupons that are basically all electronic – you simply enter these codes into a special box when you are purchasing something from on online store and the savings are deducted from the price before you finalize your purchase. Online coupon web sites will list the codes that are still valid, and let you know where they can be used. These web sites will almost always update their findings daily, so you can always be aware of what savings are offered at what stores every day. Though you may be able to get these coupon codes through the actual store’s web site or through advertisements, it can save you a lot of time to be able to view all the codes at once on one web site.
Finding coupon deals is no problem once you put just a little bit of initial time and research into it. One of the first things that you want to do is go to your favorite search engine and enter such terms as “online coupons”, “coupon codes”, or perhaps “Internet coupons”. The search engine will most likely bring up a large list of web sites that offer online coupons and online coupon codes. Check through a number of the sites and decide which ones have what you are looking for. Once you’ve narrowed it down to your favorite online coupon web sites, the next step is to put these on your browser’s “favorites” list. If any of the online coupon web sites require registration, then do that also. Although there may be online coupon web sites that charge a fee to use them, there are plenty of good online coupon web sites that don’t – and the latter are the ones that you want to use. Each day (or every other day if you like), take a little time to log on to the Internet and check your list of online coupon web sites. Look for the latest online coupons codes for the online stores that you frequent regularly, and also look for the latest printable coupons that you can use at the local stores that you go to.
For the online coupon codes, you can either write down the codes, how long they are good for and which stores you are going to use them at, or you could possibly keep a list in your own database or spreadsheet. It all depends on how Internet savvy you are or want to be! When it is time to do your online shopping, check your coupon codes, find the ones that you are going to use, and start saving money!
Once you get into the habit of you using online coupons and online coupon codes, especially through online coupon web sites, you’ll see the savings that you are realizing almost immediately. In this day and age when the price of just about everything is at an all-time high, using online coupons and online coupon codes makes a great deal of sense. They can help you maintain the lifestyle you are accustomed to without having to stretch your already strained budget even further. Using online coupons to help save money on your regular purchases is a win-win situation all around.
With online coupons and online coupon codes, you can save money on basically any type of purchase. Groceries, appliances, pet products, automobile accessories, hotels, travel fares, restaurant meals – savings can be realized with all of these by using online coupons or online coupon codes. For most of the things that you purchase, there is simply no reason not to use online coupons.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Internet Coupon Shopping

What is it?
Internet coupon shopping is just what it sounds like: you can find them on the internet, and use them at a particular store’s website. Even companies that are mostly offline- driven, now expect a certain portion of their sales to come from online – so they give offers and incentives to drive people to their websites. It also doesn’t hurt that once a company’s internet business credibility is establish, it’s oh-so-easy to just keep clicking and adding to that little electronic shopping cart.
How do I do it?
You can find these coupons in all manner of places. In the newspaper, you might see an advertisement for a company, and at the bottom you might find a promo code – which you can then take to the company’s website, and enter it in for a nice little discount.
Possibly the most frequently used offline-medium to driver shoppers online, will be found on the radio. The company runs an ad on the radio, and you hear it…but how great would it be if you could SEE it. They want you to SEE their company. So you’ll almost always hear the website name, and around 30% of the time, you’ll hear those magic words again: “Enter Promo Code XXXX, for a limited time offer.”
Just in case you missed it: The promo code IS the Internet Coupon.
Can you use them over and over?
In some cases, the promo code is used not to give a discount, but to showcase certain products – as in a promotion. In that case, you’ll probably be able to use it more than once. It would be like shopping in a store that sells buttons at 10% off. You buy 10 leave, and then walk back in: the buttons are still 10% off. That’s a promotion.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Six Gift Shopping Tips to Keep Your Personal Information Safe

Tips for Gift Shopping Online

1. It's always safer to use your home computer. Just be a little wary of computers in public areas. There could be spyware on them that gives other users access to your financial information.

2. Type in the retailer's online web address rather than clicking through a link in an e-mail from the retailer. This will prevent you from being reeled in by a "phisher". A "phisher" uses a fake Web address and e-mail that pretends to be a real site. What may happen is, if you click "reply" on one of these phony e-mail messages, you are sent to the phony site where crooks can steal your passwords and financial information.

3. Always look for the padlock or a color bar at the bottom of an online retailer's Web site. This way you know that the information you enter is encrypted so no one can copy it.

4. Use more complex passwords and save them in a password manager. Using this software makes it easy to store multiple passwords. With it you only have to remember only one master password. How does a password manager work? You download it and it sits safe and secure on your browser along with the web address of your login pages. The first time you sign into an account of any kind the password manager asks if you want to save your username and password. You then give the username/password combination a name so you can locate it in the password manager.

5. You can use a single use credit card number. This is an excellent idea. Citibank, Bank of America, and Discover offer these numbers to cardholders. It's called the ShopSafe program. How it works is that you receive a number that is linked to your account but is not your actual credit card number. It keeps your true account number off the Web and out of merchant databases by generating a random, substitute number in its place.

6. Top search engine results are much more secure sites than those further down the list. If you're doing searches on the internet it's better to select sites higher up the list as possible on the first page of results.

Gift shopping is definitely a pleasure and convenience. If you follow these few tips, you'll have extra peace of mind knowing that your personal information is safe and secure.

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