CoolSavings and Online Coupons

[SamSpade]

At first I thought this would be cool, since my sole source of coupons is the Sunday paper - and they're the same everywhere. Unless you find a few in Reader's Digest, a circular in the mail, that's pretty much it. So I figured, there had to be another source, right?

Has anyone had any experiences in trying to save money, especially but not limited to, cutting coupons? I've heard both sides - one pretty much is, if you buy the store brand, even doubling the coupons you get is usually a wasted effort. Others who claim that they only clip stuff they buy anyway, so it saves money.

Recently, I read an article that claims that repeated use of places like CoolSavings, you'll run into rebuffs from supermarkets, who may REFUSE online coupons (because they're easy to duplicate fraudulently) and from the issuers who will either only distribute the SAME ones, or will forbid the printing of some, because they're one to a customer.

What has your experience been?

 

[Dymphna]

Cool Savings annoyed me with spam, newsletters and other crap. I have managed to erradicate them from my emails, finally.

I have used other online coupons, assuming I can remember to print them and actually take them to the store. More and more companies are distributing coupons that way and I've never had a problem using one.

In fact, I just printed one out earlier this week and I noticed a note to retailer saying that they could authenticate the coupon through www.veri-fi.com. :shrug: Manufacturers want to distribute coupons this way, the stores need to comply.

 

[vraiblonde]

Remember they had that program a few years back where you registered for an account and chose your grocery store from a list, then bid on your groceries like Priceline or something?

The problem was that after your bid was accepted, you paid for your groceries right then and there with a credit card online, then printed a list to take to the store and get your things. If the store was out of an item, you were out of luck. Theoretically, they would credit your account but that was never my experience.

Anyway, after that little fiasco, I don't use online coupons unless they come direct from the source, are a large dollar value and I don't have to work for them. I'm not going to waste my time, paper and ink to save 20 cents on a can of peas.

 

[jazz lady]

Cool Savings annoyed me with spam, newsletters and other crap. I have managed to erradicate them from my emails, finally.

They were one of the reasons I changed my email address. They must have sold my name to every spammer known to man.

 

[czygvtwkr]

www.hot-deals.org

Has a lot of things on it, granted most I ignore and even some get me to buy something that I normally wouldn't...