SlyCat's Bargain-hunting Advice
Feb. 23rd, 2008 01:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slycatI may well have mentioned this in part before but mostly for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bungle_bear's benefit who asked me how I do this and anyone else who likes saving money, I decided to make this post. Firstly, I know I have some international people on my friends list so I should point out this only applies for people in the UK.
Basically there are two sites which I will use almost religiously whenever I look to buy anything online. The first of which is www.hotukdeals.com. This is a community driven site where people will post the best deals on the internet, and other people rate how hot the deal is. However while that part of the site is useful for stumbling across a great deal on something you probably weren't looking to get in the first place, the site also has lots of coupon codes. Now most online retailers these days usually have a discount coupon box and so this is where HotUKDeals comes in handy. All you do is before you make your purchase, enter the name of the company you wish to purchase from and then see if there are any relevant codes you can use.
However, before doing the above, you need to use another site called Quidco, available at www.quidco.com. This site works on the basis of affiliate linking whereby you click a specific link and as a result of that click, the site you clicked the link from gets some cashback for the click. However, rather than give the cashback amount to the site you clicked the link on, the idea of Quidco is that they give you the cashback. Normally if you are only making small purchases, the cashback amount is relatively low, maybe even less than a pound at a time, however it all adds up and there's also some sites which give you a decent amount back for doing things you were doing anyway. Quidco take £5 admin charges every year but the rest earnt is yours to keep. Due to the way Quidco works, for the cashback to be tracked, you must use the link in your Quidco login to access the retailer's site and not browse elsewhere and then back again as your browser will lose the session.
Finally, just a general rule is once you know what you want to buy in the first place, search for the best deal using multiple price comparison sites such as www.froogle.co.uk and also just searching for the product in search engines works effectively.
As an example of my recent bargain hunting, I've purchased one of Vodafone's 7.2mbit USB Modem Sticks on a contract. The stick itself cost £39 and I'm paying £15 a month as a flat rate cost for the 3gb monthly data allowance with the stick. I primarily went for the stick in order to continue to get decent net access while our broadband service is down while the DSL circuit is switched over to Be Broadband but I'll also use it if I'm out and about (without a free wi-fi signal) or even out of the country. Now, I firstly went to Quidco to use the affiliate link to Vodafone. I was surprised to learn you earn a whopping £90 for signing up for a new contract using Vodafone via the Quidco link. Then I went to HotUKDeals and found a coupon code for a free Bluetooth Headset when signing for a new contract (even if it's just for a data tarriff!).
So in summary, I've got a free bluetooth headset worth £25 and £90 cashback coming on top of what I ordered, just for clicking a few links. That certainly lightens the blow of the cost of the modem and the initial monthly charges. I won't see the £90 until April as it takes a while for cashback to filter through but it's certainly worth the extra effort. I hope that this post is of some use to my fellow UK friends who want to save a few pennies. Please be warned however, obsessing over getting the best deal for something which you didn't need in the first place probably isn't a good deal as you'd save more from not buying it at all ;).
bungle_bear's benefit who asked me how I do this and anyone else who likes saving money, I decided to make this post. Firstly, I know I have some international people on my friends list so I should point out this only applies for people in the UK.Basically there are two sites which I will use almost religiously whenever I look to buy anything online. The first of which is www.hotukdeals.com. This is a community driven site where people will post the best deals on the internet, and other people rate how hot the deal is. However while that part of the site is useful for stumbling across a great deal on something you probably weren't looking to get in the first place, the site also has lots of coupon codes. Now most online retailers these days usually have a discount coupon box and so this is where HotUKDeals comes in handy. All you do is before you make your purchase, enter the name of the company you wish to purchase from and then see if there are any relevant codes you can use.
However, before doing the above, you need to use another site called Quidco, available at www.quidco.com. This site works on the basis of affiliate linking whereby you click a specific link and as a result of that click, the site you clicked the link from gets some cashback for the click. However, rather than give the cashback amount to the site you clicked the link on, the idea of Quidco is that they give you the cashback. Normally if you are only making small purchases, the cashback amount is relatively low, maybe even less than a pound at a time, however it all adds up and there's also some sites which give you a decent amount back for doing things you were doing anyway. Quidco take £5 admin charges every year but the rest earnt is yours to keep. Due to the way Quidco works, for the cashback to be tracked, you must use the link in your Quidco login to access the retailer's site and not browse elsewhere and then back again as your browser will lose the session.
Finally, just a general rule is once you know what you want to buy in the first place, search for the best deal using multiple price comparison sites such as www.froogle.co.uk and also just searching for the product in search engines works effectively.
As an example of my recent bargain hunting, I've purchased one of Vodafone's 7.2mbit USB Modem Sticks on a contract. The stick itself cost £39 and I'm paying £15 a month as a flat rate cost for the 3gb monthly data allowance with the stick. I primarily went for the stick in order to continue to get decent net access while our broadband service is down while the DSL circuit is switched over to Be Broadband but I'll also use it if I'm out and about (without a free wi-fi signal) or even out of the country. Now, I firstly went to Quidco to use the affiliate link to Vodafone. I was surprised to learn you earn a whopping £90 for signing up for a new contract using Vodafone via the Quidco link. Then I went to HotUKDeals and found a coupon code for a free Bluetooth Headset when signing for a new contract (even if it's just for a data tarriff!).
So in summary, I've got a free bluetooth headset worth £25 and £90 cashback coming on top of what I ordered, just for clicking a few links. That certainly lightens the blow of the cost of the modem and the initial monthly charges. I won't see the £90 until April as it takes a while for cashback to filter through but it's certainly worth the extra effort. I hope that this post is of some use to my fellow UK friends who want to save a few pennies. Please be warned however, obsessing over getting the best deal for something which you didn't need in the first place probably isn't a good deal as you'd save more from not buying it at all ;).
