Retail Bargains |
|
Your Money > Retail Bargains Articles > Cut The Cost...
|
|
By Donna Werbner
Giant snowmen loom overhead. Santa Claus stars in an alarming number of TV adverts. Jingly jingles possibly about jingle bells - jingle and jangle all day long in your ears. 'Tis the season to be jolly but, like me, you may well dread this time of year. The hustle, the bustle, the unrelenting, unavoidable kafuffle. The ridiculously over-priced tat you are forced to fork out for. And, at the end of it, a big empty hole in your bank balance. Especially right now, in the middle of the credit crunch, when we're all feeling the pinch. Luckily, thanks to the rise of internet shopping, it's easy to avoid the Christmas shopping crowds. But what about cutting your costs? Do you know how to hunt down the biggest online bargains and get discounts even when none appear to be on offer? Here's a five-step guide to help you fight back against the Christmas shopping nightmare and save yourself hundreds of pounds into the bargain. Step 1: Get the right credit card The first step to cost-effective Christmas shopping is to figure out which type of credit card you should use for your Christmas shopping purchases. There are two options and, in different circumstances, both should save you money. If you have money in the bank to pay for all your purchases, the best option is to get a cashback credit card. This allows you to earn cashback on everything you spend but it is only a good idea if you can pay off the balance in full every month, as otherwise you will pay far more in interest than you will earn in cashback. The market-leading cashback card at the moment is the American Express Platinum Cashback Card, which allows you to earn 5% cashback on purchases in your first three months (up to a maximum of £200) and up to 1.5% thereafter. If, however, you don't have money in the bank to pay for all your purchases immediately, then the best option is a 0% on purchases card. With these cards, you won't pay any interest on your purchases as long as you clear your debt within a set period. There are two good cards around at the moment: The Halifax All in One Mastercard and the Bank of Scotland All In One Mastercard. Both have a 0% on purchases period for 10 months so if you clear your balance within 10 months, you won't have to pay any interest. Step 2: Use a shop-bot Find out where the item you want to buy is cheapest, using a shop-bot which compares the prices of the item across different shops on the internet. Shop-bots we like here at The Fool include: Kelkoo, Pricerunner and find-dvd.co.uk. Just remember to check whether there are any delivery costs too as this may not be clear from the table of results. If there are several shops offering the item at around the same price, make a mental note of all of them. You may find one retailer is even cheaper the others after going through steps 3 and 4. Step 3: Register with a cashback website Next, find a cashback site that is affiliated with the merchant you want to buy from. This will allow you to earn cashback on transactions you make through the site. (Find out more about how cashback websites work here.) Quidco is perhaps the most well-known cashback website, and is affiliated with the vast majority of merchants. However, this site will keep £5 of your cashback once a year as an annual charge. Others, such as Top Cashback, Rpoints and GreasyPalm, are free to join and use, but may not always have as good cashback deals as Quidco. If you have time, it's worth checking them all out to figure which site is best to use for each purchase. Step 4: Find a voucher code Most online retailers offer you the chance to type in a promotional voucher code before you purchase your item. To find one of these codes, have a hunt around on the internet. First, look through the various forums on the internet where members share their vouchers. The best, in my opinion, is hotukdeals.com. I've found several useful vouchers on there, and saved myself at least £50 over the past year by doing so. You can search by retailer, and others rank the vouchers according to how hot the discount is. But it's not the only decent discounts site around. Other sites worth checking out include dealslip.com, myvouchercodes.co.uk, vouchercodes.com and piggy-code.co.uk. If you can't find a voucher that way, don't forget you can always just try a Google search. Type in 'voucher' and then the name of the merchant and see what happens. Step 5: Go bargain-shopping! These four steps are all very well if you know in advance what item you want to buy. But what if you don't? Where should you go to find a bargain? Here at The Fool, we've started compiling a weekly money-saving tips email which we send out to all subscribers every Friday. We call it 'Frugal Friday' and basically it's chock-a-block full of all the best bargains, discounts and deals we can find that week. Last week, for example, we showed you where to find the entire first season of Lost for £12.97 and where to get £70 off an iPod Touch. But you needn't rely on this email. You can do the research yourself. For example, you could:
Alternatively, if this seems like too much hassle, you could just keep an eye out on Friday for our weekly email! Useful links:
Copyright © 2008 Fool.co.uk - Money Saving Team. All rights reserved. |
| ||||||||||||||