Online Shopping and Discounts

The Internet is both a good and bad thing for shoppers. I can do it whenever I want, it's very convenient, and I can do it from the comfort of my own home. I save time, gas and time. What could be better?

The same things that make online shopping so great are also what make it so bad for the budget or my financial goals. If there is a down time, I can just browse sites and see what is out there. It's so easy to buy, I can just browse, select and then press one little button to buy and then it arrives a short time later. What could be better?

But, the same reason why I avoid malls and other shopping centers is to avoid temptation. If I don't see it, then I'm not tempted to buy, and I'll never miss what I never see, which is why I never really adopted going to the mall as a pastime.

If I do find something online that I want, then I can at least mitigate the damage by doing a bit of due diligence and search for the lowest price and then see if I can find additional discounts. I tend to fill my cart first, then see if a rebate is available. Favorite sites are ebates and fatwallet. Sometimes one site offers a slightly higher discount than the other. I find that the rebate is slightly more reliable through ebates than fatwallet and the customer service at ebates is much better.

What is an ebate? It's like a rebate but it's for online retailers. Generally, it's an affiliate program where they (ebates or fatwallet) likely get a percentage of your purchase and they in turn pass a portion or a percentage back to you. One requirement is that once you decide to purchase you have to go on to their site, select the merchant and then there is a tracking ticket as you are pushed to the merchant's site for the purchase. Generally, the discounts are between 1% to 5-6%. Sometimes on special occasions, it can go up to 15%. Once you purchase from the merchant, you get a notice from ebates or fatwallet letting you know how much you will be getting back from the merchant.

Redemption varies. At fatwallet, after each purchase, the cashback is pending for a period of time (generally after the return period is over), and once it's available you can designate where you want them to send you the cash (it can be a gift certificate or cash to your paypal account). At ebates, they generally send you the cash after each quarter, but only if you have at least $5 worth of cash back.

I have to admit, I was a bit creeped out when I first learned about these sites and I didn't like the idea of someone tracking where I went and what I purchased, but I got over it quickly when I realized how much I was saving.