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Saving money with computerized coupons
11:26 AM CDT on Thursday, September 13, 2007
Millions of Americans participate in the same ritual week after week: going through the newspaper (or those endless ads stuffed in your mailbox) in quest of valuable coupons. But I'm going to show you how technology can save time and money by introducing you to printable coupons. Entering your ZIP code at Coupons.com makes it easy to sort through the best deals in your neighborhood. I found 76 coupons for everything from whipped cream to dog food. Coupons.com even lets you e-mail your bargain discoveries to as many as four shopping pals. Coupons.com makes you install special software that keeps you from printing more than your quota of coupons. It also offers to install an optional "coupon bar" in your browser, which you may find helpful for getting instant notice of new offers. I found it to be annoying. But even coupons you print out yourself seem a bit—how shall I say this?—20th century. Certainly there's a more streamlined way to pinch pennies at the checkout counter. There is no printer needed with coupons from Cellfire. They send an virtual coupon to your cell phone's screen. It's easy to do. Select the offer from a list and then show the code on the screen to the cashier. Then just pick the coupon you want and show the code on the screen to the cashier when you make the purchase. Cellfire, however, has a much more limited selection of products and merchants than Coupons.com. Locally, there were deals only from a pizza restaurant, a fast food Mexican restaurant, and a video store. Then you have to cross your fingers that the person who rings you up knows what to do when you display your cell phone code. As with any online service, be careful about how much information you give out. Coupons.com is keen to get your e-mail address for e-mail notifications of exciting new deals, but a ZIP code should be all that's needed for coupons that target your area. If you feel you must give out an e-mail address, I'd suggest not using your primary address; it's easy enough to get a supplemental account from a free online mail service like Yahoo Mail, Gmail or HotMail to reduce the danger of cluttering up your in box with spam. This brings up the question: Why do we need to print out paper or show screen codes to cashiers? Why not just zap coupons from a cell phone to the cash register? Most cell phones these days already incorporate a technology called Bluetooth—a short-range, two-way wireless link most commonly used for cordless headphones. Bluetooth could concieveably be used to send coupon information from your phone. The problem is that no one has yet established a standard way of doing this. So, clipping from a newspaper, printing from your printer or flashing a screen shot to your cashier will likely linger as the primary tools of bargain hunters for at least a couple of more years. Watch Computer Corner every week on News 8 Midday at noon, or online any time. E-mail askwalt@wfaa.comFeatured Stories
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