Everyone loves getting money off something they were planning to buy anyway. If you’d arranged with some friends to meet up of an evening and have a meal out somewhere, what better way of saving money all round than to find for example, a 20% off voucher.
Vouchers of Old
In the days before the recent internet, this usually involved clipping coupons out of newspapers and magazines, or waiting for a retailer to mail their regular customers with offers. Neither of these methods supported the pleasure of spontaneity and worst case scenario you either paid full price or, -determined to be frugal come hell or high water – went somewhere you didn’t really want to.
Your 20% off might also have contributed to the general deforestation of the planet. Not a good feeling!
Vouchers in the Digital Age
Thankfully those scenarios are no longer the case and you can be as spontaneous as you like, and still eat under a tree. If you’re significant other says they feel like a romantic dinner out for a change, the technically connected amongst us can fire up an App on our smartphones and find just the place near us to fit the bill, and also be safe in the knowledge that the evening isn’t going to cost the earth.
I love eating out. It’s one of the simpler pleasures in life that also keeps our economy ticking over in all sorts of ways. Voucher’s are not limited to food however. You can make savings on just about anything from your food shopping, to clothing, to gifts, gadgets, mobile phones, home improvements and sports gear.
If you can think of a retailer – someone can probably find you a code or a voucher to go with it.
Caveat Emptor
Not all online voucher sites are created equal. Most require some exchange of your personal information – at a minimum in the form of an email address – before releasing codes to you. I have tried most over the last few years and have, for the most part, regretted the experiences.
There is also no guarantee that the codes some sites give you will even work. By then, it is too late and they have your email address as well. I had mostly resigned myself to never finding a voucher code site on the internet that was honest, that worked, and that didn’t require personal information in return for a voucher.
The last straw was when ordering a Dominos Pizza for myself and 5 friends about 6 months ago. Horrified when the check-out price came to just shy of £100 I frantically began searching for vouchers I could use. After parting with my email address on 3 different sites and getting 3 different codes – not one of them actually worked.
I pretty much gave up at that point.
New Player – NetVoucherCodes.co.uk
An email from a friend and fellow blogger Gamer In Debt pointed me in the direction of someone new. I was mildly skeptical because of past experiences, but given it was from a fellow personal finance blogger that I’ve come to know and exchange comments with I figured I had nothing to lose trying it out.
I’ve been exclusively using Net Voucher Codes for the past 2 weeks and I think I’ve found ‘my one’. The App works on both android and iPhone, and crucially for me, their website doesn’t demand your email address (or any other personal information) before giving up codes that actually work.
Give them a try if you’ve had similar prior experiences to me. With no demands for your contact details and inside leg measurements, you’ve nothing to lose other than some money off your bill!
