Beware of False Advertised Coupon Savings

John  Koren
If you are a coupon collector and use them on a weekly basis, there are certain deals that you should be aware of. These deals are false advertised coupon savings. They may sound like an excellent deal, however, if you are not careful you could end up spending much more than you had planned on. The most common misconception with coupons lately has been with medical trials.

There have numerous reports of "savings" offerings in advertisements. However, the truth is that you need to read the fine print. For example, if there is a specific type of medicine that is being advertised as a deal, double check it. Why is that? That is because many times these types of advertisements say that you can save, but you have to attain a certain voucher from your doctor. If that should be the case, you should look online. Many times you can find that same deal for half of the price! If you do this though, be sure to only buy from a legitimate and reputable source.

What is another coupon scam that has been recently showing up? That would be the ones where you sign up for years of coupons. The problem with this is that many times you are charged up front a small fee. This fee may only be a few dollars for one year. However, after that one year is up, the company that issues the coupons still has your credit card number. This means that you will keep getting charged each and every year for the coupons whether you still want them or not!

Also, you should beware of companies that offer percentage types of savings if you sign up for a membership. Sometimes these types of savings may sound good, but once you read the fine print you will soon see otherwise. That is because often you do not receive the savings until you have purchased a specific amount of merchandise. Also, as mentioned previously, they may have a hold of your credit card number and will continue to charge you for the membership even if you no longer want it.

You should also be aware that even if you get a coupon online to print out, you should be sure the store you are going to will accept it. There are some stores that will not accept internet based coupons. The best way to find out whether you local retail store or grocery store will accept these types of coupons is to just ask! There is absolutely no harm in that at all.

What types of coupons are legitimate? Those coupons you see in the Sunday paper are completely fine. Also, companies such as Proctor and Gamble offer their consumers free savings books as a mail-in rebate offer. This is completely legitimate as well and the coupon booklets have a lot of savings in them! The bottom line is that if you are unsure of a particular coupon savings deal, then you should look it up online.

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.