How to Save Money Online

I love to shop online.  With 6 kids, it isn't easy for me to get out to the store all the time.  Here are some tips for saving money online.

• Sign up to get e-mails from your favorite stores.  Stores will let you know what sales they are having online and often send coupon codes for you to use.
• Use a cash-back website like fatwallet.com to get a small percentage of your purchase back.  Some websites get paid to bring traffic and orders to their site and will give you part of that money.  My fatwallet is my favorite cash-back site, but there are a lot of them out there.
• Buy from stores that allow you to return items in-store.  That way if something goes wrong with the order or you want to return something, you don't have to pay for return shipping.  I like to look for free shipping codes to use so that I don't lose out on the cost of shipping.  Most stores will not refund the cost of shipping an item.
• Check out slickdeals.net for great online deals listed daily.

MyPoints.com

MyPoints is a website that gets paid by companies when they generate traffic on their website. MyPoints then passes on some of that money to those people that visit the website by giving them points for the websites they visit, which can be redeemed for gift certificates.

Generally, each website you visit generates 5 points, and a $25 gift certificate can be redeemed for around 3,500 points. It takes about 6 months to get that many points, but the time is well spent. You know which websites to visit from e-mails that are sent to you (it is wise use a separate e-mail address than your main one). I get anywhere from 2 to 10 e-mails per day.

Along with getting points for just visiting a website, you can also get points for shopping online through the links on their website and by filling out surveys. I don't to a lot of shopping through their links because fatwallet.com and bing.com offer better discounts for shopping through their websites, but I do fill out a lot of surveys to get points. Just for attempting to qualify for a survey, you get 10 points. Then if you qualify to fill out the survey, you get 50-75 points. The surveys I have filled out range from asking about marketing campaigns for new products, to where I eat out and why, to what I like about my car insurance.

Here are some things to keep in mind when using MyPoints:

• Use a separate e-mail address
• Read the Privacy Policy of the websites you visit before giving them your e-mail address. A lot of times an e-mail will say that you get 5 points for visiting a website and 25 points for registering with them. However, most of those sites will sell your information to third parties. I usually get the points for visiting the website, but don't register to get the extra points.
• If you are shopping online, check to see if they offer points for linking to that website through MyPoints. Sometimes they offer points when other cash back websites do not.

Cash-Back Shopping Online

I love to shop online. I can find really good deals, and I don't have to tote all of the kids around town. Another perk is that you can get an extra percentage off your total online purchase by linking to the store's website through a third-party website. Many stores will give other websites a money incentive if they can get people to shop on their website, and a growing number of these websites are sharing the money they make with the customer. The percentage that a customer can get back is usually between 3% and 10%. It usually takes three months after the purchase to get your cash back from the website. Here is a list of the websites I look at to find cash-back incentives.

http://www.fatwallet.com/ is the website that I use the most for cash-back shopping. You have to create an account in order to participate, but they offer the largest selection of retailers. You have to accumulate $10 in cash before you can request a check.

bing.com varies some from Fatwallet in the retailers they offer for cash-back shopping. It is a website run by MSN and used to be called Microsoft Search Live, but changed their name to better compete with Google. You must sign up for an account with them to get cash back, and they put your cash earned on your PayPal account, but you can request your money after you have earned $5 cash back.

http://www.mypoints.com/ offers points for shopping online instead of cash, which can be redeemed for gift cards. When signing up for an account, make sure that you use an e-mail address that you don't mind getting a lot of mail in. Because they also send you e-mails that ask you to visit various retailer's websites to also earn points (no purchase required). Most of the points I accumulate come from clicking on these e-mails. It takes awhile to accumulate enough points to earn a gift certificate, but we get a $25 gift certificate about every six months.

Daily Lists of Online Deals

I check these two websites daily for online deals.

• http://www.slickdeals.net/ is my favorite site for deals. Anyone can post a deal in the forum section, but only the best deals are listed on the main page. It is only these that have been confirmed by multiple people and are from reputable companies. So, if you are searching through the forums, make sure that you read the comments to make sure it is a good deal. They also have a section on the website to find promotion and discount codes for online shopping.
• http://www.fatwallet.com/ is also a great place to find deals. Make sure you read the comments for the deals. This is where you find out if the deal is legitimate or too good to be true. They also have promotion and discount codes and offer cash-back shopping.

Tips for Shopping Online

I love to shop online, but there are some precautions that you must take to ensure you are really getting a good deal.

• Make sure the website is legitimate. Check for Better Business Bureau or other accreditation somewhere on the website. If you are cannot find anything, then try a google search to see if anyone has written anything about the company.
• Check to see if your payment is backed by Verisign or another reputable company. If the company offers payment by PayPal, then use that as your payment. That way the website never knows your account information, but they still get paid.
• Take a look at the return policy. If the store does not list the return policy, they are not trustworthy. If there is a return policy, see if they allow returns to their local store and whether they refund your card or give you an in-store credit. For sites that only operate online and don't have a local store, you may have to pay shipping to return the item.
• Always do a search for promotion and discount codes for the store. There are a lot of sites that list these codes, so make sure you look.
• Check shipping rates. This is always one of the first things I look for. Some stores offer flat rate shipping, while other ship per pound or order total. Some stores will even offer free shipping if you buy enough merchandise.