Who can resist the buying power of daily deal shopping? You’d be a fool to pass up any deal that can ease the stress on your pocketbook and save you as much as 90% at checkout. Even so, 2011 saw daily deal regulars suffering with an overabundance of daily deal emails and notifications, leading some to daily deal fatigue. Frugal geniuses have gotten smarter with time and have learned to manage their penny-wise lives better. Reba Barntner, professional shopper in Daytona Beach, FL, says that she changed her daily deal shopping habits last year and couldn’t be happier. “I actually ended up in my doctor’s office in June of 2011,” said Barntner, “with what I now call my ‘daily deal headache.’ I was spending so much time worrying about daily deals for myself and my clients that I neglected my health. I’m smarter about it now.”
Are you ready to ease the stress of shopping and get back to enjoying all those daily deal savings? Here are five tips sure to get rid of that nagging headache for good.
Get a handle on daily deal specifics
Each deal has a set of conditions or terms that will define how you can use your daily deal purchase. In some cases, you can spend part of a $200 spa daily deal voucher on a haircut and color on one trip and use the remaining funds for a tanning session and massage on another. Other deals require that you use the entire voucher amount in one visit. Get a handle on the terms and conditions of the deal before you invest.
Verify deal locations
Della Reese bought a $100 daily deal voucher for a dinner out at a chain restaurant that had a location in her city. Upon taking her family out for a meal, however, she learned that the voucher could not be used at her local restaurant. “I should have read the fine print on the deal,” sighed Reese, “because it turned out I could only use the coupon at a restaurant 200 miles from my house.”
Remember, daily deals are only good bargains if you can use them. Read the fine print and if you don’t understand the conditions, ask for more information.
Know when your credit card will be charged
Some daily deal websites charge you immediately for your purchase and others wait until you’ve spent so many dollars with their website or have used the voucher in a local business. You’ll get a better handle on your checkbook by understanding when you’ll be charged for your purchase. Once the charge has gone through, check your bank statement and make sure it’s accurate.
Check refund policies
Some daily deal websites will refund customers for mistaken purchases, customer dissatisfaction and even buyer’s remorse. Other websites don’t do any refunds. Know what you’re getting into and make sure you’re comfortable with the refund policies where you do business.
Use daily deal aggregators and apps
Your email inbox should be a joy to use. If you find yourself behind in correspondence and work projects because your email is just too overwhelming to deal with, consider unsubscribing from the many individual daily deal emails that demand your attention at every turn. Instead, let technology come to the rescue with a daily deal aggregator and phone app. Such tools bring only the deals you’re interested in to your attention, saving you time and money.
Do you have a tip for successful daily deal shopping? Please tell us about it below.
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