Websites for bargain deals and money off - a list

ToadVine

From an item on Pat Kenny radio show 11/01/2011 about shopping and bargains. Link

These are probably common knowledge to most bargain alerters here on boards.ie, but there might be a few you haven't heard of.

A little plug for www.giveandbuy.ie ... I have nothing to do with the site, but it sounds like a great idea. Please donate if you have anything spare

Also, please add to the list if you have a good site not mentioned below.

Pat Kenny radio show 11/01/2011 wrote:

New Year Shopping Resolutions

These web sites offer us a new way of shopping, so they are worth checking out so that you can get into the habit of spending less on the things you need.

1. Get the best deals on groceries
Go to www.compare4you.ie for a comprehensive section on supermarket deals, which can also be emailed to you, and you’ll also find the weekly offers posted on www.cheapeats.ie.
Our shopping habits have changed and more of us are dividing our weekly shop between stores. But instead of trawling around the shops you can view the prices from all supermarkets online, and then choose where you buy from there, by creating your own shopping list from one of two supermarket price comparison websites.
The two sites are: www.smartshopper.ie, which gives you access to all supermarket prices for an annual subscription of €11.99; www.fitthebill.ie for a half year subscription of €9.99. (The people behind both of these sites physically collate all prices themselves, and prices are up to date, usually updated on a weekly basis).
According to fitthebill.ie there can as much as 10% difference on price when a full range of products is compared, and this differential rises in certain categories like fruit and veg, so you should be able to make back the subscription price in a short time frame. Bear in mind that many branded market leaders (when not on special offer), carry identical or similar prices across the stores, so check the prices on own brand products and fresh food and special offers to get bigger price differentials.

2. Get cash back for online purchases
If you are buying online anyway, why not get money back on every purchase? Money that will be put directly into your account that you can spend on whatever you want. This is what cash back sites offer. This is not a ‘money off’ offer; you pay full price, and then get cash back to use how you will.

A tried and tested model in the US and the UK, cash back sites are newer here with the first launched in April 2009 and the most recent in April this year. There are now three dedicated cash back sites in Ireland; www.bethrifty.ie, www.fatcheese.ie and www.cashbackireland.com.

Cashback sites simply list retailers (fatcheese.ie has 800 and bethrify has 500 for example), all of whom deliver to Ireland and you will find everything from supermarkets, to electronics, high street clothes stores and phone and TV service providers. When you click through to a website to purchase something, the cash back site gets paid for ‘providing leads’, and they pay that money on to you. There are no strings attached, you are still buying directly from your chosen online retailer, but are just linking to them from another site. Your trail will be tracked by ‘cookies’ which means the trader will know to pay the commission to the cash back site who in turn pays it in to your bank or PayPal account. The process of getting the cash back can take between two and four weeks depending on the retailer.

The first in Ireland, established in April 2009, and the biggest, is bethrifty.ie with almost 24,000 customers, fatcheese.ie launched in Ireland last December has 15,000 customers (they have jumped from 9,000 in October) and cashbackireland.com, launched in April (and a sister site to uchoose.ie) has 4,600 users.

Both bethrifty.ie and fatcheese.ie have no membership fee, but cashbackireland.com has a €9 annual membership fee.

In addition to the cash back offers, look out for special money off promotion vouchers and added services like bethrifty’s weekly email on the latest offers or fatcheese.ie’s option to give all of some of the money you get back to a charity of your choice and all of them also offer cash back on ‘free’ things such as for your time filling in a marketing survey for example.

These sites are relatively new to Ireland and many Irish retailers are not yet engaging in affiliate marketing, so all cash back site operators say there is plenty of room for growth. There is also, of course, the element of education and letting people know that this way of shopping is there, and that there is no catch. In the UK two of the largest cashback sites, Quidco and Greasy Palm, have already developed to the next stage; getting cashback when you shop on the high street. In Ireland cashbackireland.com are planning on introducing this with a new debit card they will be introducing (a pre-paid mastercard), which when used will give ‘offline cash back’ at selected on street retailers.

Examples:
The sort of deals you can get are: €7 cash back on new Tesco customers; €1.75/€2.50 for existing customers; 8% back from Champion Sports; 10% back from citydeal; 4% back from Debenhams; 10% back from Expedia.
A lot of retailers are common to all, but check to see which has the best cash back offer. Other retailers offer exclusive deals so you’ll need to do a bit of digging to find out where the best offer is.

3. Get a discounted ‘deal of the day’
I know people who are practically addicted to ‘deals of the day’ sites, so if you haven’t heard of these already, ask your friends, because they certainly will. The three sites currently in operation here are: www.citydeal.ie, www.livingsocial.ie and www.goodbuy.ie.
You subscribe for free, and receive an email each day about that day’s featured deal, which is always heavily discounted. If enough people buy the deal it’s yours. Check the terms of the deal for how long you have to use it – it could be one month or three months. Most deals tend to be Cork or Dublin based (for now), and when you sign up you indicate what area interests you most, although hotel and getaway deals can be anywhere in the country.
Examples: Yesterday citydeal.ie were selling tickets for two to Arnotts ice rink for €11 rather than €24; livingsocial were offering admission to Harolds Cross greyhound stadium for two, with sausage, chips and drinks for two plus two €1 bets for €13.
A word of warning though; many of the deals are non-essential such as beauty treatments, restaurants and activities so if you didn’t want it in the first place, try not to buy. For example, also on citydeal yesterday they were offering a microdermabrasion and skin rejuvenation package fore €54 rather than €180. That’s a big discount but do you really need it and would you have spent that €54 in the first place?

4. Always compare prices
There aren’t as many (good) price comparison sites here as in the UK, for example, but if you’re looking for travel insurance, a new bank account, or broadband there are a few sites you should start with, so that you don’t have to do all the hard slog yourself.
www.compare4me.ie, www.uchoose.ie and www.bonkers.ie where you can input your needs for travel insurance, broadband, bank accounts etc and the best deals should be revealed.
Use these sites as a starting point, and take it from there yourself.
For fantastic health insurance comparisons go to the Health insurance Authority’s site at www.hia.ie and try www.callcosts.ie run by the Commission for Communications Regulation for mobile, landline and broadband products.

5. Use coupons and search for special offers
Lifestyle: It is impossible for us to know where the best offers are all the time, but there are plenty of sites that simply provide information on sales and special offers on fashion (www.thesavvyshopper.ie), beauty and lifestyle (www.feelingfrugal.ie), and for food / restaurants (www.cheapeats.ie, www.mylunch.ie).
It’s also time to start printing off money off coupons for things that you want. For money off coupons and some exclusive offers take a look at www.onoffer.ie for offers on electronics, hotels, fashion, beauty and restaurants. You’ll also find competitions there; recent giveaways included a free mini-facial and a free dental check up. Money off offers currently include 10% off all games at CDWow and 10% off admission to the wax museum.
Newest kid on the block is www.5hop5.ie which gives you access to discount codes for products across all categories.
6. Buy and sell online
Keeping with the online theme, apart from giving to and buying at charity shops, swap shops and second hand shops, there is plenty to choose from online.
Plus given Deloitte’s annual Christmas spending survey suggested that up to €150million would be spent on unwanted gifts, you may have some things to sell right now.
Chances are you’ve tried eBay, but don’t forget about www.donedeal.ie (the biggest classified site in Ireland), www.buyandsell.ie and www.gumtree.ie.
.
To sell or buy baby gear, try the relatively new www.babybay.ie where listings include a mamas and papas pilko pram system for €70 and mamalicious maternity jeans for €15.
If you want the proceeds to go to charity, there is a new website set up by two Irish charities focused on Africa; Friends of Kitui (Kenya) and CareAid (Tanzania and Zambia) called www.giveandbuy.ie, where you post your unwanted item for free and when sold 100% of the money goes to the charity you choose.

Charities currently listed are the Irish Cancer Society, Our Ladys Hospice, Barnardos, Peter McVerry Trust, Trocaire, Special Olympics, Meningitis Research Foundation, the Down Syndrome Centre, Friends of Kiui and CareAid.

Oral Slang

Relating to point no. 3 - don't forget Boards deals & pigsback deals also!

Install invisible hand to compare prices of cds, dvds etc http://www.getinvisiblehand.com/

thesandeman

+1 for giveandbuy.ie
Saw them on Late Late or Saturday Show (cant remember which) and thought it was a great idea.


Heard the item this morning and was surprised Boards Deals wasnt mentioned. Then again it was that Consumer expert who usually is behind the times/wrong with her advice anyway.

0verblood

That mylunch.ie site is a load of shyte, theres no Waterford or Limerick or Galway.

markiemark2005

The first site on the list does not work, www.compare4you.ie.

I posted on another thread before looking for information on smartshopper.ie, they dont offer a free trial. Has anybody used it? Has anybody tried fitthebill.ie?

Mountjoy Mugger

markiemark2005 wrote: »

The first site on the list does not work, www.compare4you.ie.

Correct name for the site is http://www.compare4me.ie/

daveyjoe

I post Irish bargain alerts on http://twitter.com/irishconsumer for twitter users. I've been away that's why I haven't posted in the last week, normal service resumes tomorrow :-).

Fingleberries

Hi all, I would presume that the sites listed above are all genuine. But thought it good to ask of peoples experience with them. Sometimes the sites may have all the looks of a 'less-than-genuine' site, shall we say.

For example: betrhifty.ie, fatcheese.ie and cashbackireland.ie all identify themselves as "Cashback Ireland | <website name". Are they all related, or is it a coinicdence?

Has anyone looked into what information they may store about a user, could they record information from transactions made (e.g. CC Details)?

Please note: I have no experience with any of these sites and am not casting aspertions or saying that there could be anything wrong with these specific sites, I'm just naturally inquisitive and wary of such things with online transactions at new sites.

Snaggerman

markiemark2005 wrote: »

The first site on the list does not work, www.compare4you.ie.

I posted on another thread before looking for information on smartshopper.ie, they dont offer a free trial. Has anybody used it? Has anybody tried fitthebill.ie?

Its actually http://www.compare4me.ie/ misprint in OP

Eoinite

Fingleberries wrote: »

Hi all, I would presume that the sites listed above are all genuine. But thought it good to ask of peoples experience with them. Sometimes the sites may have all the looks of a 'less-than-genuine' site, shall we say.

For example: betrhifty.ie, fatcheese.ie and cashbackireland.ie all identify themselves as "Cashback Ireland | <website name". Are they all related, or is it a coinicdence?

Has anyone looked into what information they may store about a user, could they record information from transactions made (e.g. CC Details)?

Please note: I have no experience with any of these sites and am not casting aspertions or saying that there could be anything wrong with these specific sites, I'm just naturally inquisitive and wary of such things with online transactions at new sites.

I've been using fatcheese a lot over the last few months and have also used bethrifty. I prefer fatcheese as it seems a lot more professionally run. Something's always stopped me from trying cashbackireland although not sure what it is. Don't think any of them are linked together as they're completely different to one another.

All transactions you make are actually done on the shop's website you're buying from so the cashback site wouldn't have any of those CC details. When I've withdrawn cash from fatcheese I've had to type in my bank details fresh every time so don't think they store those details. You can also withdraw with Paypal if you're not sure.

I've made over €150 so far.

fibber

Eoinite wrote: »

I've been using fatcheese a lot over the last few months and have also used bethrifty. I prefer fatcheese as it seems a lot more professionally run. Something's always stopped me from trying cashbackireland although not sure what it is. Don't think any of them are linked together as they're completely different to one another.

All transactions you make are actually done on the shop's website you're buying from so the cashback site wouldn't have any of those CC details. When I've withdrawn cash from fatcheese I've had to type in my bank details fresh every time so don't think they store those details. You can also withdraw with Paypal if you're not sure.

I've made over €150 so far.

Eoinite- You have numerous posts promoting fatcheese- Would it be you haven't tried CashbackIreland.com because you are affiliated to fatcheese?
Personally I think its up to the consumer to decide which has the best deal at any time- I am sure that each have different deals running at different times and so it would be prudent to shop around first?

Eoinite

Erm... someone asked for our experiences with the sites so I gave mine.

I'm a student so don't have any affiliation with anyone. I've just posted deals when I've seen them and I think people have been happy with some of them.

Yes of course shop around but I was answering from my own experiences as I was asked to do so. I won't bother next time.

fibber

Didn't mean to insult - just asked if you were affiliated. I use all three sites - each have different offers at different times and thought it was worth mentioning - peace.

Eoinite

Sorry.. my apologies.

I do use bethrifty as well as I said but not much as fatcheese either have the same offers or better than them.

Still can't remember why I haven't used cashbackireland although the €9 fee did have something to do with it.

fibber

I have found bethrifty offer more than anyone else for Tesco- €2.50 back on every shop.
I like fatcheese's free cashback offers- like 90c to join boardsdeals or €1 to join the Tour America newsletter etc. They gave me €3 cashback for a free sim from O2 -It all ads up.

Fair enough re CashbackIreland. I got €7 retained out of my first cashback payment from Cashbackireland. I took the UPC deal of €100 and got €93 cashback. I couldn't find the UPC deal on the others - so €93 is better than nothing I guess. Any more purchases I made I got all of the cashback. My wife uses it for ASOS- she gets 10% each time and got a voucher for a prepaid debit card.

I give my paypal email for each account so we don't worry about what details they hold as there is nothing anyone can do with a paypal email except credit it

sandra_b

Do you know is it valid to use both fatcheese + promotional voucher code from some other site?
Is fatcheese going to return money?
Or is it that just guarantee does not work if something goes wrong?

Transactions where a voucher code not listed on the Fatcheese site has been used will not be covered by the guarantee.

For example, there is O2 voucher code (O2COUPON) + 20E cashback from fatcheese, and I'd like to have both!

jimogr

Are there any cashback sites that work with amazon?

fibber

Jimogr - Haven't found any in Ireland that do it - I saw quidco in the UK were listing offers from amazon but not cashback.

jimogr

Thanks fibber, couldn't find any either. I buy so much from amazon it would be nice...

King Cantona

regarding the 3 cashback sites, just wondering how it works if you sign up to all three. For example if there's a for 2% off Shopping at superquinn (for example) on fatcheese and cashbackireland, won't my cookie tracker show I clicked through each site and give me 2%?

Or am I confused as to how these sites work?

noodler

I don't understand what these third party discount sites actually do? How do you make money from them? How do they save you money on an Amazon product for example?

fibber

noodler wrote: »

I don't understand what these third party discount sites actually do? How do you make money from them? How do they save you money on an Amazon product for example?

Basically merchants pay them a commission for referring you as a customer to their site.- they give the commission they get from the retailer back to their members- amazon isn't a good example because I can't see them offering cashback anywhere.
But for example: you find Firebox.com -They offer 10% back on all purchases- and you click through (you need to be logged in)
You go to that site -take up on one of the offers and purchase. After a while (it varies from a few minutes to a couple of days) 10% of the value of your purchase will show in your account on the cashback site.

noodler

So the exact item I want from retailer X, must be on offer via firebox?

fibber

I was using firebox as an example of a retailer.
Retailer x must be listed on the Cashback website and beside it you will see how much cashback is on offer.
They don't list every retailer out there and they don't all have the same retailers. I guess it's down to what deals they do themselves with retailers.

noodler

Oh sorry.

So, it is retailer specific only (I mean if they work with amazon then I can get anything from Amazon)?

fibber

Within the Cashback site - against retailer x there will be a breakdown of offers- so some might give cashback on All goods bought - and some retailers might have different amounts for different products -
Worth noting that against the retailer in a cashback site there might be voucher codes that can be used alongside the cashback offer- these generally are product specific.

mailburner

jimogr wrote: »

Are there any cashback sites that work with amazon?

as far as i know there isnt
if there was id do well out of it

CH3OH

mailburner wrote: »

as far as i know there isnt
if there was id do well out of it

I hope he wasn't waiting for a reply .. His question was over a year ago....;)

mailburner

CH3OH wrote: »

I hope he wasn't waiting for a reply .. His question was over a year ago....;)

lol
i still have it in my head that its 2011 :pac: