Online printable coupons can be a great source of savings, if your local retailers accept them. There are three distinct ways to locate internet printable coupons on the internet: first, the coupon publishing sites, or “clearing house” sites; second, the manufacturer product sites/email links; and third, your grocery store websites.

Coupon Publishing Sites

These sites are typically created and maintained by the same companies that print the Sunday inserts (SmartSource, Red Plum, etc). They offer a similar variety of coupons, frequently on the same products.

Any difficulties with printing or redeeming the coupons should be addressed directly to the publisher, not the manufacturer. The trade-off between the cost of printing (paper, toner, supplies) needs to be considered against potential savings from the coupons.

It should be noted that as with those Sunday inserts, each publishing site offers a different selection of coupons, depending upon your locale, shopping habits, and even the site you are using to access their coupon database.

The major sites for “online insert database coupons” are:

Manufacturers/Brand Coupon Sites

Most brand websites now feature printable coupons.  A number of coupon printing programs and distribution sites are used.  You can locate brand specific coupon websites through our manufacturer coupon site page

Most major brand websites do not publish and manage their own printable coupons and mailing lists, but contract this out to other firms, such as Coupons.com. These coupons are typically not available in the “clearinghouse” of the publishers other printable coupon sites, but are only available for people visiting the brand website and signing up for these “loyal customer” type printable coupons.

Since different brands use different distribution firms, and printing programs, and manage their printable coupons according to their own needs, it’s often easiest to find coupons for the brands you want using the information on manufacturer coupon links pages. However, there are some general brand-specific sites you can start with:

Grocery Store Website coupons
Three years ago, many stores refused to accept internet printed coupons. It was simply too easy for fraudulent coupons to be “created” at home, and the stores bore the cost of redeeming “fake” coupons they could not be reimbursed for.

Most grocery stores have worked with SmartSource and Coupons Inc to provide a secure source of print-at-home coupons for their loyal customers. These coupons, available from each grocery stores own web site, are coded directly in to the stores computer scanning system. When a coupon printed from a grocery store site is used at that store, the terms are already established and verified in the system, including coupon value, expiration date, specific items to be used on, etc. These coupons are also frequently printed with the stores logo directly on the coupon.  Stores require these coupons scan clearly to be redeemed, however, so make sure your printer has enough ink and quality paper before printing.

Each store determines which coupons they want to make available to consumers, so the available coupons vary greatly from store to store. Before shopping at a specific store, check their website for specific offers available.

Tips
All three types of sites provide coupons that can be printed and redeemed at local stores for savings on specific products. The coupons are printed directly from your computer using a standard printer, paper, and toner/ink cartridge. In general, the user must download and install coupon printing software (Active X script). Each publisher has their own software, with subsequent security and privacy issues.

Most, but not all, brands require users to register, provide a profile, complete a survey or other promotion prior to printing the coupon offers. Once registered, coupons are easy to access, and additional coupon offers may be sent through newsletters, emails, or other notices. Once you have registered at a site, manufacturers may also use email promotions to provide traceable coupons to you directly. Each recipient’s link is a unique, onetime-use-only link. Emails can be timed to promotions, purchases, or even the age of your baby!

Printed coupons  have unique coding to identify the individual who printed it. Most sources utilize Digital FSI encoding, within the Coupons.com information system. Information is collected and analyzed based on the coupons printed, and when, if, and where they are redeemed. There is a limit on the number of times a coupon may be printed, and each printed coupon is coded with a unique identifier to the individual account it was printed from. Once a unique link has been printed, it cannot be printed again.

 Very importantly, printed coupons may not be copied, reproduced, or transferred.  To do so is considered fraud, and it is traceable back to the original account holder for each coupon. Emailing them or posting them on forum sites only creates frustration and confusion.  However, many manufacturers utilize the Coupons, Inc Tell-A-Friend Brick to allow consumers to “send their coupon” to friends.  This allows people to “share” coupons while creating unique, legitimate, coupon codes for the additional coupons.  The consumer provides names and email addresses, and each friend receives a personalized email that contains a new unique coupon link. If the recipients register their profile with the manufacturer, the coupon may be printed.

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Author: Flash