Shopping online: to click or not to click
If you are anything like me, you tend too spend way too much buying gifts for Christmas and other winter holidays, regardless of the budget you may have set. The current trend in shopping sees a lot more people using the Internet as a way to save time buy shopping online and avoiding not only traffic and waiting in line, but also to save time as well. Personally, powerful of my shopping, around Christmas and throughout the year, is done online. Sometimes I do feel I miss the excitement that used to come with going to the mall during the holidays and enjoying the decorations and buzz that always seemed to be in the air. I’m not clear if it has to do with getting older, or just a sign of the changing times, but I’d powerful rather spend my time outside making a snowman or even just driving through the neighborhood looking at way my neighbors have decorated their homes than shopping, regardless of the atmosphere.
I do believe that in simpler times people were nicer and less rushed during the shopping season. Shopping wasn’t as stressful of an endeavor because our lifestyles weren’t as hectic. We not only had more time, but we had less of a consumer mentality and it wasn’t about getting the most “stuff” or spending enough, it was simply about finding the perfect gift regardless of prestige or whether Brittany had one or Oprah recommended it. It might be cliche’ but the “Spirit of Christmas” that once existing is gone and replaced with the spirit of “how noteworthy can I charge this year? ” The Internet alleviates a lot of the rudeness and hassle with shopping in our crowded hurried society, but I do wonder if it helps contribute to the lack of “Christmas Spirit” in that in many ways it can be easier to consume more money online. A click of a button is a lot easier to do than opening the wallet and handing the cash, check or credit card over. It can become remote and likely lead to more debt than traditional shopping. On the other hand, if you don’t let it become an addiction, it can be just what you need to be able to experience a saner more enjoyable holiday season and really focus on the true meaning of the season.
If you are one of those people who just can’t gawk themselves shopping online, whether it is dismay of exposing yourself to identity theft or honest simple nostalgia over shopping the old fashioned draw, don’t close reading yet. There is information here that you will still find useful. Not only will I attend provide you with some methods to protect yourself and your personal info I will show you that Internet shopping can be safe and painless. I will also provide some money savings methods and resources that will also cover some conventional shopping venues as well as a multitude of safe and secure online options – all with the goal of saving you money.
Getting started: making things safer and easier
In today’s world where identity theft is an all too steady possibility, the internet is certainly one of the major contributors to this type of crime. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the US with millions of Americans being affected every year. The internet, while an principal vehicle for identity thieves, is also a great resource for how to encourage prevent it. I’m not here to provide you with all the information you need to protect yourself because I am simply not advantageous to do so. I will, however, provide you with a gigantic number of tips and ideas to make shopping on the web as safe as possible. If you feel the urge to go beyond these tips, I recommend starting with the Federal Trade Commission website at: FTC. From there, there are numerous other resources from books to insurance policies that you can catch to serve protect you against the growing crime of identity theft.
I believe you can be safe shopping on the web simply by being smart when shopping on web. Over the years I have developed a set of habits that not only make my online shopping safer, but quicker and easier as well.
SEPARATE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR MEMBERSHIPS: As you embark on your shopping adventure you are going to encounter websites that require you to “register” in order to participate or even read all the content they have to offer. Registration is usually free and if it is not, don’t waste your money. Any sites offering information for a “fee” are generally not offering anything different than the free sites. The only thing you need in order to register for the free sites is an email address. I recommend setting up a complete separate email address for any sites that you register for related to shopping, sales and deals. This can be done a number of ways. If you happen to have your occupy hosting space and can set up multiple addresses from your domain, you can do it that way, but you may be exposing your domain to spam should you sign up with a not so suitable site.
Or you can register for a free email address from Google (gmail), Yahoo or any of the other free email services out there. Personally I prefer Yahoo because they allow you to have up to 500 “disposable” email addresses that you can delete and create new ones at your discretion. This allows a layer of protection by not exposing your main address to the world. It also provides you an opportunity to register at sites you are not sure of with a complete separate address and delete it later if the site turns out to be less than helpful. Here is a list of other “disposable” email services: Top 9 Disposable Email Address Services – About.com although I’m not sure that they are free, you’ll have to research that for yourself. Please note that the sites I am referring to in this section are not actual store sites or anything associated with actual purchases. The sites I refer to in this section are online resources, forums, newsletters, coupons, etc. to help you find the best deals across the web. We will deal with tips for registering an account for an online store in the next section.
SEPARATE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR PURCHASES: Creating an account/registering with an online store is a little different from registering for resource type sites, especially when you consider sites that are associated with actual retail stores. There is an inherent level of trust. For the most allotment, you can feel free to use your regular email address to create accounts with online stores. As long as you do your research (I get into that later) and you know the store is legitimate you can feel comfortable using your regular email address. That being said, in order to keep things organized and not have an well-known email such as a grasp receipt, delivery status or other official email from one of these stores end up in your spam folder, you might want to consider a separate email address unbiased for purchases. I would not recommend using a disposable email address, in fact, you want to make sure you use a main email address in order to be able to ensure you get all the correspondence sent from the store. Google’s GMail is a estimable email service to employ for this purpose. The diagram it is organized is very obliging to label and keep track of your emails. Of course, if all these different addresses are too much for you to be able to effectively deal with, you can certainly forego this step as I mentioned earlier and exercise your standard email address for online store registrations.
USE A SEPARATE CREDIT CARD: One effective method for eliminating the chance for fraud on your credit card is to obtain a card with a low limit to be used exclusively for your online purchases. It will be very easy to keep track that blueprint and to make sure all charges on your bill are, in fact, your own. By the way, I’m not endorsing credit cards, I actually despise them and the havoc they have wreaked on our culture, but I believe that for online shopping, having at least one is a principal evil. Please, just pay it off each month if you can. Another effective method for eliminating the chance for fraud is to employ a “disposable” credit card number, or “one-time use” number. I know that American Express and Discover Card both have these options. Essentially you have your main narrative and you can then request at any time a “one-time use” number that, while calm associated with your main account, cannot be stolen by hackers because it can only be old once. I believe you can demand the numbers online and receive them immediately through your online credit card account so it is not a difficult process. The bottom line with a credit card transaction online is that as long as you are using a reputable bank, your purchases are protected and they grasp and fraudulent charges to your card.
GET A PAYPAL ACCOUNT: A Paypal account is a free service that allows you to pay online for free without exposing your payment information to a bunch of different places. Only Paypal has your info and you use your Paypal account to make payments at retailers who accept it. It is very secure and quick and easy. All you have to do is link it to a bank account or credit card. Not all online retailers accept Paypal – yet, but it’s growing every day and for making purchases on EBay it is the BEST way to do business. You can station up your free account at: Paypal.com. Paypal occasionally has specials going where if you make a minimum bewitch through your Paypal Account you get cash encourage. It sometimes takes a few months to see the cash succor, but they do pay it. Some merchants also offered an immediate discount for making a purchase with your Paypal account. As the holidays approach, be on the lookout for these discounts.
GET A GOOGLE CHECKOUT ACCOUNT: A Google Checkout legend is similar to Paypal account and is a free service that allows you to pay online for free without exposing your payment information to a bunch of different places. Only Google Checkout has your info and you consume your Google Checkout account to make payments at retailers who accept it. It is very secure and quick and easy. All you have to do is link it to a bank account or credit card. Not all online retailers accept Google Checkout – yet, but it’s growing every day. You can set up your free epic at: Google Checkout. In 2006, when Google Checkout was new they were offering fantastic discounts on all purchases made using your Google Checkout Account. In most cases it was $10 off a $30 purchase or $20 off a $50 purchase. Combined with the other great deals, this discount saved me a ton of money last Christmas. I recommend setting up an account and being ready for it. Currently, if you tag up through Buy.com, your first purchase through Google Checkout will get you $10 off. But you must sign up for Google Checkout through Buy.com to glean the $10 off. The discounts through Google Checkout are usually instantaneous.
USE A FORM FILLING SOFTWARE: Using a software that automatically fills our registration forms and remembers log-in information for the sites you frequent, is a HUGE time saver. You can set up different profiles depending upon the type of site you are registering for. For example, I provide more detailed information to shopping sites than I do unprejudiced for miscellaneous online resources that simply do not need my address and phone number. It will also save credit card numbers and gain them in automatically if you are so inclined. The software will also suggest passwords for you when creating a log-in registration that are geared to be strong passwords to prevent someone from guessing it. Then the program will save the associated log-in info to a “passcard”. Each time you visit a site and go to log-in, you can set the program to automatically “pop-up” the associated log-in for that place and all you have to do is click “fill” and it will fill it in for you. You can also password protect the program to prevent others who may consume your computer from having access to your information. There may be others, but the specific software I am referring to is called Roboform. You can download a 100% free copy of the basic version from Roboform.com. If you’d like to go ahead and get the full version, you can do that using the link here.
From their website, the following are a list of key Roboform features:
Easy to Use – You remember one password, RoboForm remembers the rest.
Saves Time – With ONE CLICK RoboForm goes to a website and logs you in automatically.
Saves More Time – RoboForm also fills long registration and checkout forms with one click.
Secures Your Information – Stores passwords on YOUR computer, protects them with AES encryption.
Strengthens Passwords – Generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess.
Fights Phishing – Fills passwords only on matching web sites.
Defeats Keyloggers – Does not require using keyboard to type passwords.
Simple to Use – Fair download RoboForm and learn as you go.
The basic version includes a cramped number of passcards (unique individual log-ins) which I beget is 30. The Pro version, which you can upgrade to for $29.99 has the following features:
Unlimited Passcards, Identities, and Safenotes.
Instant Activation from RoboForm Free to RoboForm Pro.
Free web and toll-free phone attend.
30-day Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee.
Free updates forever.
The stores: Where to find them and how to know whether to trust them
Let’s face it, it really is no trouble finding some spot on the internet to buy something. Launch your browser and likely before you even type anything you are facing with advertising for a product or store. Type in a search term, whether related to shopping or not, and you’ll likely spy more targeted ads come up across the top or side of your screen selling something related to you search term. Finding the online stores isn’t as big of a problem as actually knowing if you can trust them. Then there is the enlighten of those hard to find items or collectibles that you just can’t get but at a handful of stores. That makes the process more difficult because there are fewer resources out there on the more unknown stores to help you to determine their honesty. It doesn’t mean they are not reputable, just that they have a smaller audience. In general, however, there are some very good resources available to help you develop sure you are buying from honest, trustworthy businesses. Some of these methods will leave no doubts as to the legitimacy of obvious stores. Others will help you make informed decisions but may not answer all your questions or satisfy your fears, especially if you are new to online shopping. If you follow the advice throughout this article, you will not only be making informed decisions, but also protecting yourself quite well while shopping online.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of online stores and shopping sites, but some stand out simply for their size, popularity, variety, customer service, prices, etc. I will list some of these stand-outs here as a way to attend you get started, but they by no means narrate the only sites I am recommending you, just a good place to start.
Amazon.com: Really the first name in online shopping. Trustworthy, good customer service, estimable return policy and often great deals!
Ebay.com: Hands down the best place to find anything your heart desires, modern or used.
Buy.com: Everything from Electronics to Jewelry with a ton of large deals on a regular basis.
Overstock.com: A little bit of everything with good deals and frequent specials.
Wal-Mart.com: Wal-Mart’s online store which has their great low prices and the fastest shipping around.
Newegg.com: Great prices and customer service on computers, computer equipment and small electronics.
These are only the beginning of the great stores and shopping sites online. I could try to list them all and give my opinions of the ones that I have used, but there are other more complete resources for evaluating online shopping experiences at the different sites. You will accumulate plenty of consumers just like yourself provide huge information about their own personal experiences with the different sites. Don’t forget to provide your own reviews once you master online shopping. Just as others have helped you, your review will go on to help someone else.
Here’s a brief list of good resources for store reviews. These sites also often have sales and deals information, product reviews and price comparisons as well.
Resellerratings.com
Bizrate.com
Shopping.com
Pricegrabber.com
RedPearl
Another method of determining the legitimacy of an online retailer is to survey for “trust seals” such as “Verisign”, “BBB (Better Business Bureau)”, and many others. Don’t unprejudiced look for the visual seals on the space, however, if you have any doubts about it, click on the seal to originate sure it is actually valid.
Finally, when checking out at any online shop, make sure that when you are on the screen where you enter your personal information, that your browser displays a closed padlock icon in the bottom right area of the screen. This will ensure that your information in encrypted while being sent to the retailer and can not salvage swiped out of thin air and ragged by the wrong people.
Getting down to it: How to find the sales and great deals
The Resources:
When you peek at all the thousands of online shopping sites and stores the task of finding great deals seems daunting. Who has the time to spend all day scouring the web for markdowns and clearances? Don’t fret, most of this work is done for us with yet another set of resources throughout the web ranging from community forums to full blown websites. Through these forums and websites tons of people just like you provide information about specific sales and deals and together narrow your search from thousands of sites down to just a few. The gigantic thing about most of these sites is that you can not only browse the top deals of the day or the moment (yes, some will last but minutes) you can search for specific products and even set up alerts to email you if someone posts information regarding a specific product.
The best draw to use these sites is to pick the one you like best (personally I like Slickdeals the best) and make multiple daily visits scanning the deals forum for anything that might catch your eye. You may not have a specific purchase in mind, but you’d be amazed at how many gift ideas you can come up with when you see a savings of over 50% or even more. Last year, through a daily special at Buy.com I purchased Brother brand label makers for everyone on my Christmas list. The label makers were $30 in all the stores at the time. Buy.com had them as their daily special for under $6. On top of that, Google Checkout had a special going through Buy.com to bag $20 off a $50 order if you completed your checkout through Google. I got $180 worth of label makers, a game for my son, and a few other small items for just over $30 – the going price of one label maker at all the other stores. And the best news is that everyone loved the label makers and use them to this day.
So, the main rule of thumb is to check early and check often. Pick your main resource, and if you have time scan the others as well. It’s rare but occasionally one site will have something that the others don’t yet. Another tip is that the really great deals sell out speedy so if you manage to accumulate one (or however many you want) in your cart, I recommend checking out as soon as possible. I’ve had numerous experiences where I took too long trying to add some items to get up to the $25 free spruce saver shipping on Amazon.com that by the time I checked out, the awesome deal had sold out, even though I had one in my cart. My recommendation for that on Amazon.com is to retain a few exiguous items in your cart that are not must haves but would make good fillers if you needed a mercurial cheap item to win you over the $25 for the free shipping. Some other stores do retain the items you build in your cart, but Amazon is the best in that in retains them indefinitely if you have an narrative.
Here’s the list of the mountainous sales and deals sites I prefer. As always, there are more….probably thousands more, but these are really all you need to score started:
Slickdeals: It doesn’t sight like much but the forums on this situation are the best. I check the freebies and hot deals forums multiple times a day.
Dealnews: No forums, but they have generous filters for searching for specific products, specific types of products or a specific store.
Fatwallet: Similar to Slickdeals with both site gathered deals and community forums.
A Full Cup: A community based resource with a enormous tool called “coupon generator”.
DealCatcher: Nice clean site with a bunch of resources including a coupons section.
Some other sites that I’m not too familiar with but they appear to be pretty good:
DealsPlus
Deals.com
Bargainshare
Bluespree
Cheap Stingy Bargains
Spoofee
Deal Detectives
Deal Shake
Mpire
If you are looking for more sites than the short list I have here, simply type some key words such as “sales and deals”, “deal forums”, “shopping deals”, “coupons” and any other combination you can think of and you will find literally hundreds, if not thousands of similar sites.
Coupon / promotional codes:
In addition to sites that simply list the sales and deals, there are also sites that list “coupon codes” or “promotional codes” for many online retailers. These codes are generally entered at checkout. There will be a little box to enter your code into. You will find that in most cases, when people list sales and deals on sites like Slickdeals and others, they often do list any available coupon codes associated with the store where they found the deal. These codes can range anywhere from a small percentage off your win, to free shipping to a free gift with purchase. In any case, before you checkout at any store you should always do a web search with the name of the store and the word ‘coupon’ or ‘coupon codes’ after it, just to make sure you take advantage of every money saving opportunity available to you. You will come up with a list of numerous sites listing different coupon codes. Just a warning – most are legit, but some will simply not work. Don’t gather frustrated. If the first few sites that reach up in the search list don’t have a valid coupon code for the store you are shopping at, then there likely aren’t any currently available. Don’t waste too much time.
Here’s a couple to get you started:
Many of the sales and deals sites I listed earlier also have a coupon share listing available coupon codes.
Shopping portals:
Aside from the sales and deals and coupon resources, there is an additional method to make the most out of your online shopping and they are called shopping portals. Essentially you sign up for a free narrative, use the links given on the shopping portal site to access a particular store and then shop through that link. Your purchase is then processed as normal, but the shopping portal is then contacted by the retailer indicating your hold and you receive “points” from the shopping portal site. These points are generally redeemable for gift cards gift certificates or cash.
This adds another step to you sales and deals shopping in that instead of clicking on a link directly from a forum post and being directed right to the specific store and the specific product, you will have to open your shopping portal, enter the appropriate store through it, and then manually type in the product indicated as a deal from the forum. It’s well worth it though because the points on the shopping portals add up quickly, especially if you also designate up for their paid emails which many of them have. Paid emails give you extra points simply for clicking on a link in the email and viewing one of their ads. Very easy and I have not had any problems with spam or anything like that through the paid emails.
The following is a brief list of a couple of the major shopping portals. Hold in mind that using more than one is a back in that one might have stores the others do not, and one might offer more points per dollar than the other for a specific retailer.
My Points
Ebates
Freeride
Fatwallet
Learn the lingo:
One thing you might notice in your online shopping adventures are some abbreviations that people use to lessen the amount of typing. It helps a lot to know what these abbreviations mean because as you scan the titles of the forums for deals, it might save you time by preventing you from clicking on something that didn’t interest you.
Here’s a list of some of the abbreviations commonly used:
AC – After Coupon
APM – After Price Match
AR – After Rebate
B&M – Brick and Mortar store (An actual physical store)
B1G1 or BOGO – Buy One get One free
BBB – Better Business Bureau
BF – Sunless Friday: which is the Friday after Thanksgiving.
CC – Credit card
FAR – Free After Rebate
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
GC – Gift Card or Gift Certificate
IR – Instant Rebate
MFR – Manufacturer
MIR – Mail In Rebate
OOS – Out Of Stock
PM – Price Match
S/H – Shipping and handling
YMMV – Your mileage may vary
Refunds and/or exchanges:
You’ll have to carefully read the return and exchange policies for the individual stores. In most cases damaged or inferior items are replaced at no cost to you. Amazon.com has the best return policy that I’ve come across and in the case of their error (doesn’t happen a lot) will often supplement you for your trouble with promotional certificates to use towards your next assume. If you’ve checked the stores ratings and reviews from other consumers and the store has advantageous feedback, you’ll likely not have a problem. Just keep the return policy in mind when purchasing something that has a specific color that make look different on the mask than in person, or is made from a material that might not be exactly what you expected.
There is a site called Refund Please that offers a free service to track your purchases at Amazon.com. I haven’t used it personally, but it seems like a wintry tool. I would imagine that eventually they would add other retailers in addition to Amazon.
Price Matching:
Numerous retailers offer price matching to other online stores. You’ll have to check the customer service areas of the specific site to find out. Price matching can save you money, especially if they offer something like an extra 10% off. Just watch shipping costs. A price match with 10% off is no good if shipping costs are different and end up costing you more with the price match.
Amazon.com has their own internal price matching system. If an item goes cheaper than what you paid within 30 days, they will refund the difference. They will not do it automatically, however, so here’s what I recommend: After each purchase that you make on Amazon.com (after you check out), go back and place the same items you just purchased in your shopping cart again. You can click on “save for later” so they will be in your cart but not affect future purchases. Then I recommend a couple of times a week, or even daily, logging on to Amazon and checking your cart. If any prices have changed from the price the item was when you first put it in your cart, you will see a message at the top of your screen telling you how much the price changed. Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. If the price has gone down, and it’s been within 30 days of the original purchase, click on “help” and then under “contact us” click on “customer service”. Then click on the email tab on the next screen, select the specific order and item from the list, and then simply compose an email letting them know the price has gone down. They will promptly (sometimes in less than an hour) email you telling you that you are correct and to expect a refund to the payment method used. The refund shows up within a day or two usually. After 30 days, delete the old items from your cart otherwise the list will get quite cumbersome.
Shipping – some things to watch out for:
When making a purchase online, in may cases you are allowed two different addresses in your account, one is a billing address and one is a shipping address. They can be the same, but sometimes it is nice to have the option to ship to a different address, especially for a gift. I often have packages delivered to my Mom so my husband or son don’t see them. This is especially useful for larger purchases. The merchants don’t always tell you that the items may be shipped in their original packaging. Amazon.com is pretty good about telling you, but they don’t always. If you have any doubts, you can always email them and ask. Their customer service is generally quick and responsive. If in doubt though, simply have the packaged shipped to a friend, family member or neighbor, but warn them it is coming and that it is NOT for them. Thank them, of course, for helping.
Make sure you open all packages carefully in case you do need to return something. They usually prefer you return it in the original shipping container, although if you don’t they don’t charge you or anything. Personally, I save all my boxes around the holidays and pack the gifts inside them and then wrap them. It makes it more suspenseful to the recipient, especially if the shape gives the gift away.
The summary (a quick review):
Shopping online: to click or not to click:
You can save time and money
Free yourself up for more important things
Avoid the crowds and traffic
It is safe if you are careful
Getting started: making things safer and easier
Establish a separate email address system
Use a separate credit card
Use Paypal or Google Checkout
Use a form filling software
The stores: Where to find them and how to know whether to trust them
Legitimate online stores and shops are just a mouse click away
Verify reputations online from actual consumer testimonials
Ensure secure checkout – look for padlock symbol
Look for trust seals on the site and click through to verify site
Getting down to it: How to find the sales and great deals
Frequently check sales and deals community sites – daily, hourly or more
Search for and use coupon or promotional codes
Shop through shopping portals to earn/save a few extra dollars per purchase
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