I guarantee I can show you the best combination of money saving hacks you’ve ever seen. How can I be so sure? I’m a real life ethical hacker who’s developed Checkout Saver to automate more savings than ever.
This is a how-to guide on combining every tool possible to save yourself insane amounts of money when you shop online.
I’ve been using these techniques myself for years, and now I’ve started a business in order to automate parts of the process for myself and everyone else. I’ve even developed my own money saving hacks which I’m giving away to you for free.
1. Credit Card Cashback
Everyone is familiar with Credit Card Cashback, but it’s important to give it it’s own recognition and to separate it from Affiliate Cashback.
Credit Card Cashback is simple and automatic. Just pay for your purchase with a credit card and get a % back in your credit card account.
I typically recommend the Citi Double Rewards card which essentially gives 2% back on every purchase.
It’s important to note this type of cashback can be stacked with the other methods below, such as Affiliate Cashback.
2. Affiliate Cashback (My #1 Money Saving Hack)
Most people are less familiar with affiliate cashback, but it’s quietly been saving people billions over the years. It’s pretty simple: retailers spend a lot of money on marketing, and some of that budget goes towards affiliate commissions – they pay other people to send them sales. Some affiliates send that commission back to YOU, the shopper!
Checkout Saver has partnered with hundreds of retailers, and when you use our links to check out, we get paid that affiliate commission, which we pass on to you (after taking a small commission).
3. Citi Price Rewind
Citi offers a pretty cool perk with some of their cards: they track the purchase price of things you’ve purchased, and if the price drops within 60 days they credit you the difference.
There are a lot of catches here, like you have to manually input your purchases and their database of price lookups can be limited, but it’s a really neat way to add up to $1,500 / year back into your pocket.
Update: This is hard for me to say, but Price Rewind is no longer active as of 2019. RIP beautiful savings.
4. Paribus – Price Drop Tracker
The perfect replacement to Citi Price Rewind! Paribus monitors your purchases and fights on your behalf to get cash back if the price drops in the near future!
This is a freebie way to claw back some extra bucks, but individuals who value privacy (hopefully all of us), may have concerns about allowing a 3rd party access to all their emails.
5. Coupons
You knew this one was coming! Yes, coupons are one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to save some money when you shop online. There are some awesome extensions out there, like Honey, which automatically test all known coupons for you at checkout!
I highly recommend it, but please also be aware Checkout Saver will be offering coupons at checkout as well, and we’re a super small business in the USA dedicated to saving people more than ever, and changing the world. When you support us, you’re helping us fight climate change, use renewable energy, supporting my dreams, and more.
One-Time Coupons are going to change the couponing world. Soon, we’ll be the first platform to offer you unique coupon codes, provided by other users, which can only be used once. These rare gems will be available at a cost which still leaves you with savings, and the coupon provider will get paid for providing you the code.
6. Discount Gift Cards (My #2 Money Saving Hack)
I bet you’re not currently using a lot of discount gift cards at checkout, but you should be. Did you know you can buy gift cards to sites like Walmart.com on the Raise.com marketplace?
For instance, if you’re checkout out a $30 shopping cart, you can see if any $25 gift cards are available for purchase for $22 or so. Purchase it, and use it against your basket, and you’ll save $3!
Checkout Saver was started to automated this process and make it easy! We want you to be able to be checking out, and we’ll pop up an alert for you to purchase and auto-fill a gift card to save a few extra dollars.
This money saving hack could be what helps you afford those missing things in your life!
7. Store Price Comparison
Another simple one that can have a dramatic affect on how much you pay. Comparing different retailers for the same item could payoff big, and it could take you less time than you expect using a tool designed for this purpose, such as BuyVia (mobile device app) to compare sites like Amazon, Target, and Walmart.
You can also scan barcodes in a store to figure out if you’re getting the best deal, using an app like ShopSavvy.
8. Timing a good deal
This one’s a bit trickier and requires effort and patience. While some tools exist which can track historical prices at Amazon, not many can do it for other sites or let you know to expect a sale on the horizon. This requires getting familiar with the retailer, or hunting down information on forums. We’ll keep you posted if we find a tool that makes this easier, but for now just know we’re working on it, and Target has an annual sale of 10% off gift cards on December 8th every year.
All of these techniques can be combined together to save you a staggering amount of money. Checkout Saver exists to combine Cashback, Coupons, and Gift Cards – the first extension of it’s kind to do so.
We hope you found this guide informative, and we hope it helps you save some money. Again, we’re a small business trying to change the world, and your support would make a huge difference. Please consider downloading our extension today.
9. Dosh (BONUS!)
Dosh is an awesome cashback tool that works seamlessly will all the other methods here. For this mobile app, you link up your credit cards, and when you use them to make a purchase at supported retailers you automatically get cashback to your Dosh account.
I love this one because it’s so simple you forget about it, you just get alerts when cash hits your account. I also love it because it works at lots of stores that don’t have any other discounts, like my local Cuban restaurant and Papa Johns!
https://link.dosh.cash/JUSTINW384 – sign up with my code and we BOTH get $5 when you join!
10. Bumped (BONUS!)
Bumped gives you stock/equity in the company when you spend there. Sign up, then choose your selected retailer for a particular category. When you spend there, it’ll automatically track the purchase from your credit card and pay you your stock dividend as a form of cashback!
I love this concept because it’s unique, and it can be stacked with all the others! https://bumped.com/?ref=64ce8f0b
How Does Affiliate Cashback, The Greatest Money Saving Hack of Them All, Work?
So far I’ve dropped a few bombs with all the techniques and unique savings opportunities, and I realize you may not be familiar with some of them.
While getting paid cashback when you to shop seems like an outright scam, it actually makes a lot of sense. Let me clear things up.
Behind the scenes, when you use Checkout Saver to visit your favorite retailers, you’re being redirected their using our Affiliate Link.
Because we referred you and a sale to the retailer, they pay us a commission.
We turn around and pass almost all of that commission on to you (we keep a little bit to turn a profit and bring you these awesome opportunities). So that’s what’s in it for us – we get paid when you make a magazine purchase.
It’s in our best interests to help you save as much money as possible, which is why our service is completely free. You can sign up and start saving today.
Our new browser extension makes the process easier than ever. Simply search for your store and click through to save. We’ll even automatically alert you if you can save money at the store you’re browsing using Cashback, Coupons, or Discount Gift Cards.