Knowing the coupon policy at your local stores is an important part of saving money! Not only will it save you confusion and embarrassment at the checkout lanes, but since every store has a different policy (how many coupons they will accept, how many like-coupons they will accept, how many and up to what value they will double coupons, what types of coupons they accept, etc)
Most stores have made it easy for you by posting their coupon policy online. You can usually find it through the "customer service" section of your stores website. If you can't find it on their website, email their customer service department and ask them to mail you a copy.
Some key questions to ask or to look for in the store policy:
- Aside from the traditional coupons from the newspaper and magazines, what kind of other coupons do they accept? Printable coupons? Digital Coupons (i.e. Upromise, Cellfire, SavingStar, etc)? Competitors coupons?
- Do they accept printable coupons for a free product? What about coupons for free product that also require an additional purchase (Buy One Get One Free, etc)?
- Is there a maximum value of coupon that they will accept? Many stores now only accept printable coupons with a value of $5 or less, but still accept traditional coupons for any value (although high-value coupons may require manager approval).
- Do they double or triple coupons? If so, is it every day or just on certain days? What is the maximum value of coupon that you will double and to how much?
- Is there are maximum number of coupons that they will accept or that will double per transaction? A maximum number of like-coupons that they will accept or double?
- Do they allow overage on coupons or will the value of the coupon be adjusted down (for instance, if an item is for $0.79 and you have a $1 coupon, will they allow you to use that extra $0.21 towards the rest of your order?)?
- Will they price-match with other local stores if you bring in their ad?
This is the type of information that you need to have about each store if you are going to be successful at saving money honestly. For example, if your store policy is to only double 2 of the same coupon per transaction, then you are going to need to plan your transactions in a way that lets you maximize your savings!
Looking for more Extreme Couponing tips? Make sure that you check out all the posts in my Coupon 101 and Coupon Ethics sections!
Anderson Chick
GREAT POST! This is a very good topic. There's nothing worse than not being able to get the deal you were expecting because you don't know the store's policy. You went to a lot of work to post all of these policies and it's really appreciated!
Ruth
The problem is that many cashiers don't know the policy or interpret it wrong. This week at Acme, a very rude cashier told me that Acme only accepts four like coupons per transaction. I tried to explain to her that some coupons do specify 4 like coupons per shopping trip, the coupon I was using wasn't one of them. Since this cashier had a nasty attitude, I asked her to call a manager and after the manager confirmed that what I told her was correct, she told me that she was right but she would do the transaction for me just this once. I sent an email to Supervalu and I received a response today that they will give this cashier more training on the coupon policy and customer service skills. I had some many bad experiences recently when I shop with coupons that I will start carrying all the coupon policies again. I have shopped with coupons for years without any problems but in the last 6 months, shopping has become a challenge. I had to deal with nasty cashiers, seasoned couponers with nasty attitudes, new couponers with nasty attitudes. Whenever I ran into an issue, I try to handle it with a positive attitude but it has becoming increasingly hard to turn the other cheek.