The Wall Street Journal
February 13, 2009

By Melissa Korn

Coupon Web sites are everywhere. After my last post mentioning a handful of sites that help shoppers save money when buying clothes, jewelry, electronics and just about anything else online, Wallet readers turned me on to even more. Some are straightforward (Restaurant.com) and (MyCoupons.com), while others can be hard to navigate or a bit outdated (CouponWinner.com) and (Eversave.com). It’s hard to figure out which make the most sense to use, as many provide the same coupons, deal codes and “exclusive” specials.

Here are a few that deserve a try:

-Dealio.com is still technically in its beta form, but the site doesn’t seem to need too much more tweaking. Its homepage currently has a “Valentine’s Day Shopping Guide” (hint, hint) with coupons and gift ideas. The site also has a basic toolbar where you can browse by category or see coupons. Each coupon has a thumbs up/thumbs down review to show how successful users have been when trying to use the coupon, a major plus when it comes to sometimes-sketchy online codes with unclear expiration dates.

-SunshineRewards.com gives shoppers traditional coupons but also hands back a portion of the commission the site makes from stores. Cash back ranges from 1-2% (electronics) to 20-25% (magazine subscriptions). Shoppers can get cash back via PayPal, gift cards or Disney Dollars. Members can also earn a bit of extra money by taking relatively short (five- to 40-minute) market research surveys. “Convincing people it’s not a scam is the hardest part,” says site owner Tricia Meyer.

-Ebates.com also shares the commission it gets from member stores. The site gives up to 25% cash back on most purchases, which it sends out every quarter, assuming you’ve amassed at least $5.01 in rewards during the period. Otherwise, the money is carried over to the next quarter. One cool thing: You can get your “Big Fat Check,” as they like to call it, via snail mail or PayPal account or have it sent to a charity.

-RewardsDB.com lets you compare which cash-back or points site will give you the most bang for your buck at a particular store. For example, say you wanted to buy some books at Barnes & Noble. Click on that merchant, and the site will show you most of the cash-back rewards and points programs that give you goodies for shopping at the store through their sites or with their special credit cards. It’s up to you to figure out what makes more sense - 10% cash back, a 7% reward via Upromise or eight miles per dollar on Delta. EVReward.com is another site with the same mission.

The Wall Street Journal

http://blogs.wsj.com/wallet/2009/02/13/more-coupon-web-sites