Save while you shop

BRITAIN: In the current financial crisis, people are becoming more aware of prices and are looking for ways to cut costs wherever possible. The latest trend for the savvy UK shopper is buying using discount vouchers.

Almost 40 per cent of consumers in Britain use a discount voucher at least twice a week. According to the website www.moneysupermarket.com, which specializes in price comparisons, 1,500 vouchers are used every minute. This amounts to a saving of over £50 (€56) a month per customer. Restaurant vouchers are the most popular, closely followed by vouchers for clothes and supermarkets.

"Retailers and restaurants are desperate for us to spend with them"

As Christmas approaches, many more people will be using discount vouchers to shop for presents. “It’s a clear reaction to living in more cash-strapped times, when retailers and restaurants are desperate for us to spend with them and must offer discounts in order to compete,” Sian Harrison of moneysupermarket.com told The Daily Telegraph.

Another website specializing in vouchers is www.vouchers.co.uk, which updates the list of vouchers daily. Potential customers can simply go to the website, choose a product and print off a voucher or enter the code at the online checkout. They can also use an e-mail service and automatically receive the vouchers in their chosen category.

The website www.vouchercodes.co.uk is another example of a user-friendly and fun-to-use site with an exhaustive selection of vouchers to choose from. All the major stores, supermarkets, pizza chains, cafés, travel agencies and online shops are featured.

Vouchers are not new, of course. The German bonus-points programme www.payback.de is similar to its British counterparts, although shopping is limited to a number of affiliated partners and there is no immediate cash-back effect. Only after a certain number of points have been collected can the customer print a voucher.