Thursday Tip | Use Groupon/Living Social when you travel
Groupon and Living Social both ask you to select a geographic region so that they can provide you with local deals.
If you're traveling, though, you might want some discounts to use wherever you're visiting.
So, a month or two before your trip, sign up for deals in the city you're traveling to. Then you can keep an eye out for vouchers that will help you save money while you're away from home.
Vouchers won't be plentiful in every location, but signing up is worth a try. It won't cost you any money, and you just might snag a deal on a restaurant or service you'll enjoy while you're away.
Just make sure to keep an eye on the expiration date. You'd hate to buy a short-dated voucher that expires before your trip!
And of course, remember to shop through a cashback site when you buy your vouchers.
We did this on our honeymoon to Vancouver. It was also just nice to browse Groupon and see what all was going on while we were there.
We did for a trip last year. We got to visit one of the area attractions for a discounted rate. Thanks for the reminder to go through a cash back site!
I don't understand why anyone is willing to use the cashback sites. You are trading personal information for a bit of money; how can that be worth while? (Of course, this is coming from someone who never has and never will have a Facebook profile; the attitude of Facebook towards privacy is truly nauseating.)
So true, Christine! I agree 100 percent. It's appalling how privacy is being eroded but many willingly help contribute to its increase.
Love the philosophical question. What are the outright and maybe more importantly, hidden costs of frugality? Must one give up some degree of privacy in order to maximize frugality? What level of disclosure would be considered acceptable based on what level of return? This is an ethical, moral dilemma - how to maintain some amount of privacy while carefully managing limited resources. Not sure there are any easy answers but you raise an important issue.
Yeah, I think everyone has to figure out what they feel comfortable with and make decisions from there.
I guess when it comes to buying a Groupon through TopCashback, I'm like, ok, I'm paying with a credit card (a company who has my information), and I'm buying through Groupon (a company who has my information), and every site I go to is using cookies (more information) to target ads to me...and so then I feel pretty much like, "ehh, not a big deal" when it comes to adding one more layer of information through TopCashback. Yes, I could skip it, but it's not like my transaction will suddenly be super private, you know?
I can understand looking at it that way. To me, the difference is that your credit card company knows about it because they need to in order to fulfill your order. They also are getting money from you (or at least think they will) in interest, and as fees from the merchant. They don't need to sell your information, and are probably mostly prevented from doing so.
Cashback sites operate on the business model of selling your information. That's where they get the money from that they give you. Also, giving information to them is not necessary to do business, unlike your financial institutions and the merchant.
As I understand it, they operate as affiliates, much the way I do here on my blog. Old Navy, for example, might pay TopCashback 10% of sales sent through their site, and TopCashback keeps 5% and gives me 5%. At least, that's how it goes on a basic level.
So, (again, as I understand it) the true meat of their business model is in referring sales, not so much in selling information.
I kind of feel like store loyalty cards (like grocery store cards) are actually MORE of a model that's just for getting information. Those exist for the purpose of collecting shopping data about you...it's not like stores couldn't just offer sales without a loyalty/club card, you know?
Great tip! Hubby and I are planning a trip on the Independence Day weekend. I will need to look up some deals on those websites. Thanks for sharing, Kristen!
This works overseas as well! We have purchased Groupons for London - which is awesome in one of the most expensive cities in the world!
Smart tip! I usually forget to do that but having that as a guide might help you organize your trip better too!
We have saved some money on admissions, but with regard to a restaurant this trick backfired on us. We bought a voucher for a particular restaurant from Travelzoo and made a reservation, but when we got there they were closed for a private event (so much for the reservation!). The next night they were closed too. So we weren't able to use the voucher at all. Now I'm wary what deals I buy in anticipation of a trip.
Did you ask Travelzoo for a refund? Under the circumstances, I'd bet you'd get it.