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Ways to Save Online

Online spending currently accounts for 10% of the UK’s total retail spend; it also has a total of 45% year on year growth rate. With so many discounts available online compared to your average local high street it’s not difficult to see why so many people are taking their plastic and spending it on web purchases. Groceries, clothes and electronics have all become particularly popular for online consumers in recent years. But do you know how to save more? Here are a few ideas to help you save on your online shopping:

1. Shop around. It might seem an obvious one for any kind of shopping, but surfing around to find the best deals is vital. Even if it might seem boring you’ll more than likely find an absolute bargain somewhere online. If you put a product’s name into Google you’ll probably find a large amount of retailers offering it, but you’ll need to trawl through the search results to find the best. Don’t limit your search to the first page of results – go through and check a number of sites that are further down the rankings. Many cheap online retailers aren’t so good at climbing search engine rankings even if they have the best price.

2. Find a company that will give you a discount with your first purchase. Many online retailers offer credit when you open an account or make a purchase with them. It’s a one off payment, but it’s an easy way to get a discount. Littlewoods, for instance, offer £15 for anyone who opens a credit account with them.

3. Some online credit accounts and catalogues give you the opportunity to pay off your purchase over a long time without paying interest. This isn’t really a way to save money, but interest free payments over the long term without interest can make purchases much more bearable in the short term.

4. Consider setting up a US postal address. This is for people who expect to make a large amount of purchases over the next year. In this case, you’re almost certain to make huge savings when compared to UK prices. With the dollar currently hitting record lows against the pound, now is the time to shop in the USA. Many US catalogues do not ship abroad, so setting up a US forwarding address can help you. You’ll pay an upfront charge of around £30 to open your account, and then pay a monthly subscription fee and you’ll have to pay delivery, but you’ll find all of this could be repaid in just one purchase when compared to UK prices. See Access USA for more information.

5. Use Ebay. The world’s biggest auctioning website isn’t always the place to pick up a bargain, but quite often it is. It sells pretty much everything from cars to collectibles, and you can find some very unusual things on there. However, if you’re looking for a specific product that not many people have then it can be quite difficult to find on here – you have to be lucky.

6. Credit or debit cards are the preferred payment method of most online retailers. Purchases made through Ebay often use Paypal, an online payment service that does not require a card. Some of the larger brands offer credit cards that give you perks when you spend online. A new 0% credit card from ASDA Finance gives you discounts instore and online, with the added perk of 0% on purchases for the first three months, and 0% on balance transfers for six months. If you’re looking to raise some extra cash ASDA Finance also offer personal loans online.