Three Ways To Grab Online Bargains

Why haggle on the high street when you can bag a bargain by shopping around online? These three tricks cut prices to the bone.

One of the great joys of the internet is that it allows us to shop around without leaving our homes. As I'm one of those people who hate plodding up and down the high street I'd buy almost nothing without online shopping. Personally, I'd much rather shop from the comfort of my office chair, rather than trudge around a crowded shopping centre in a vain attempt to find gifts and so on.

As you've probably guessed, I'm not a fan of conspicuous consumption, so I don't do much shopping at all. Then again, when I do have the rare urge to buy a little luxury item, I try my hardest to get the very best bargain that I can find.

For example, after several months of negotiation, my son and I agreed that it was high time that we bought a games console for us to play together. There's no way that I'm willing to pay the recommended retail price (RRP) of £425 for a Sony PlayStation 3, not least because it retails for far less in the US and Japan (yet another example of manufacturers treating the UK as 'Treasure Island'). Hence, Master D'Arcy and I decided that we would plump for Sony's lesser model, the hundred-million-selling PlayStation 2 (PS2).

So, off we went in search of a black, slimline PS2, which has a retail price of £104.99. Now for my three-step approach to finding bargains online:

Step one: use price-comparison websites

Price-comparison websites, also known as shopping robots or 'shopbots', get rid of all of the hassle of shopping around online. Instead of searching dozens of different retail websites yourself, the shopbot does the spadework for you. In my search for a PS2, I checked several general-purpose shopbots such as Froogle and Shopping.

According to these shopping robots, the cheapest prices (including delivery) were £89.99 at well-known online retailer Play, £87.99 at smaller firm SwallowGames, and £79.99 at a business I hadn't heard of before, Apeplay.com. However, the PS2 console was, and continues to be, out of stock at Apeplay, so this may well be a marketing gimmick, rather than a genuine offer.

Step two: find coupons, vouchers or discount codes

My next step was to scout around online to find further reductions at Play and SwallowGames, in the form of discount codes, electronic coupons, etc. I didn't have any luck with the smaller firm, but I know that Play often offers discounts, so I posted a quick message asking for help on the Fool's Living Below Your Means message board.

Within sixteen minutes (wow, that was quick!), my Foolish friend Xrayted101 posted a code which offered £5 off any Play order of £50+. So, Play now takes the lead with a discounted price of £84.99. Thanks for saving me a fiver, Helen.

Step three: find cashback

The final bit of finesse involves earning cashback in two ways: from cashback credit cards and cashback websites. My cashback credit card pays me 1% on the first £2,000 and then 0.5% on any further spending. Thus, spending £84.99 gets me another 42.5p. Every little helps.

Finally, I checked cashback websites (such as Greasypalm, Mutualpoints, Pigsback, Quidco and Rpoints) to see which give cashback or reward points on purchases from Play. Although Quidco gives 2% to 4% cashback at Play, this doesn't apply to games consoles, so my search for savings ends here.

Later, a further three-step search ensued when I decided to buy a PS2 game (the hugely entertaining Simpsons: Hit and Run, RRP £19.99) and an 'Official 8MB Sony PS2 Memory Card', RRP £14.99). I won't bore you with the results of this hunt; instead, I'll cut to the chase with the final saving:

So, I got a quarter off the total RRP and had fun with my son at the same time. Not a bad result, but can you do any better (without using eBay, which I tend to avoid)? If you can, please post your reply using the 'Give feedback' link below. Happy online shopping!

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