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Let's be honest. When was the last time a discount code you found on a coupon site worked?
These codes are often expired or, worse, invalid. They rarely work, if at all. I've yet to find a coupon code from a generic promo site that does.
Have online stores stopped offering discounts?
Fortunately, no. Online shops still offer non-seasonal discounts in sneaky ways if you can find them.
Not every shop does this, but it doesn't hurt to take a few minutes before hitting the Pay button to look for a potential discount and save a few bucks.
Over the years, I've been leveraging unconventional ways to get discounts online, and in this blog post, I'll discuss five such techniques.
These techniques aren't bulletproof and don't always work, but when they do, you can save money you'd otherwise have unknowingly spent. Also, the last technique I'll discuss, although not a traditional discount offer, works when all other methods have failed.
Let's start with the first one:
The “please don't go” discount
To retain subscribers, companies sometimes bake a discount offer in their cancellation flow.
Grammarly is one such example, and here's how it works:
If your subscription is up for renewal, don't let it renew automatically. Instead, look for the cancellation option and try to cancel it first.
This cancellation flow would be simple on most apps and services. You click cancel, and the app asks for your confirmation. Once you confirm, your subscription will expire at the end of your billing cycle.
However, on some apps, when you click cancel, the company will try to keep you on board by offering discounted renewal pricing.
Grammarly did this up until last year.
For the last 2–3 years, I've continuously renewed my Grammarly Premium subscription at 45–50% off their annual pricing.
Here's how:
