The following is a guest post from Madame Deals.
Our world is full of technology which is advancing at a rapid rate, and the world of electronic coupons is advancing too!
Do you have an iPod touch or an iPhone? If so, you are in luck! There is a new coupon application called Yowza!!, co-founded by Heroes star Greg Grunberg. Grunberg explains,“I created the app to share my passion for saving money and time, so you could consider this my contribution to the stimulus package! I play a hero on television and now, hopefully, I can be one in real life by helping people during these tough economic times.”
Yowza!! is a FREE application that works directly with merchants to provide unique coupons and offers not available anywhere else, all based on your geographic location. Once the application is downloaded, your device will do a search for merchants in your location that work with Yowza!! Now, that is smart technology!
Currently, merchants such as Target, Sears, Finish Line, The Container Store, Sports Authority, Loehmann’s, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill, Dairy Queen and McDonalds offer discounts with Yowza!! Because Yowza!! is a very new application, they are adding new stores all of the time. The best thing to do would be to download Yowza!! and search for discounts in your location. Going on vacation? Conduct a new search in your destination city.
How Does Yowza!! Work?
- Download the Yowzaa!! application to your i-Phone or i-Pod touch (Yowza!! is under lifestyles category).
- When you get to the mall or area that you will be shopping, hit the Yowza!! button on your device.
- Yowza!! will search for electronic coupons available in your location.
- A barcode will pop-up that can be scanned by the cashier to redeem a coupon.
What if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch? Yowza!! hopes to develop applications for other Smartphones down the road. For now they are focusing on the iPhone.
Other Electronic Coupons
To find electronic coupons on any other cell phone, try using Cellfire. Like Yowza!!, offers are available right on your phone with no need to print and clip coupons. Participating stores include Hollywood Video, Jiffy Lube and Sears Portrait Studio. There are not as many retail store offers for Cellfire as there are for Yowza!! However, Cellfire is great for loading grocery store coupons right onto your store savings card. Participating grocery stores include Kroger, Vons, Ralphs, Dillon’s, Smith’s, and Safeway.
Shortcuts is another electronic coupon source for grocery stores. Like Cellfire, you can save coupons to your store savings card. Participating stores include Kroger, Vons, Safeway, Dillons, Ralphs, Fry’s, City Market and more.
Things to remember with grocery store e-coupons:
- Save your coupons to your store card well in advance of your shopping trip. Although it says that your coupons should be available instantly, I have found it can be several hours.
- Print out a list of the coupons you have stored on your card or make a note on your grocery list. No matter how hard I try, I can never remember the details of the coupon (i.e. is it “buy 2” or “buy 1”?).
- Electronic coupons expire just like paper coupons. Make sure you update your offers regularly.
- Electronic coupons from Cellfire and Shortcuts can only be used once and they will not double.
- If your electronic coupon did not come off at the store, contact Cellfire or Shortcuts. They may be able to give you credit on your rewards card.
Madame Deals is a blog dedicated to teaching the everyday person how to effectively save money. Their mission is to look good, feel good and live life all within the “budget”. Madame Deals will teach you the basics of couponing, the Rock Bottom Deals for the week, tips for fashion on a budget and other money saving household tips. You can also find articles and tips on raising children from Amee and Renae, who are both teachers. Remember, it is not what you save, but what you spend!
Hannah in the Heartland
Is it me or does anyone else find it ironic that the Yowza cost savings are only available to those with expensive technology like the iphone? For those of us poorer folk it would be nice if Yowza would allow us access to their exclusive offers through our PC or something.
chris hands
this looks particularly US-centric. Is there a UK version?
Hilary
Hannah, I totally agree and thought the same thing! LOL Oh, the irony. I guess the “old school” computer people are left out of the loop.
Mandi Ehman
I’m guessing there are people who feel the same way about plain ol’ printable coupons too if they don’t have access to those! It’s great that companies are looking for new and innovative ways to offer more coupons, though. Even if we can’t all access all of them, more coupons is a good thing for all of us!
Heather
Not everyone who has an iPhone is rolling in the money. I got mine for a stop stuttering app for my son, because it was cheaper to do the therapy with it than with the ear piece that costs $2495
Madame Deals
Yowza!! is working on expanding to the UK. Hopefully, they will have this app for other phones in the near future. It is very new so there is a lot more to come!
Swap Savers
Great point Hannah!
There are also eCoupons at Upromise.
Moxie
Oh, my heck! I am SO EXCITED to read this and am downloading it on my iPhone right this second!
Honestly, I have so little time (read: organizational wherewithal) to take advantage of coupon offers or finding them on the web, that I either forget or they expire or I miss out. But this? This is right at my fingertips. Here’s hoping it works in my area!
Misty
Great find, but unfortunately when I tried to download the app for my iPod Touch (which I got for free by using credit card reward points – I’m not ‘rolling in money’ either), I got a message saying ‘This application is not compatible with this iPod’.
Nano Developer
I seen this before. Very Interesting. That’s nothing though….I’m
developing the nano technology right now where people can swallow a pill and within 15 minutes the software AND hardware is downloaded right into them. (who needs a frig’n phone???) – Just point at a store and if a coupon is available they can just print it out there a**. I’m pretty busy right now, it may take awhile to develop it but mark my words it will be available within the next 10 yrs :)
Tara
Wow this is great – just downloaded it! My hubby is pretty excited about the 10% off at Guitar Center for strings. I am not seeing any McDonald’s or Target coupons – do you know if this is an error or if they maybe only run coupons occassionally? Thanks!