Be Careful When You Shop On Coupon Websites

You may read Smith Leong’s account of how he ended up paying $88 for a membership he did not expect here.

The original incident that prompted me to write this post took place while I was walking down Orchard Road, when a group of guys tried to hard-sell me some Manhattan Fish Market coupons for $19.90. The coupons were fairly attractive, with a savings value of over $100, but I pointed out to them that there was no way I could use them all up before they expire at the end of the year. They continued to try to sell me on the value, saying I could share them with friends, etc, but no. Budget Babe does not fall for that sort of stuff, so I walked away.

(Also, you can easily find coupons for Manhattan online, such as on Groupon, so why pay?)



I did a quick search online, and realized that there are quite a number of online coupon-saving sites in Singapore where consumers are asked to pay for membership first before getting access to the discounts. Furthermore, according to many blogs and Facebook posts I saw, many of these consumers are not able to get back their refunds. 

I also noticed that many of the sites I found, also happen to be owned by the same company, which is helmed by a successful expat CEO who lives in a landed property here in Singapore.

Here are some of the user complaints about StreetDeal which I came across:

1. StreetDeal Singapore

On some sites, many prior users have also expressed their difficulty in getting back their refunds.

Source: Streetdeal Singapore consumer interests group Facebook page

Here are 3 more coupon websites I personally avoid like the plague.

2. RivaLife

Owned by Asia Deal Group, where on their company website, they state that they also own StreetDeal. 

3. SaveTheDeals



Their promise is that you can save up to $140 each month, but before I could see what offers they had, I had to first pay $1 for a trial access, which would get automatically upgraded to membership for $35 monthly from then on.

Maybe some folks are willing to pay all that money and contribute to the company’s profits, but definitely not me.



They’ll sell you based on the fact that you’ll get refunded. Do you? Once you purchase a deal, you have to scan the receipt to them and there are user reviews online sharing that it takes 30 days for them to “process” a refund. Membership is automatically renewed, but once you’re no longer their member, they’re no longer entitled to pay you any money back?



4. MySweetSavings 


Looks familiar?


Coupon Sites I Personally Use

But honestly, if you’re smart enough to use coupons, there’s a lot of free money waiting around for you to take advantage of.

When I was living in the U.S. previously, I picked up independence, as well as quite a few nifty tricks to save money (after all, I was a student on a budget, without my parents’ financial backing). One of the biggest tricks we used was coupon-ing, where our landlord had coupon subscriptions which were delivered regularly to our front door. 

Before we went anywhere, we always looked out for a coupon we could use. Discounted tickets for Red Flags, 2-for-1 purchases for groceries at Costco…and I daresay we saved a ton of money!

However, with sites like the ones I mentioned above, please read the T&Cs carefully lest you end up paying more than you expected to. Here are the 3 coupon providers I use regularly instead:

1. Groupon

I wrote about how this site helped me to save tons of money in previous posts before. Furthermore, they’re a reputable company and some of the deals can be quite value-for-money. Just remember to check the terms and conditions before buying so you know the conditions tied to the deal.

You’ll have to pay via credit card or Paypal to Groupon before you can get the deal, and I always have this irrational fear that my card will get over-charged, but thank goodness Groupon hasn’t let me down so far.

2. Flipit

I was recently asked by FlipIt to contribute a budget beauty tip (you can read the article here) and as a result, got introduced to their money-saving platform which comes with a blog.

They have a cool feature where you can browse by merchants you frequent, and find even more information on when new discounts for that store will appear on the page. I use GrabTaxi for most of my cab bookings, so this was really useful for me.

Some of their coupons which I love.

I eat brunch pretty often, and this is the first time I’m being told a brunch item doesn’t count as a main.