My Best New Online Shopping Tip!

Yep, I am a girl who likes to shop online. No dragging kids out to the mall, no getting out of my PJs, no going from store to store looking for a good deal- I simply shop for what I want, pay with my credit card, and PRESTO- a few days later the big brown truck pulls up my driveway to deliver a package of goodies (and sends my dog into hyper-drive!).  Now over the years I have accumulated a bit of online shopping wisdom that I always try to put to good use…..

1. Before buying any item-always research the price first!
2. Before checking out and completing your purchase, always check to see if a coupon is available for that retailer (Retailmenot is a favorite reference site!)
3. Check rebate sites (such as Extrabux or Ebates) to see if they are offering cash back for purchases (and you can even do this once you have added items to your shopping cart)

But recently, I learned something new- and I wanted to share the details with you!

I prefer to shop online and pay with one of my credit cards because both of my credit cards offer some sort of a rewards system- either points that can be applied towards rewards or cash back (which I love even more!). But I always have to look up my credit card #s when I want to use them, which is a bit of a pain. (Of course a younger, more nimble, less “Mommy-brain” mind might not have this problem…. because a younger brain might be capable of memorizing the numbers!) And I rarely trust a retailer enough to allow them to store my credit card information for me on their site…. it’s not that I worry that they will abuse it- but there are nasty Internet hackers out there people!

So what’s a savvy shopper to do?

Allow me to introduce you to my new cool shopping tool…. V.me!

This new service offered by Visa allows you to store your credit card and your address information on their site, so when you check out with a participating retailer, all you need to do is to sign in to your V.me account (when checking out) and BOOM- your address, your payment information is all there! And the retailer doesn’t have any of your credit card information- it’s all handled by Visa! Love this!

And while this is a new service…. there are some great retailers who are already accepting V.me….

So here’s how I used it…..

I wrote a few weeks ago about my latest obsession with homemade tomato soup (and if you haven’t tried it yet- shame on you- it truly is THAT amazing!), and since then I have made this soup at least once a week. But I have a small problem. It’s a pain in the butt to transfer the soup in small batches to my blender after it has been cooked to puree the tomato and onion pieces. I end up dumping some of it on the counter, I often burn myself while trying to hold the top on the blender (even with a towel covering it)…. in short-it’s an issue. So I want one of those stick-blender thingys. And even at $65 (the “line price”) it’s probably worth it- because a big bowl at Panera’s is more than $5- and I am enjoying this soup at least 3 times a week- so my “pay back” is in a little over a month! (Purchase is now “justified” in my mind)!

So let’s see if we get can get ourselves a deal!

I started by searching for the best price in Google…. which looks to be $34.95

I then checked out the current price at Cooking.com, a V.me participating retailer….

Okay- great! It’s also priced here at $34.95! Now let’s see if I can score any other deals on this…. So next we’ll check to see if any of my favorite rebate sites are offering cash back at Cooking.com….

And whoo hoo! Ebates is offering 5% cash back!  (Note, this will not affect the check-out price today, but this money will come back to me as part of my quarterly cash-back rebate check mailed to me from Ebates. I will take that!)

Now let’s see if I can find any other coupon codes that are active right now for Cooking.com….

And there’s one for 10% off site-wide! So I can save $3.50 for doing nothing more than looking up a coupon code! Easy-peasy baby!

And finally, I will check-out with V.me….

Now if I had spent another $19 I would have received free shipping, but since there wasn’t anything else I needed, I ended up forking over the $6.49 in shipping costs. Personally, I hate to pay for shipping…. but scoring the stick blender for a total of $37.94 when I was truly willing to pay $65 for it before tax makes it a pretty good deal in my book.

So I guess I will celebrate next week by making another big batch of my yummy homemade tomato soup!

This post is brought to you by V.me by Visa. Online payment. Simple and secure.