Press Release

Popular voucher websites don't always compare

24 March 2009

More people are turning to discount voucher websites to get better deals when shopping, but an investigation of five popular websites by which.co.uk found that cheaper deals could often be found on price comparison sites.

which.co.uk used discount codes to shop online and then search for the same items on price comparison sites. The result was that many prices were lower on the comparison sites and, in a number of cases, discount codes were not up-to-date or didn't work at all.

In the search for a Which? Best Buy LCD TV, the best deal on the price comparison sites was £530 but the voucher sites weren't that helpful. Three of them had no results, while myvouchers.co.uk offered a 10% off voucher for the Panasonic e-shop – but the price of the TV was £781.

For CDs and DVDs the voucher code sites brought up more competitive prices. Duffy's Rockferry was the same price on the discount and comparison sites. Unfortunately High School Musical fans would have been disappointed as vouchercodes.com discount codes for hmv.com weren't recognised.

When it came to clothes the voucher websites highlighted some good savings, particularly at shops such as marksandspencer.com and also offered codes for free delivery on goods. However, figleaves.com had the same buy-one-get-one-half-price offer on its own site without the need to enter a discount code.

Jess Ross, Editor, which.co.uk, says:

"We've all received emails from friends passing on discounts from voucher websites and, in the current climate, who doesn't want to benefit from saving money?

"We found that the popular voucher websites didn't always have the best deals or the codes were out of date, so make sure you shop around and also look at price comparison sites. Those extra few minutes searching could save you significant pounds."