Summary: Virtually every consumer service you can sign up for or purchase online has special offers and discounts, especially for brand new customers. Consequently, it is just lazy and wasteful to pay much more than you need to. This type of lazy tax can be avoided efficiently by using Google search effectively, as well as directly checking the best websites that comprehensively list these offers and promotion codes. Many energy, phone, internet and other service providers provide regular "refer a friend" bonuses of around $50 for both you and the friend. Referral bonuses are often uncapped.
Even old promotion codes that are meant to expire often still work. You just need to give them a try. Start trying with the best offers first (even if years old and supposedly expired) as you can only use one promotion code at a time.
Of course, this advice is for conscious consumers only. You need to be careful not to let promotions lure you into consuming more things, more often than you otherwise would.
Often the best use of these sign-up offers is after you've selected the best value provider of a service you actually need - such as Extras health insurance or a smartphone service provider. If the provider regularly provides sign-up or switching benefits you can then ensure you switch or sign-up at a time when you can take advantage of their offer. Offers are particularly prevalent in the month before the end of the financial year (June 30th).
Gain: ~$200 to $1,000 per year depending on what and how much you buy online.
Examples: You can save up to $1,000 on brokerage with Nabtrade by using the old coupon code 1000FREE60 when signing up. It took me less than 5 minutes to find the prior offers and try out the code of the best one. You can save $50 on Kogan's 365 day smartphone plans using code: KGNLTS.
Details:
1. On the relevant merchant's website navigate to the sign up or checkout page and identify the terminology used for their offers. Then use Google Search with the name of the company and the term in exact quotes
The offer terminology could be "promotion code", "coupon code", "special offer code", "coupon", "voucher" or similar.
For example, here is the signup page for the Guardian Weekly. It uses two terms: "promotion code" and "special offer code".
A quick Google Search turns up the Guardian's own introductory offers page. 6 issues for $6 is certainly better than the default subscription of $78/quarter.
The Google Search will also turn up prior offers from websites that specialise in listing promotion codes. For Australia, these include: Ozbargain, Finder - Coupons, Ozvoucher, Dealsextra, Coupns, Buckscoop, Cuponation
While some of these offers may be very old, the codes often don't actually expire or will auto-populate the best matching current code available. So simply search the best of the sites for the best offers (old or current) and try out the codes till you find the best available.
For example, searching for "Guardian Weekly" on Ozbargain turned up several old offers. The best being a 12 weeks for $12 offer with code: LFA01.
Trying out the code LFA01 on the Guardian Weekly subscription site results in three current offers with 12 weeks for $12 being the standout:
2. Once you know the most comprehensive promotion code sites, search them directly to more easily work through all the offers (current and past) and then try out the best ones
In addition to Google Search, I tend to use OzBargain directly to find out potential codes and the best offers (current or old). Before signing up to Nabtrade I did a search on Ozbargain directly and found the following offers:
A quick read through revealed that the best old offer by far was the $1,000 of free brokerage. While this supposedly expired on 31 March 2014, it worked when I signed up in Nov 2015 and I believe it still works today.
3. When considering signing up to a new service check the best promotion-tracking sites for sign up offers
Becoming a new customer often doesn't involve a "promotion code" box in the signup form to enter a code into. Instead, there may be sign up promotion with a site-specific landing page and instructions.
Nevertheless, you can still use promotion-tracking sites like OzBargain to search for available sign up offers. They will often have specific landing pages and instructions.
For example, ING Direct constantly runs a sign up promotion for new Orange Everyday transaction accounts. You can sign up for a new account in 5 minutes with no cash bonus. Or you can spend an extra minute filling in the sign up bonus form and get a free $75.
4. Use "refer a friend" bonuses wherever available. If you can't find a friend borrow one from a money-saving website forum like Ozbargain
Many energy, phone, internet and other service providers provide regular "refer a friend" bonuses of around $50 for both you and the friend. Referral bonuses are often uncapped.
For example, I determined Red Energy was the cheapest for gas prices in 2017 and wanted to switch to them. I first asked via Facebook if any friends were Red Energy customers and wanted a free $50 gift card.
If that had failed I would have simply borrowed a referral friend via the Ozbargain website forum
Either way, there is never a good reason to leave free money on the table. This kind of "free money" is all funded by customers so not taking it amounts to opting to pay the lazy tax.
Further Info:
Canstar
> Health insurance sign-up promotions
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