You maybe familiar with tips on how to save money by using coupons. If not, go and read our previous article to learn about the various methods to cut down your expenses. But are you familiar with the terms and abbreviations used by coupon websites?
They may look like they are not using common English you know, and in fact that it is true. Because the Coupon lingo, which websites use is quite sophisticated.
Don’t worry about that though, we made a cool Coupon Terms Dictionary, with detailed descriptions, just to help you. When you become familiar with these abbreviations, you will be able to find more coupons, and also judge which ones offer the best value, and which ones you cannot miss.
- AC- This term is used to mention the price after a coupon has been applied, and hence called after coupon.
- ALA – A term you should often look out for, as it determines that the discount offered is “As low as it will ever be”, meaning the product will never go on sale below the price offered by the coupon.
- AR – When you buy something at a store, sometimes a portion of the purchase price, is returned to you by the seller, this is called rebate. Some coupons offer rebates for purchases made when a coupon is in effect, so the term means After Rebate.
- B1G1 – This one is everyone’s favorite, because it means buy one product and get another one for free.
- B2G1 – Similar to the one above, but you have to buy two products to get one for free.
- Blinkie – SmartSource coupon dispensed near a product in a store.
- BOGO – Another way to say buy one get one free.
- BOLO – Be on the look out for is a term used by coupon users, wen they want a particular coupon or coupon for a specific product or website.
- CAT – Also called catalina, these coupons are dispensed at the cash register when you make the payment.
- C/O – This term means cents off, as in the number of cents off of a product’s price. Usually used for discounts on low priced products.
- CO – Another term for cents off.
- Coupon – A discount code, or a direct discount (such as we offer), for a particular product, using which you can buy the said product, for a lower price than it is normally sold for.
- Couponing – The practice of using coupons for most purchases you make, so you save more money. Can also be used for collecting coupons for future purchases.
- CPN – This is short for coupon, which as you know is the heart of the money saving concept.
- CQ – Used to denote a competitor’s coupon, especially when the website is offering a better discount than its rival.
- CRT– Cash register tape, aka the receipt which you get from a store.
- DCRT – Dated cash register tape, sometimes required for rebate.
- DCRTC – Dated cash register tape which has a circle around the price of a product, which has a rebate offer.
- DD – Dead deal, as in a discounted sale which is no longer available. This is an ethical of advertising the store’s past offers, and also to inform the buyer that they cannot avail the offer because it has expired.
- DND – Do not double or “Does not double”, usually a term used to indicate the buyer not to use multiple coupons on a single product, or a specific product, often from the same manufacturer or seller.
- DNT – Similar to above, (refer to Triple Coupons)
- Double coupon – A coupon which offers twice the discount of its face value. Normally these coupons are advised to be used specific to the value they carry. So, if you have a cent coupon such as $0.50 or $0.75, do not use them with a product that costs $1, simply because the discount will not be available for the latter.
- Doubled coupon – Same as the one above, but done automatically during checkout.
- DQ – This is an abbreviated form of “Digital Coupon”, which is what online stores, such as we offer.
- EA – Each, or that the coupon is redeemable for every product, or the ones listed on a particular sale page.
- Exclusive Coupon: A coupon which can either only be used by you or a specific person, or is tied to a particular seller or store.
- Exclusive Deal: A sale which only you can avail, usually with a unique coupon, or is only offered by a one store or a seller.
- Exp – This is a tricky one as it can be used to indicated three statuses of coupons. Expires (soon), or to mention the Expiration date of a specific coupon, or to indicate a coupon has expired.
- Extreme Couponing – The practice of extreme money saving, by using coupons as much as possible, to maximize your savings.
- FAC – Free after coupon, similar to free item coupon mentioned below.
- FAR – Similar to AR, but it stands for free after rebate, as in you get a full refund after buying the product using a coupon.
- Filler – Sometimes you may be required to buy products to reach a certain amount, say for example $10 to avail a discount coupon. You can add a product which you wish to buy, and add random cheap products to bring up the price high enough to use the coupon, so this is sort of filling your shopping cart.
- Flash Sale – A sudden sale which is held to surprise buyers. These sales offer great value for money, sometimes offering the lowest prices ever, and as a result are quite often time limited sales, which may only be available for few hours or a day or two.
- Free item coupon – A coupon which lets you get a product for free, without having to make any prior purchase.
- Freebie – Something which you get for free for purchasing a product.
- FS – When you buy a physical or boxed product, sometimes the seller will offer to ship it to your address free of charge, when you use a coupon code. This is called as free shipping or free shipping code.
- FSI – A booklet of coupons called free standing insert, usually distributed in Sunday newspapers.
- GC – Gift cards or gift certificates or gift coupons are those which you can give to someone for their birthday, or a special occasion like a wedding anniversary or even for the holiday season, and the person can use them to buy whatever product they want as long as it is within the redeemable limit, or value of the coupon.
- GDA – When there is a very good discount, some websites mark them as such to indicate a “Good deal alert”, so buyers don’t miss the discount. Usually this is used for a steep discount, or for a lowest price ever sort of deal.
- Hangtag (HGT or HT) – A coupon found hanging on a bottle’s neck, jar, etc
- HDA – Hot deal alert, similar to GDA, but to indicate a popular product is on sale at an excellent price.
- Insert – A booklet of coupons issued in Sunday newspapers.
- IP – A coupon which you can print from the internet to redeem at a local store. Could also be a form which you have to fill up to avail a discount.
- ISO – Usually used by coupon hunters, when they are “in search of” a particular coupon, for a product or a store.
- Limited Time Offer: Similar to flash sales, but these are often longer, spanning from a few days to a week or two, until the stocks last. This may be restricted to one or more products.
- Limited Time Sale: Quite similar to the one above, but may include multiple products, depending on the store’s line up.
- Loyalty Bonus: Coupons or discounts rewarded to regular customers of a store.
- Loyalty Card: Similar to loyalty bonus, but more of a permanent reward where you can accumulate points to redeem a reward, or better discounts.
- Matchup: The process of matching a coupon to a product which is on sale. This saves you more money, than when you use a coupon to purchase something at its regular price.
- MFR: A coupon straight from the manufacturer of a product. You can try using it by double couponing for saving more money.
- MIR – Some sellers offer you a rebate when you purchase a software, and fill up a form, the information in which is used for sending a partial refund. This happens both on online and offline stores.
- Money Maker – A Coupon whose face value, is more than the actual price of a product. So yes, you actually get money for using this coupon to buy a product for free., but instead of giving you cash the store may let you use the balance amount as a discount on something else you buy now.
- MQ – A coupon from the Manufacturer, similar to an MFR.
- NAZ – The name, address and zip code information which you have to provide, to buy a product online. This is usually for shipping the product to the buyer.
- NCB – Some coupons grant you a rebate, also referred to as cashback. When a coupon clearly says NCB, it means it will not give you any cashback at all. But that’s okay as it may grant you a discount.
- NCR – Used by sellers when they provide information or terms and conditions, which are not coupon related.
- NED – Some coupons can be availed anytime, with no validity date, mentioned whatsoever, These year round discounts are referred to as no expiration date coupons.
- Net Cost – The final price of a product, which is calculated after applying a coupon, or a discounted price, and other offers.
- NIB – A product which is in new in box, or in mint condition from the manufacturer.
- NIP – Quite similar to a new in box product, only this is called new in package.
- NLA – Something you don’t want to see while looking for coupons, because it stands for “No longer available. Can be an expired coupon, or a dead deal, or a discontinued product, or a product which is no longer offered for sale.
- OOS – Kind of bad news like the one above, but its better because it says a product is out of stock, usually because it is sold out. That means it could come back on sale, depending on the demand from buyers.
- Overage: Very similar to moneymaker, but when you use a coupon to get a product for free and still have money left from the face value of the coupon, you can use the balance to avail a a discount on something else in the store.
- OYNO: Certain sellers may offer discounts, “on your next order”, instead of the one you are placing right now. This can be a way of a loyalty bonus, to thank the customer by offering them a discount when they buy something the next time.
- OYNP – On your next purchase, ala the same as the one we explained above this.
- Piggyback – Stacking one coupon over another, sometimes specific for each product, to reduce expenses.
- Peelie – A coupon which you can peel off a package and redeem for a discount, or freebie.
- PM – Price Matching is done on both online and offline stores, when you as a buyer show some evidence to the seller which proves a rival seller is offering the same product, but with at a better discount. The seller may then offer a discount to match the price offered by his competitor..
- POP – Proof of purchase, or a receipt which you may have to send a scanned copy of, to the seller, when you want to make use of a rebate offer, or to get a refund.
- PP – The purchase price of a product, often called as the regular or normal price.
- PP – Though the abbreviation’s letters spell out similar to its predecessor, this is also widely used as a shortened name for Paypal, the secure online payment method used by millions worldwide.
- PPFF – A reference to Paypal’s friends and family payment option.
- Printable – A coupon code which you can print and redeem at a local store, during the checkout process.
- PSA – This refers to “price starting at”, or can be in the plural form “prices”, to attract buyers to purchase a product which is on sale.
- Q – This is the shortest way to refer to the word coupon. It is not a very commonly used one these days.
- R – A coupon which has geo-restrictions, meaning it can only be used in a particular region. You can come across these at many online stores, which employ a regional pricing model.
- Rain Check – A voucher or a slip of paper, which is signed by the store manager, entitling the buyer to buy a product at a sale-price later, when the product was out of stock at the time of signing the paper.
- Stacking – This is also like coupon doubling, but sometimes you will be able to stack multiple coupons, or a coupon and a sale, to get a deeper discounts. Stackable coupons can also be a combination of discounts from a manufacturer and a seller.
- Super Doubles – These are coupons that offer double the face value, for e.g: a $1 discount coupon may get you a $2 discount. This should not be confused with coupon doubling or stacking.
- Surprise Sale – Kind of like a flash sale, but may be held to to celebrate a store’s landmark achievement, or a product’s launch.
- Tearpad – A set of coupons, or rebate or refund forms usually found hanging at shelves in stores.
- Time limited deal – Sales which are set to last over a period of hours, days or weeks.
- Triple Coupon – Just like double coupon, but offers triple the face value of the coupon.
- TMF- Try Me Free is yet another form of rebate, usually in the “mail in rebate” format, where you get a full refund of the product, which you purchased earlier.
- Unique Coupon: A coupon which can only redeemed by the person who has it, i.e., which has a unique code per buyer.
- UPC: Universal Product Code refers to a code which can be used for tracking a specific product.
- WL – Wish List, or the products which a person wants to buy, but hasn’t because he is waiting for a discount on their prices.
- WSL – A term used to represent discounts, sales or coupons offered while supplies last, and if the product goes out of stock, the refreshed inventory will not have the sale price on it.
- WYB: You may get a discount or a rebate, only when you buy a product. This may not be visible in the store’s listing, but the final discounted price can be seen at the checkout page.
- YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary, is something which coupon lovers tell when sharing coupons with other users, or to warn them that their shopping experience may be different as opposed to the own they themselves had.
Coupon terms which are store specific, and abbreviated names of various retail supply chains:
- Albies – Albertsons grocery store.
- BTFE – Box Tops for Education which lets you redeem points from products of Kimberly-Clark and General Mills.
- CLFE (LFE) – Campbell’s Labels for Education, which allows schools to send labels from Campbell’s products, to earn money.
- CVS – Consumer Value Store pharmacy
- ECB – Extra Care Bucks which are rewarded for CVS purchases
- FL – Food Lion grocery store
- FLIP – Internet printable coupons which FL offers.
- GM – General Mills food company
- HT – Harris Teeter grocery store.
- IVC – Walgreens instant value coupon usually found in their store’s catalog.
- KG – Kroger grocery store.
- KM – Kmart retail chain store.
- PG (P&G) – Proctor & Gamble insert coupon (Sunday newspapers)
- RA – Rite-Aid pharmacy
- RR – Catalina coupons issued at Walgreens are called Register Rewards.
- SCR – Rite-Aid pharmacy’s single check rebate offer.
- SS – Insert coupons issued by News Marketing America’s SmartSource in Sunday newspapers, Blinkie coupons, printable coupons.
- STG – Super Target retail chain store + grocery store
- SW – Safeway grocery store
- SWM – Super Walmart retail chain store + grocery store
- WD – Winn Dixie grocery store.
- WM – Walmart retail chain store
Which Coupon abbreviations should I watch out for?
I’m glad you asked this question. Many of the above terms are a great way to keep an eye out for, or for Googling for the best deals and discounts.
The coupons which offer the best value for money, are undoubtedly “free item coupon” because you get the product without paying a cent, but these are quite rare, and are usually samples of newly launched products given away to raise brand awareness.
Rebates are always welcome, even if it is a meager 1% or 10% or a full 100% rebate, think of it as getting free money. Moneymaker and loyalty discounts are a great way to get useful products, and also build a rapport with the store you frequent.
B1G1 or BOGO, and B2G1 are excellent offers to watch out for as you literally get another of the same product for free. Super Doubles, Double Coupons and Triple Coupons are also a good way to minimize your expenses.
GDA’s and HDA’s are usually what people are after. If you are an extreme couponer, you must learn the skills of coupon matchup to use the coupon only when a sale is in place. ALA’s are well worth waiting for, because you know for sure the price won’t drop further. Make use of price matching whenever possible to save a few extra bucks.
Above all else, patience is the key, if you want to save money. Take your rime to go through the deal pages, or shelves in a store and see the prices of each product, and compare them to see which one offers you more quantity for a lesser price. Always keep an eye out for coupons in the display of stores, or the packaging of products.
We really hope all these terms will help you understand the deals which you find on the internet om a better way. A lot of people use these abbreviations when sharing discounts, as it is easier than typing the full words, and also because some networks such as Twitter do not allow a lot of characters in a single message.
Happy Couponing.