A code that does not work is worse than no code
Collecting codes is the easy part. Knowing whether they still work is the part most sites skip, and it is the only reason a page like ours is worth opening. Here is exactly what we do.
First, straight from the store
Every code comes from the shop itself, from a page they control, or from the affiliate network they run. Nothing is scraped off another coupon site, and nothing is guessed by pattern.
Then, into a real basket
Somebody adds a product, types the code in at checkout and watches the total. If the number does not move, the code does not go up, however good it looked.
After that, checked twice a day
Codes die quietly and without warning. We go back to the live ones twice a day, so a code that stopped working this morning is gone by this afternoon.
What a check actually involves
A person does this by hand, one code at a time. It takes a few minutes and it goes the same way every time.
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A clean browser, not ours
The store opens in a private window with no account signed in, no saved basket and no cookie from an earlier visit. A signed in account can carry a member price or a discount already applied, which would show a saving the code did not make.
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A basket that matches what the code claims
Sitewide, and the cheapest item in the shop goes in. Named to a category, and an item from that category goes in plus one from outside it, to see whether the discount really is limited. If there is a minimum spend, the basket is built just over the line and then just under it.
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The code goes in at checkout
Not on the basket page. Some shops accept a code there and drop it later. It goes in at the last step before payment, which is where you will type it.
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The total is watched, not the message
Plenty of shops print a green tick and change nothing. The order total before and the order total after are what decide it. Nothing is ever paid for, the basket is abandoned at the payment step.
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Whatever the checkout reveals is written down
The real amount off, the minimum spend, the items it refused, an expiry if the shop shows one, and whether it applied before or after shipping. That is where the small print under each code comes from. It is what the checkout did, not what the marketing email said.
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The listing is stamped
The code, the discount, the terms and the date and time of the test go in together. That timestamp is what the site prints under the code as Checked, so the age of a check is never guesswork.
What stops a code going up
A code has to survive all of that, not most of it. Any one of these and it is not published.
The total did not move
Accepted at checkout, no money off. The most common failure by far.
It needs an account, a newsletter or an app
If it only works for signed up customers, the card says so. If it cannot be made to work without joining something, it does not go up.
It works once
Single use codes, and codes tied to one customer, are worthless on a public page. Whoever reads it second gets an error.
It excludes the thing people came for
A sink code that quietly excludes every sink is not a sink code. Where the exclusions gut the offer it is not listed, and where they merely narrow it they go in the small print.
It only works in one country
Region locked codes are listed with the region named. A code that works in the United Arab Emirates and nowhere else should not waste the time of somebody in Ohio.
Offers with no code
Some deals need no code: free shipping over an amount, or a run of reduced prices. Those are checked the same way, minus the typing. A basket is built to the threshold and the shipping line or the price is read off the checkout. If the shop claims free shipping over $200 and the checkout charges $38 on a $210 basket, the offer does not go up.
What the marks on a code mean
Two things on every card tell you how much to trust it, and both are worth understanding before you rely on one.
Somebody took this code to a real checkout and the total changed. It does not mean the store approved it, or paid for it, or knows we exist. It means it worked when it was tried.
The last time it was tested, not the last time the page was edited. A code checked minutes ago is worth more than one checked last week, so the time is on the card rather than buried in a policy.
What happens when a code stops working
It comes down the same day. Not at the end of the month, and not when somebody complains. If a store tells us a code has ended, it goes immediately, before we have tested anything.
Codes that ended stay visible on the store page under Recently ended, with the date they stopped. That is deliberate. Half the offers in this category come back, and it is useful to know a store ran 15 percent off last spring. It also means nobody spends an afternoon hunting a code we quietly deleted.
What we will not do
We do not invent codes
No generated guesses, no SAVE10 typed in hope. Every code on the site came from the store or their network.
We do not sell position
A store cannot pay to be listed higher, to be called verified, or to have an expired code left up. There is no advertising on the site.
We do not hide the money
Some links to stores earn us a commission if you buy, which is what pays for the checking. It costs you nothing and it changes nothing about which codes go up or in what order. Stores with no affiliate programme are listed on the same terms as the ones that have one.
We do not use fake photographs of real products
Product pictures come from the workshop that made the piece. A picture of a sink you are about to buy has to be that sink.
If a code fails for you
Tell us about itIt happens. A store pulls an offer mid morning, or a code turns out to exclude the one thing you were buying. Every card has a Did this work? pair underneath it, and pressing No sends it back to us to retest.
Or use the form just below. Tell us the store and the code and we will have an answer for you the same day, either a working code or an honest no. hello@justgetdeal.com reaches a person too.
Why we bother
This category is not $20 t-shirts. A copper sink is $220 to $1,700 and a bath can be more, so people research for weeks and go looking for a code in the last five minutes before they buy. Finding a dead one at that moment is the difference between a good purchase and an annoying evening.
The workshops we list are small enough that a single sale matters to them too. Checking properly is the least the arrangement deserves.
See today's codesIf a code fails for you
It happens. A store pulls an offer mid morning, or a code turns out to exclude the one thing you were buying. Tell us and we will retest it the same day.
Every code card also has a Did this work? pair under it. Pressing No sends it straight to us, which is quicker than this form if you are already looking at the code.