It has become easy to get coupons online. Often, all you have to do is sign up for them at a manufacturer’s website or through a site that generates coupons. If you are new to couponing, you might not know that doing this can potentially generate a lot of spam in your inbox. Here are some tips to use that will let you collect coupons and avoid the spam.

How to Get Online Coupons, But Avoid the Spam

Make a New Email Address
This simple trick has been used for years! Create a brand new email address. Keep using your current email address the same way you always do. When you find a coupon website that you want to sign up with give them your “coupons only” email address.

The new email address will catch all the coupons (as well as any spam that arrives). You can quickly skim through that inbox, print the coupons, and delete the spam. When you are shopping, and a cashier asks for your email address, give them the “coupons only” one. That will help cut down on spam from stores, and still give you access to the coupons you want.

Choose to Opt Out
Sometimes, it is impossible to get a coupon unless you fill out a form. Look closely for any boxes that the company has “helpfully” checked for you. If all you want is the coupon, then you should uncheck the boxes that are not for coupons.

Do you want to receive their newsletter? That’s up to you. Not all newsletters will contain coupons. All of them should contain helpful and/or interesting information. If you don’t want it, then uncheck that box. Does the box say something about giving the company permission to send you email from their affiliates? You might want to opt-out of that. It isn’t always clear who their affiliates are, and there is no way to know how often they will want to send you email.

Use Your Spam Filter
Oh no! You gave your “real” email address when you filled out one of those forms. Now, your inbox is getting stuffed full of spam! What should you do now?

The best thing to do is make use of your spam filter. See that email that you know, for certain, is nothing more than spam? There should be a way to select it without having to open it up. Click the box next to that email, and look for a button called “Report as Spam”. Click that button, and the spam (from that particular email address) will be sent to your spam folder instead of your inbox.

Unsubscribe
You signed up for a newsletter because you thought it might be interesting. But, it wasn’t as cool as you hoped. Maybe you just don’t have time to read it anymore, or have stopped using products from that company. Look closely at the bottom of that email. Click the link that says “unsubscribe”. This will stop that newsletter from ending up in your inbox.

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