Discount vouchers Discount vouchers – best deals

Discount vouchers for electrical goods

Price comparison sites were cheaper than discount voucher sites for this Panasonic TV

We looked at deals on one of our Best Buy LCD TVs – the Panasonic Viera TX-32LZD80.

The TV was priced at £599 on Johnlewis.com, Play.com and Hughesdirect.co.uk – three of your favourite online retailers for electricals, according to our November 2008 .

Searching for 'Panasonic' on the top five discount voucher sites wasn't that helpful – there were no results on Hotukdeals.com, Vouchercodes.co.uk and Everydaysale.co.uk. Vouchercodes.com brought up a link to a £30 off voucher for orders over £600 at Flattelly.co.uk, which was selling the TV for £615.

Myvouchercodes.co.uk offered a 10% off voucher for the Panasonic e-shop – but there the TV cost £781.

Searching the 'electricals' categories on each site turned up better results. The vouchers on Hotukdeals.com and Everydaysale.co.uk featured a 10% discount code for Marshallward.co.uk, where we found the TV listed for £599. With the discount, it cost £539.

Myvouchercodes.co.uk, Vouchercodes.co.uk and Vouchercodes.com listed only electricals sellers, not products.

Searching comparison sites was both quicker and easier for finding the lowest price. We found the TV for around £530 – £173 less than the worst discount voucher deal – via Which? Compare, Kelkoo and Pricerunner.

VERDICT Price comparison sites were cheaper than discount voucher websites.

Discount vouchers for CDs and DVDs

Discount voucher code sites and price comparison sites gave the same prices for this CD and DVD

We searched for deals on a Duffy CD and the High School Musical 3 DVD.

Hotukdeals.com brought up several posts from users who had found the DVD priced at £8 in Asda.co.uk and Tesco.com but, when we checked, it was priced at £12.91 on both sites.

Google and Kelkoo showed that Play.com and Hmv.com were selling it for £11.99, which seemed to be the best price available. So we checked to see if any of the voucher sites offered a discount for Play.com or Hmv.com.

Hotukdeals.com brought up a user's listing for a 5% discount for Play.com, but it was for RAC members only, though the user claimed it worked universally.

We also found vouchers for Hmv.com – 15% or 20% off, at Vouchercodes.com – but neither codes were recognised.

When we searched for the cheapest way to buy Duffy's CD, Amazon and Hmv.com came out cheapest on our price comparison sites, at £7.99, so we checked to see if we could get a discount on Amazon from any of the voucher websites.

Only Myvouchercodes.co.uk had a relevant discount, but the code promising '50% off CDs and wine' again wasn't recognised.

We also searched the discount sites for the CD itself. Vouchercodes.com and Myvouchercodes.co.uk directed us to Cdwow, where it cost £7.99, though the website hadn't come up on our price comparison sites. They weren't offering discounts for Cdwow.

VERDICT Discount voucher code sites offered the same prices as comparison sites.

Discount vouchers for clothing

Discount voucher sites highlighted some good savings on clothing at Marksandspencer.com

We looked for discounts for Johnlewis.com, Marksandspencer.com and Figleaves.com.

Figleaves.com

Everydaysale.co.uk and Myvouchercodes.co.uk had buy-one-get-one-half-price codes for multipacks of underwear on Figleaves.com. But the website itself was offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal, without the need to enter a discount code.

Hotukdeals.com and Vouchercodes.com had several three-for-two offers for Figleaves.com, but the codes didn’t work. They had all expired.

Marksandspencer.com

Marksandspencer.com features its own page of special offers and discounts, and Vouchercodes.co.uk simply listed the deals that were advertised on this page.

Everydaysale.co.uk and Vouchercodes.com listed codes that promised £10 off a £100 spend, or £5 off a £50 spend, but they had expired.

Myvouchercodes.co.uk had the same offers listed, but noted that they had expired. Hotukdeals.com listed a different code for £10 off a £100 spend, which did work.

Johnlewis.com

When we looked for discounts to use on Johnlewis.com, Vouchercodes.com seemed to offer a long list of deals but, on closer inspection, the site simply listed offers that come as standard for John Lewis customers, such as free delivery.

Vouchercodes.co.uk also listed sale items that could be found on Johnlewis.com’s own special offers pages. And, again, there were expired codes on Everydaysale.co.uk and Myvouchercodes.com.

VERDICT Discount voucher code sites highlighted some good savings.