Best Deals Sites Online – FatWallet

This is the third in our series of best deals sites online. We’ve already discussed Slickdeals and Hot Coupon World and now take a look at FatWallet.

FatWallet

(Thanks to Christy from Art of the Coupon who shares her money saving expertise with us in this series of posts.)

FatWallet is another site that is successful because of member submissions. Like Slickdeals, they divide their site into forums which focus on different types of deals. Fat Wallet forums feature:

Hot Deals: The deals posted here are usually the same as the deals posted on Slickdeals. However, FatWallet has some exclusive relationships with certain stores, and offers coupons available only to their members. Those types of deals are authored by the site owners, instead of by regular members. They are always listed at the top of the forum, and prominently advertised as FatWallet Exclusives

Travel Deals is a forum dedicated to finding deals on plane tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other tips for traveling for less. While Slickdeals has these types of deals, they are mixed in with the general Hot Deals and are not as easy to find.

Online Auctions is a forum featuring tips and tricks for successful selling on ebay. This forum is of limited interest to anyone who doesn’t sell at online auctions, although it does offer some information for buyers on fees and taxes they might incur if they buy from certain online auctions.

One Time Use Coupons is a forum where people post coupons they receive which aren’t for general use. They usually give these coupons away to specific members who ask for them within the discussion, so if you aren’t an active contributor to Fat Wallet you may not have much success getting any deals from this forum.

Free Stuff is similar to the Slickdeals freebies forum. Many of the same offers are posted in both locations. However, Slickdeals has separated this category into Surveys and magazines, so it is a little easier to find exactly what you are looking for on Slickdeals.

Finance is probably FatWallets best forum, although it is catered to a specific audience. Here, people post general financial questions and tips for things like investing and real estate. There are also threads dedicated to good credit card offers, or to offers for free money when opening bank accounts.

If you are looking for a new credit card, or a 0% balance transfer offer, this thread can be invaluable to you. If you have a tax question, a question about your credit report, or an investment question, you can also get advice here (but take the advice with a grain of salt, because it is coming from strangers on the internet, after all).

Navigating FatWallet

– When you open a forum, you can select a Subcategory so you see only posts you are specifically interested in. For example, when you open the Hot Deals forum you can narrow your search to see only books, computers, flowers, gifts, or a number of other sub-categories of items.

– Just like on Slickdeals, there are comments from other users to help provide you with more information about the deals.

– You can subscribe to topics of interest here so you can see a list of topics that have been updated with new comments when you sign on

– You can add a post as a favorite, so that it is featured at the top of the list of topics within the forum.

– You can set a Topic Alert with specific keywords so you are notified whenever someone posts a specific deal within a certain forum. You can decide to have this alert sent to you once a day, or instantly every time someone posts a deal with that keyword so you never miss out on an opportunity to buy. You can also subscribe to different forums via RSS here as well.

Who Should Use Fat Wallet?

One of the key features of FatWallet that is not offered by Slickdeals, is Cash Back. FatWallet has a list of over 100 stores that offer cash back. If you are going to purchase anything from one of these stores (and you don’t already use a Cash Back site like Ebates or MyPoints) then you should definitely go to FatWallet first. By simply going to this list and clicking through to the store before you make your purchase, you can get anywhere from 1% to 15% of your money back.

The list is alphabetical and very easy to browse, either by category or store name. If you are just interested in general deals and freebies, FatWallet and Slickdeals are almost interchangeable as I mentioned above.

In addition, the Finance forum on FatWallet is very useful to people who open bank accounts to get free money, or who are interested in playing the Balance Transfer game on their credit cards. There is a wealth of information that can help you in these endeavors that you won’t find elsewhere. The travel deals are also organized best at FatWallet, so if you need a good rental car discount code, this should be your first stop.  

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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