Daily Money Tip: Learn to Tell the Difference Between a Manufacturer and a Store Coupon

Many stores allow the use of one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon on one item. The problem is how can you tell which one if a manufacturer coupon and which one is a store coupon to see if you can stack them?

Here is a visual tutorial on how to tell the difference. A manufacturer coupon (image below), has a barcode that starts with a number 5. Other Manufacturer coupons starts with a number 9 but those are the minority.  Another telling tale of a manufacturer coupon is that they have additional wording on the face of the coupon telling the retailer where to mail this coupon for reimbursement.

Store coupons usually don’t usually start with a number five.  they also don’t include any wording on the face of the coupon telling the retailer how to get reimbursed.  Another telling tale of store coupons is that they will say: Good at “X” store only.  That’s because if you were to take this coupon to another store and try to use it the register would not be able to read the store’s coupon bar-code and provide you a discount.  The bar-code for this coupon only works at the store that issued the coupon.

Here are two examples of store coupons so you can visualize the differences.  The first is a Target store coupon

The second is a Walgreens store coupon.

I hope this helps clear some of the confusion regarding manufacturer and store coupons.  If you have any more questions, make sure to leave a comment with it.

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