A code gets rejected at checkout and it feels like the code was fake. Usually it was not. Something in the terms did not match the basket, and the terms were rarely on the page you copied the code from.
We went through all 12,983 codes currently live on CouponHub to see what the terms actually say. Here is what comes up, in the order it causes trouble.
Why do coupon codes fail at checkout?
Five reasons cover nearly all of it: a minimum spend you have not reached, a discount that only applies to part of the basket, a code meant for a different kind of customer, an expiry that has passed, and the wrong store. None of them is the retailer being dishonest. All of them are written in the terms, which is the part that gets dropped when a code is copied from site to site.
Of the live codes we carry, 2,625 state at least one condition in their own terms. That is one in five, and those are only the ones where the merchant said so plainly.
Is there a minimum spend you have not met?
This is the most common single reason. 1,085 live codes state a minimum order value, and the median is $139, which is well above the average basket at most of these stores.
The gap between the headline and the threshold is where it stings. NatureMade runs 25% off on orders over $30, which most vitamin orders clear without trying.
Reibii runs the same 25% off, but over $350. Identical percentage, completely different offer.
Zapaka sits in between at 20% off orders over $109.
At the top end the thresholds get high enough that the discount is smaller than it sounds. The largest minimums in our catalogue are $4,000, and the offers attached to them are "$200 off on orders over $4,000" and "$500 off on orders over $4,000". The first of those is 5%. A dollars-off headline hides its own percentage, so it is worth doing the division before deciding a code is generous.
Does the discount apply to your whole basket?
Often not. 963 live codes apply to part of the basket only, against 939 that state they are sitewide. Those two numbers being roughly equal is the thing worth knowing.
Two live examples, quoted from the codes themselves:
- Tidewe lists a 90% off code. The terms read "buy 2, get 2nd 90% off clearance items". It is 90% off one clearance item, and only if you buy two of them. The code that applies to the whole order at that store is 22%.
- Piscifun lists 70% off. The terms read "buy 3, get the fourth 70% off". You need four items before any of it applies. Sitewide at that store is 20%.
Both are legitimate offers. Neither is 90% or 70% off your order, and a listing that prints the number without the sentence after it has told you almost nothing. Across the catalogue, 727 of the 8,463 codes that quote a percentage have a percentage that cannot be compared with another one, because it applies to a second item, a specific product, or a bundle.
Is the code meant for someone else?
Customer-specific codes look identical to public ones. UNice runs a 60% off code that is for returning customers only, so a first order will be refused. First-order codes are the mirror image: if you have bought there before, the account is already disqualified.
Student, military, newsletter and app-only codes behave the same way. The checkout rarely tells you which rule you broke, which is why a perfectly valid code can look dead.
Has the code actually expired?
9,636 of our live codes carry an expiry date, which is 74% of them. The other quarter state nothing, and a code with no stated expiry can still stop working whenever the merchant decides.
The dates themselves are worth a caution. Only 5,387 of those expiries fall within the next year. The remaining 4,249 are further out than that, and they are mostly padding: 2,479 codes are dated 31 December 2050, and the catalogue contains codes dated 2106 and one dated 2222. Retailer feeds fill that field with a far-future date when the merchant has not set one. So a distant expiry is not a promise that the code still works, and we do not present it as one.
Are you on the right store?
Retail brands share names, and a code for one will not work at the other. The same brand can also run separate storefronts for different regions, with separate code pools, so a code from a UK page can fail on a US checkout for no reason the error message explains.
It is worth checking that the link you followed landed you on the same store the code was listed under, especially if you arrived through a search result rather than a store page.
What should you do when a code is rejected?
- Read the terms before retyping. The error is almost never a typo, and the condition that blocked it is usually stated.
- Check the basket against the minimum. Adding one more item is sometimes cheaper than losing the discount, and sometimes not. Do the division.
- Try the other codes at that store. A smaller sitewide code frequently beats a larger conditional one on a real basket.
- Compare against free shipping. On heavy goods the shipping threshold is often worth more than the percentage.
- Report it. Every store page has a "Did this code work?" question. That feedback is the only thing that tells us a code has stopped working, and it is what takes it down.
How we handle this
Every discount on this site is shown with its condition attached to it rather than beside it, which is why a code here often reads "20% off on orders over $109" where another site would print "20% off". Every code is read by a person before it is published. None is put through a checkout by us, so the terms quoted are the merchant's own, and where enough shoppers have reported back on a code, that is shown on the store page.
If the question behind this one is which coupon site to trust at all, our comparison of Honey alternatives goes through what each of them actually shows you. More on the method here in how we check codes and how we rank them. If you would rather just see what is live today, today's picks are five codes a day from stores we have an affiliate relationship with, and every store we carry is listed with its active count.
