Are My Coupons Legit?

In response to my post about printing coupons in black and white to save on ink, Katie asked an excellent question that I felt deserved its own post.

I read that you print your coupons in B&W...have you ever had issues with them being accepted? I print mine in B&W, too, and last week they wouldn't accept one because the manager (who happened to be bagging) said it looked too much like a photocopy. Has this ever happened to you? Is there any way to prove that they are real and not copied?

None of us want to be accused of coupon fraud, so it's good that we practice caution about printable coupons. Stores are often leery of internet printables because they will lose money if they accept a fradulent coupon. There are fradulent coupons out there, but there are also a lot more legitimate coupons available to help you save money. So how do you tell which ones are okay to use and which ones aren't?

Before you print a coupon, there are a couple of things you can look for to make sure it is legitimate.

• Did the coupon originate from a legitimate source? Coupons printed from Coupons.com, Smartsource.com, Redplum.com, and directly from manufacturer's websites are legitimate coupons. However, something I have learned is that if a coupon is in pdf form (read by Adobe), it may or may not be legitimate. The reason is that these often print off the same barcodes and there aren't print limits on them.
• Does the coupon LOOK legitimate? Is it missing an expiration date? Is it for a completely FREE item with no other purchase necessary? Are there any misspellings on the coupon? These are all GIANT red flags that a coupon is counterfeit.
  

To get back to Katie's question about printing legitimate coupons in black and white, I did ask some "super savings bloggers" who know more than I do how you can prove to a manager on the spot that a coupon is legitimate. Mercedes brought up that the fact that the coupon is in black and white doesn't make it any more likely to be copied than if it were in color--since there are also color copiers! :-) I thought that was a good point!

The short answer is you can verify each coupon by going to the website listed on the coupon, which is often veri-fi.com. Of course you'd have to be willing to politely ask the manager to do this, and I guess it is his/her prerogative to refuse--however I would (politely) make it clear that if they were willing to accuse me of coupon fraud and yet weren't willing to verify that my coupon WAS indeed legit, they'd be losing my business. You are well within your rights to print coupons in black and white to save on ink costs.

Thanks to Heather and Mercedes for their help in answering this question!