When you say free coupons, you are almost using an
oxymoron. I say that because people have come to expect that a coupon by its
very nature not only would but should be free. If it weren't, people would more
than likely avoid using it.
On the surface, almost everyone knows a coupon is
something they use to get money off a particular item. You find the little
money savers in the newspapers, newspaper inserts, magazines and sometimes even
books.
Believe it or not, book publishers will sometimes put coupons in their books touting other books in their portfolio for sale at a lower price coupon wafir. You simply take in the coupon to your local bookstore and enjoy the marked down price.
After newspaper and magazine coupons, people are
probably most familiar with printable coupons. The experts in the field of
couponing define a printable coupon as a coupon which originates online and is
printed out by the consumer.
Completely logical, right? A printable coupon has to be
printed otherwise it isn't a printable coupon. This creation also can be called
a free coupon. It is called free because the person printing it did not have to
pay to get access before printing it.
Coupons also have another function. This type of coupon
is not entirely free. In order to get it, you have invest in what is called an
underlying security. This security is almost always a bond that is called a
bearer bond.
It is defined in the investment world as one of a
number of small detachable certificates calling for periodic interest payments
on a bearer bond. In the old days, a person actually had this bond in his
possession and when it came time to redeem the coupon, he took it into the
brokerage house, bank or company and exchanged the coupon for his interest
payment.
Today, almost all bearer bonds are kept at a brokerage
house and they perform the redemption process for the account holder. In a very
real sense, these interest bearing coupons can be called free coupons as well
since the owner doesn't have to perform any act prior to receiving the interest
due.
Consumers have a habit of giving things like coupons
several names. Of course the name free coupons is the most obvious. Another
obvious name is free grocery coupons. However that limits the type of coupon to
the grocery world.
Consumers shop at other retail stores as well. Clothing
stores, auto dealerships, hardware stores, electronic stores, etc. enjoy
customers coming through their doors. The free coupons a person uses at these
types of establishments can be called by their store specific name or can
generically be called free printable coupons.
As for a catchall coupon title, it is okay to assume
free coupon or free coupons will suffice in any scenario. The consumer wants
value and the free coupons provide that value.