A coupon list is only useful if the offers are real. This page explains exactly what we check, how often, and where the limits are, so you can decide how much to trust each offer you see on CouponJolt.
Nothing goes live straight from an import
Offers arrive from affiliate network feeds and from the stores themselves. They land in a review queue as pending and stay hidden until they are approved. We check that each offer belongs to the right store and that its terms (minimum spend, excluded items, end date) match what the store says. An offer with no code is listed as a deal, and we never invent a code for it.
We re-check offers against the store's own prices every day
Once an offer is live, we re-check it daily against the store's own public product data, not against a banner or a press release:
- Sales and percentage-off deals: we compare each product's current price with the regular price the store itself lists, and confirm the advertised discount actually exists on the store's site today.
- Sale collections (for example a store's "Black Friday Sale" page): we confirm the collection is live and record the deepest real markdown in it.
- The result is saved with the date of the check. Nobody types in or back-dates a check date.
Most of this checking is automated: software we run reads each store's public product data and compares the prices. Our editorial team uses those results when writing store pages and guides, and the dates you see in our articles ("checked on October 23") are the dates of those checks.
The three results of a check
Every check ends with one of three results, which we store with the offer:
- Works: the discount was found on the store's own site in our most recent check.
- Expired: the sale has ended or the discounted prices are gone. We mark it expired instead of silently deleting it, so a store page still shows what was recently tried.
- Unknown: we couldn't confirm it either way, usually because the store doesn't publish the data we need, or because the offer is a code that only works at checkout.
Promo codes: what we can and can't confirm
We don't place test orders. For a code, we can confirm that the store publishes it or that the matching sale is live, but whether it applies to your cart depends on the store's checkout rules, such as new customers only, minimum spend or excluded items. That's why many codes end up as Unknown rather than Works: we would rather say we don't know than label something verified when it isn't.
Readers keep us honest
Every code has a "Did this code work?" vote. Votes are counted per offer and help us spot a code that has stopped working between checks. If something on a page is wrong, contact us and we'll look at it.
Store pages and guides
The facts on our store pages and in our guides, such as free-shipping thresholds, return windows, warranty terms and sale dates, come from each store's own policy pages, and we list those sources. When a store's site contradicts itself, we say so and show both versions instead of picking one.
How we make money
Some links on CouponJolt are affiliate links: if you buy after clicking one, we may earn a commission. It never changes the price you pay, and stores can't pay to have an offer marked as Works or to get a better write-up. Read our full affiliate disclosure.
What we can't promise
Stores change or withdraw offers without notice, prices can change between our daily checks, and some codes only work for certain customers or items. A checked offer can still fail at your checkout. If it does, use the vote so we can look at it, and always confirm the final price on the store's site before you pay.