Test codes before you pay

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Paste the code into the cart and read what the checkout says back — that is the whole test, and it happens before any payment details are involved. This page lays out the test step by step: what the refusal messages mean, how many codes a cart will accept, and how to verify the price and the full total around the code.

The ranges a checkout actually works with, gathered in one place before any code is trusted.
What you check	Typical range
First-order email signup code	10-20% off the cart
Sitewide code ceiling	25-30% off, rare outside clearance
Codes accepted per order	1, at most 2 (one % + one fixed amount)
Free-shipping minimum, US	$25-$50, changes several times a year
Flat shipping on a $40 order	$5-$10, i.e. 12-25% of cart value
Return window	14, 30 or 60 days; 60-90 over holidays
Restocking fee, opened electronics	10-15% of the item price
Tax at checkout	0% to ~7-10% US sales tax; 17-27% EU VAT

Terms the checkout uses

Promo code: A string entered at checkout that changes the order total. Most carts accept 1 per order, at most 2 — one percentage plus one fixed amount.
Stacking: Using more than one discount on the same order. Two percentage codes are rejected on nearly every platform; a percentage plus a fixed amount is the pair most likely to pass.
Price history: A chart of a listing's actual selling price over 90 days and longer, kept by trackers such as Keepa and CamelCamelCamel. It is the reference against which a sale price is verified.
Unit price: Price per kg, litre or 100 units — the only fair way to compare pack sizes, and required on prepacked goods in the EU under Directive 98/6/EC.
Restocking fee: A charge deducted from a refund on some returned goods. Where such fees exist, they run about 10-15% of the item price on opened electronics.
Cart abandonment: Leaving a checkout without paying. Baymard Institute's pooled studies put the average rate near 70%, with extra costs — shipping, tax, fees — cited in roughly 48% of abandoned carts.

Test the code in the cart, step by step

The cart is the only place a code can be verified, and the test costs nothing because the promo field sits before payment.

Every checkout puts the promo-code field before the payment step, which means a code can be applied and judged on an unpaid cart. If it works, a discount line appears and the order total drops immediately; if it fails, the checkout prints a refusal. Either way the answer comes from the retailer's own system, not from the site that published the code.

Expectations should match how codes are actually issued. First-order codes from an email signup typically take 10-20% off the cart, and a sitewide code above 25-30% is rare outside clearance or end-of-season sales — so a screenshot promising 40% off everything is almost always expired, fabricated or tied to conditions the image cropped out.

The step order below is deliberate: each stage rules out one failure cause, so by the last step the code is either working or its refusal has been read and named.

Add the exact items intended for purchase — size, colour and quantity all change whether a code applies.
Open the cart or the first checkout screen and find the promo-code field; it appears before payment on nearly every platform.
Paste the code exactly as issued, watching for case sensitivity and stray spaces, then apply it.
Read the totals: a working code adds a discount line and drops the order total within seconds.
If it fails, copy the refusal message word for word — it names the reason: expired, excluded items, minimum spend, or one code per order.
Try a second code only of a different type: carts take 1 code per order, at most 2 (one percentage plus one fixed amount); two percentage codes are rejected almost everywhere.

One order, from 90 days before to 90 days after

The checks span the whole life of an order, not just the minute spent at the promo field.

Timeline: 5 dated entries

The refusal messages, translated

A refused code fails for a short list of named reasons, and the message at the promo field usually says which one.

Checkout refusals feel arbitrary but map onto a handful of rules: the promotion ended, the basket contains excluded items, the spend minimum is not met, the code is limited to new customers, or the cart already holds a code and the one-code rule blocks the second.

The stacking rule causes the most confusion. Most carts accept only 1 promo code per order, and at most 2 — one percentage plus one fixed amount; two percentage codes are rejected by checkout on nearly every platform. A 'code not valid' message on the second attempt is usually the platform enforcing that limit, not a judgement on the code itself.

When a message is ambiguous, changing one variable at a time isolates the cause: remove the excluded-looking item, raise the basket over the minimum, or test the codes in reverse order and compare the totals.

Code expired — the promotion has ended; sitewide codes above 25-30% are rare outside clearance, so an old screenshot of one is usually dead.
Not valid on items in your cart — exclusions by brand, category or already-discounted items.
Minimum spend not met — the basket sits under the code's threshold.
One code per order — the stacking limit; a second percentage code is rejected on nearly every platform.
New customers only — first-order codes from an email signup, typically 10-20% off, apply once, on the first purchase.

The signature mark of this site, drawn as a plate

Check the price against 90 days of history

A code stacked on an inflated price is not a saving; the 90-day chart is the reference that settles it.

Price-history tools such as Keepa and CamelCamelCamel chart a listing's price over 90 days and longer. That record is how a '50% off' claim gets checked: against the price the item actually had in the previous quarter, not against the crossed-out number on the banner.

The pattern to look for is the pre-sale lift — the price steps up in the weeks before a promotion, then 'falls' back to roughly its old level during the event. On the chart that reads as a spike followed by a return to baseline; the advertised discount is measured down from the spike.

For pack sizes, unit price — price per kg, litre or 100 units — is the only fair comparison, and the EU requires it on prepacked goods under Directive 98/6/EC. A bigger pack carrying a code can still lose to a smaller pack on unit price.