Did you know that most deals and offers sites run a sting operation on you?

Well, not in the normal matter, but more of an ultimatum one - Buy now or pay more, using a simple solution that raises the prices individually for every user, thus granting that only new users will get the best deals, and those who come back will get a higher price each time.

The Sting Explained
So, how does it happen?

Let’s make up a site for the sake of it - A site that centers deals on hotels around special conventions. When you first visit the site, you get an offer for a hotel which is only 2 minutes on foot from the area, and the special price of 50$ per night including b&b. Sounds nice, right? But, as the consumers we are, we’d probably want to check more options - So we’ll bookmark it and go on to different sites in that field, and at the end of the research - You’ve decided to go on the first deal. You go back, only to find out that the price now stands at 75$. What? Why? You have no clue, but in many cases, the user grinds his teeth and does the deal anyway, figuring out he probably missed a limited time offer and blaming himself for it. But truth is, it’s quite the opposite.

Those sites use cookies - A special file that stores its information on your computer, as a sort of “souvenir” that you visited the particular website. When you visit the site once again, the site detects that you’ve been there, and therefore can react accordingly. Usually,y we notice it when we visit a site that we’ve registered to, and see that the site will keep us logged in. But in that matter, the site recognizes that you already checked the prices, and therefore decided to make the prices go higher. In other words - We know you hesitated, so we’ve decided to make you pay more. This can go on forever, sometimes raising the price with every visit.

What Can You Do About it?

Luckily, there are 4 main methods for dealing with it, which are quite simple.

1. Instant Checkout: The most reasonable one, and the action they want you to do, but if you’re seeing a good deal, just buy it at the best price possible.

2. Keep A Tab: You can just surf through various sites simultaneously, resulting in a few tabs that’ll allow you to compare between all of the services. Sadly, some of the sites will refresh automatically or claim that the site timed out and needs to refresh in order to access it again.

3. Delete the Cookie: When you’re planning to enter the site again, just delete the cookie. It’s a simple process, and there are many guides and tutorials on the web for all of the popular internet browsers in the market.

4. Incognito Mode: Probably the best method - Every decent web browser has the option of a private window, resulting in no cookies whatsoever. Using this will allow you to freely surf the sites, getting the regular “New User” prices with ease.

Conclusion

Your info is stored and used at least a few times a day and can result in you losing various aspects including resources such as time and money. The epitome described here is one of the most used ones, and there’s no reason for you to become one of the statistics. Keep the cookies in the jar, and don’t let anyone else touch them without your permission.