coupon vs. voucher vs. gift card
English translation: discount only vs certificate for a specific amount
| 17:28 Sep 25, 2005 |
| English language (monolingual) [PRO] Business/Commerce (general) / USA | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: RHELLER United States Local time: 21:43 | ||||||
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see explanation below Explanation: Coupon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount on a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in retail stores as a part of sales promotions. They are often widely distributed through mail, magazines, newspapers and the Internet. Internet coupons have become very popular as of late, because the cost is borne by the user (who has to print off the coupons themselves) as opposed to the businesses issuing the coupons. Coupons are also "attached" to bonds, either physically (as with old bonds) or electronically. Each coupon represents a predetermined payment promised to the bond-holder in return for his or her loan of money to the bond-issuer. (The bond-holder is typically not the original lender, but receives this payment anyway.) The coupon rate (the amount promised per dollar of the face value of the bond) helps determine the interest rate or yield on the bond. The phrase "coupon clipper" can refer to either a bond-owner or someone who uses coupons from newspapers. Another type of coupon is the trading stamp. Voucher From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A voucher is a certificate which is worth a certain monetary value and which may only be spent for specific reasons or on specific goods. Examples include - but are not limited to - housing and food vouchers. The word is also synonym to evidence, in the sense, for example, of the declaration that a service has been performed or that a expenditure has been made. Scrip is now issued in the form of gift certificates, which have recently almost completely been made obsolete by ***gift cards***. The two are essentially the same, except that the cards automate the checkout and accounting processes. Cards usually have a barcode (mostly Code 128), but many have a magnetic stripe, which can often be processed through a standard electronic credit card machine. Cards do not have any value until they are sold, at which time the cashier enters the amount which the customer wishes to put on the card. This number is rarely stored on the card, but is instead noted in the store's database. The major exception is in many public transport systems, and public library photocopiers, where a simplified system (with no network) stores the value only on the card itself (a stored-value card). To thwart counterfeiting, the data is encrypted, though not very strongly given the relatively low amounts of money involved. The magstripe is also often placed differently than on credit cards, so they cannot be read or written with standard equipment. One music store chain in the U.S. (Turtles Music, bought out by Blockbuster Music) even used gift coins, the same way old scrip was used. This was relatively successful, given that coins are hard to forge, and there is a tactile sense of value. The retail "sale" of such certificates, cards, or coins is not considered to be an actual sale, and thus is not normally subject to sales tax, nor is it reported in a company's sales figures, or subject to any coupon or other discount. When they are used to purchase an item, they count as tender, the same way that any other form of payment would. Reference: http://www.wikipedia.org |
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5 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +10
peer agreement (net): +10discount only vs certificate for a specific amount Explanation: a coupon usually only gives you 20% off the price or $5.00 off the total price gift card is for a specific amount at a given store voucher is a certificate sold or awarded by a company (travel co., for ex) to be exchanged for one night hotel or a train ticket -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 32 mins (2005-09-25 18:00:32 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- I live in the U.S. |
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