---
title: "How We Check Promo Codes | Couponatcom"
description: "The sources behind Couponatcom's codes, when a code gets the “Checked” mark, how the trust score works and how store details stay current."
url: https://couponatcom.com/en/how-we-verify/
---

1. [Home](https://couponatcom.com/en/)
2. How we pick and check codes

# How we pick and check codes

A code is only useful if you know what it takes off, whether it applies to you, and how fresh our last check is. Here is how we work that out.

## Our sources

Nearly all codes reach us through official affiliate programmes, run by the store or by a network it has a contract with. We also add offers that a store announces itself. If we cannot tell where a code came from, we leave it out.

## When does a code get “✓ Checked”?

Only in one of these two cases:

- **Tested by us:** we entered the code at checkout in the store's app or on its website, and saw the price drop or the cashback confirmed.
- **Store-confirmed:** we received confirmation of the code and its terms from the store, or from the affiliate programme that runs its codes.

The mark comes with **the day of our latest check**, so you can judge how fresh it is. A code we have not tried yet carries the “Unverified” label: it reached us from the store or an affiliate network it works with, and it may work, but read its terms before you count on it. A code that has ended moves to the bottom of the store page, struck through, with its end date.

## The trust score, explained

Every code gets a trust score between 0 and 98 (never 100, since only the checkout has the last word), built only from what we know about it. A high number is not a promise; only the store's checkout can tell you if a code applies. Here is where the points come from:

- **+40** the code comes from a source we know: the store itself or its official affiliate network.
- **+20** it carries the Checked mark.
- **Age of the last check:** 2 days or less +30, up to 7 days +20, up to 30 days +6, anything older 0.
- **+10** our team tested this single code by hand and logged the time down to the minute.
- **“Did it work for you?” answers held in our code database** (once there are 5 or more in the last 30 days): it worked for 80% or more +10, between 50% and 79% the score stays as it is, below 50% −20. Your own answer on this site stays in your browser and is not part of this.

A store's own offers that need no code are scored by the same rules: the store's official page is a known source (+40), our reading of the offer there is the store's own confirmation (+20), then the points for the age of our last reading.

“High” means 80 or more, “medium” 60 to 79 and “low” below 60. We recalculate it with every site update, so the score of a code that nobody has rechecked lately falls by itself.

## Code history and codes that have ended

A code with a known end date leaves the site by itself when that day comes. Codes with no end date get rechecked from time to time, and we update the day of their last check.

Each store page keeps a “code history” table listing the day a code was added, the day of its last check and its trust score. When a code ends or we take it down, its row stays, marked “Ended” with the date, so you don't waste time on it.

## Who writes the store pages?

The Couponatcom team writes and reviews every store page. We add the codes that arrive from affiliate networks and stores, then test them. We also read each store's official pages and its help centre to learn about delivery, returns, ways to pay and deals that need no code, and every fact links to where we found it, with the day we reviewed it.

## Shipping, returns and payment

What we write about shipping, returns, ways to pay and instalments comes only from the store's own official sources, and each detail shows its source and the day we reviewed it. Stores change their rules, so if our page says one thing and the checkout says another, trust the checkout.

## When a code is rejected at checkout

- Go back to the terms: the code may be for a first order only, or for one section of the store.
- See whether another code or a running offer is already applied to the order, since the two may not combine.
- If the store page lists a second code, try that one.

This page was last updated: 2026-10-29