Not sure if you’ve noticed from me yapping away on Twitter all the time (say hello @lottyburns if you’re not following me) but I love my mac and all the things iTunes has to offer. The store has loads to offer, including music (I download everything from 1997 – 2007, which is the best music period), games, apps, eBooks and TV shows and films – but you don’t have to pay full price EVER! Let me show you have to always bag an iTunes discount.

What sort of iTunes discounts can I get?

You really should never pay for an iTunes gift card – 9 times out of 10, there will be a discounted one available somewhere. The average discount (and the most standard) is 20% off the face value of the gift card – although extremely rare, it is possible to get a discount of as much as 50% off.

How to get an iTunes discount

So the best way to ALWAYS bag a discount at iTunes is to buy a reduced gift card. So let’s say you want to buy a game on iTunes that costs £20 – if you manage to buy a £20 iTunes Gift Card at Toys R Us for example at 25% off, the game only really costs you £15. Clever eh?

So at this point when it comes to discount cards in general, i’d warn you that you should be careful buying too many because if the retailer goes bust, you’re stuck with your card but with nowhere to spend it – however… I’m no expert and I wouldn’t put my life on it – but think Apple are fine for a bit anyway. 😉 Also, there are no expiry dates on iTunes gift cards, so there’s no need to rush to spend them.

I think there are two places where you can consistently get a discount, which I go a bit more into detail with below. However, it is always worth checking supermarkets for promotions too (I’ll update here if I spot them).

Zeek  

So with Zeek, you can buy all sorts of discounted voucher codes (I bought loads of Toys R Us ones at Christmas) and they also have iTunes ones.

First off, if you’re new to it, use the code 2P7DERKE to bag yourself an extra £5 discount (I’ll get £5 too, but you’ll then get your own code to share around).

So I reckon this is the best place to find a discounted card and prices vary of course – but at the time of writing the best discount on there is 12%.

CDKeys 

CDKeys always has a load of discounted gift cards that knock a few quid off the face value. Right now, you can get a £50 one for £48 for example.

 When is the best time to pick up discounted iTunes gift cards?

So if you plan on spending a certain amount of cash at the iTunes store, it’s definitely worth picking up some cards when they are offer. Of course, offers come and go but the best time to stock up is ideally December because retailers want you to pick them up a Christmas presents.

How to redeem iTunes gift cards

So once you’ve bagged your brilliant discounted card, to redeem it, just launch the Mac App Store application on your Mac. You then need to click on “Quick Links” and then “Redeem”.

Scrape off the stuff (what’s the proper word?!) covering the unique code and enter it and click redeem. Voila!