Target shoppers and couponers, listen up! If you haven't heard already, you might want to know about the small Target coupon policy update for 2016. These recent changes are an effort to make sure that coupon discounts are applied accurately to to products and, one would imagine, cut down on coupon fraud. Not that any of you commit coupon fraud, I know, but it still does happen from time to time! It's not a huge change, but it may affect some of you. Here are the changes from the Target coupon policy update and cash register software updates this month, and how they might affect you...

No More Coupon Overages

The value of a coupon will be applied up to the reduced price of the item and any excess value will not be applied to the transaction total.

We do not give cash back nor do we apply any overages to the remaining items in the transaction if the value of a coupon is greater than the purchase value of the item.

This basically means that some coupons may not be accepted at the full face value. Instead, coupons will be adjusted down to match the price of the item if the value of the coupon is higher than the price of the item. While technically the previous Target coupon policy did not allow for overages before, some lucky shoppers were able to—knowingly or unknowingly—circumvent this rule. We never got cash back at the register, like we might at Wal-Mart, but sometimes, the overage on a coupon was applied to the rest of the transaction. A new software update in the Target registers, however, automatically adjusts down the value of a coupon when this happens now, making those small overages a thing of the past.

Coupons Will No Longer Be "Pushed Through"

The second Target coupon policy update that might affect some of you is the inability to "push through" coupons. Actually, this isn't a policy update, but more of the result of the cash register software update. Before, cashiers were able to override the register and "push through" coupons that the system didn't automatically accept when scanned. You know...the dreaded BEEP? Well, this newest software update eliminates that. Now, when a coupon doesn't scan, the cashier might still be able to override it, but with a catch. The coupon and discount must be applied to a specific product and not just a product by the same manufacturer. If there is no product that matches the specified products on the coupon, the coupon will be denied and returned. This is actually not a bad change for couponers on the up and up, as it cuts down on coupon fraud.

Only Coupons With GS1 Data Bar

We accept manufacturer coupons with a scannable GS1 data bar. We do not accept UPC-A coupon barcodes.

Keep an eye on your coupon barcodes, ladies and gentlemen! The Target coupon policy update now specifies that only coupons with a scannable GS1 data bar will be accepted, and coupons with the shorter UPC barcodes will no longer be accepted. Not sure what the difference is? This change shouldn't really affect any couponers, actually. The old UPC style barcodes have been pretty much phased out for a while anyway, and I haven't seen a coupon with just a UPC barcode in quite some time.

So, to answer the burning question here, the new Target coupon policy update and register software updates are highly unlikely to really affect you. As long as you're using coupons properly, you shouldn't have any problems.