The Price is Wrong. But you can make it right!
Price matching, price protection, and Paribus.
You’re at a store and find something you’d like to buy. Before checking out, you take out your phone to do a quick search and find the item is selling for a lower price online. You’d prefer to take the item home with you today and support a local store, but you also want the best price. Fortunately, you don’t have to make any trade-offs. In fact, you can even get a refund after you’ve made a purchase in-store or online if you find a lower price.
Here’s how:
Many retailers will match prices posted elsewhere.
At many stores, you can go to the cashier or customer service counter and show them a website or advertisement with a lower price for an item you are looking to buy. In fact, it’s a good idea to always check Google Shopping and Amazon before walking out with a big ticket item. The store employee will verify the price and extend it to you.
Find a lower price after you’ve already bought the item? Stores with price matching policies tend to allow you to call up or come back to the store and get a refund if you find a lower price for a certain period of time after you’ve made a purchase. Many e-commerce sites (with Amazon being a notable exception) will also match better prices if you notify their support teams.
The following are some of the national chains that will price match — click on the links to see their individual policies:
Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fry’s Electronics (they give you the difference plus 10% off), JCPenney (they’ll give you the difference, plus 5% on certain types of items), Lowe’s, Michaels (they’ll give you the difference plus 10% off), Nordstrom, Office Depot, Petco, Petsmart, Sears, Staples (they’ll give you the difference, plus 10% off), Target, and Wal-Mart (only on Walmart.com).
Use a credit card with price protection:
Even though many stores offer price matching, not all do.
If you have a Citibank issued credit card, you have a great benefit called Citi Price Rewind. You can get up to $200 back per item purchased on your card, up to a total of $1000 per year.
Citi makes it super easy. Just go on the Price Rewind website after making a purchase. All you have to do is enter the purchase price, date of purchase, and the name of the store or website where you bought the item. Upload a copy of the receipt and select whether you’d like a statement credit or a check sent to you if a lower price is found. Citi will automatically search for a lower price for 60 days after the purchase date, but you can also submit a lower price you have found yourself.
Here are some of my recent Price Rewinds:
A handful of other credit cards offer price matching benefits too but the process isn’t as seamless as with Citi Price Rewind. These include the following cards: AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard, Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard, Uber Visa; Capital One Savor Cash Rewards; IHG Rewards Club Premier; Wells Fargo Visa Signature; and U.S. Bank Cash 365 American Express.
Price matching isn’t just for physical products — it also works for travel:
Many hotels chains — including Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott and all of their brands — will match the price you paid and give you an extra 20-25% discount or loyalty points if you find a lower price within 24 hours of booking through one of their direct channels (e.g. hotel website, app, call center, or with the hotel directly). Priceline will also price match within 24 hours of booking and HotelTonight will price match within 2 hours of booking for same-day reservations and 24 hours for all other bookings.
Use Paribus:
If you’re comfortable giving Paribus access to your inbox, it can automatically ingest your receipts to see if there are lower prices on items from 25+ shopping sites and hotels you’ve booked through Expedia, Priceline, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and direct through the Hilton and Marriott brand websites. Paribus will automatically process claims for you and you’ll get to keep the full amount of the refund — unlike some other services, like Earny, which keep a cut. As an added bonus, Paribus will also track your package deliveries and try to get you a partial refund if your items arrive late.
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