Most shoppers focus on saving money by shopping for items on sale, use coupons or shop with promo codes. Other shoppers buy second hand items that are almost new. These are all common ways to save money. But there is another method that can put extra money in your pocket, and is often overlooked: Price drop adjustment.
Price Drop Adjustment – How it works
Simply explained, ‘price drop’ is when an item is put on sale and the price drops from the original price. Price drop adjustment is when you buy an item that is later sold at a lower price than what you paid, and you request a refund based on the price difference.
This works even if you buy the item on sale or with coupons, depending on the store’s price adjustment policy.
Generally, most shoppers buy products and then forget about following up with sales. The savvy shopper tends to buy items on sale, and even stack coupons and or codes with their purchase to maximize savings, but doesn’t follow up with further price drops.
However, even after sales, sometimes the original price advertised continues to drop. This is extra savings that you can be losing.
As long as the price you paid is higher than what its current price is, you can request a price adjustment and get a refund. Sweet deal for consumers!
Price drop adjustment isn’t exclusive to cash back refunds however. Sometimes the price isn’t dropped. Instead there may be a free item offer. You can request the free item since you purchased it previously. (This is how I scored a free battery charger!)
Keep in mind however, that every store policy is different.
The best time to get price adjustments
If you shopped before Black Friday, then chances are whatever you bought is now marked down the week of and the week after Black Friday.
If you shopped sometime in December, chances are it is marked down sometime after Christmas.
Heard of Christmas in July? Check prices around that time.
How to get price drop adjustment:
- Always keep your original store receipt.
- Check the stores price drop policy. Each store has its own policy, and some store policies are exclusive to the items.
- Some stores will refund the price difference for up to two weeks from the purchase date.
- If you buy online, call customer service with your order number and point out the current listed item in the store’s website.
- If you bought it in store, simply go to the customer service desk with your receipt and the current ad displaying the price difference, or just take a picture of the stocked item’s price.
Sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? Not really. Just glance over the store’s weekly for current sales, keeping an eye for something you have purchased. However, thanks to apps and other price crawling services, claiming price drop adjustment refunds is easier than you think.
One example is Paribus. A price adjustment service available for free to Capital One card members. To start saving money with Paribus opt-in to use it and simply connect the email you use to get receipts for your online purchase.
The app crawls emails for keywords of merchants and scans the prices. If it finds a price drop difference, it claims the difference and you get the savings. (more details on the Capital One website).
What other credit card companies offer price adjustment refunds? Compare credit card benefits on sites like Credit Karma
I’ve saved a lot of money on items ranging from groceries to household decorations using price drop adjustment refunds. Hopefully you can too.
Happy Savings, TaLis
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