Did you buy a new computer or other electronics products for your office (or your home) at a retail store in the last 30 days? If you did, and the store has a price guarantee program, take a close look at the store's after-Christmas sales in your local newspaper. The product you bought before Christmas may be on sale now for less than you paid for it. If the store has a price guarantee program you may be entitled to a refund equal to the difference between what you paid and the current sale price.

To get back the difference in price, you may not have to bring the item back to the store, either. At some stores – Best Buy is an example – all you have to do is show up with your receipt for the item you purchased from them and the flier showing the new, lower price. If your initial purchase was recent enough to fall under their price guarantee, you'll have the difference in price refunded to you.

One caveat: if you have maxed out your credit card line of credit, depending on what you bought, you might have difficulty taking advantage of the price guarantee. I just got $50 back on a computer package (tower, monitor and printer) I bought for the office right before Christmas. But for some reason, Best Buy couldn't just credit my account with the $50. They had to give me a refund for the full price of the system I had bought, and then I had to "re-purchase" the system at the new, lower price. Since credit card refunds aren't instantaneous, this method of refunding the difference in price won't work if re-buying the system before the refund clears will put you over your credit limit.

Comments