These tips should help you find the best deals and avoid a holiday-debt hangover.
Shop Early
Most holiday decorations and toys are manufactured in China, as is a large portion of the clothing and electronics sold in the U.S. The ongoing trade war could lead to price hikes or product shortages this season.
Nearly three-quarters of holiday shoppers (74 percent) expect tariffs to impact their gift shopping, according to NerdWallet’s 2025 Holiday Spending Report. To avoid potential shortages, 28 percent said they’ll shop earlier than usual. Edgar Dworsky, founder and publisher of ConsumerWorld.org, recommends getting an early start—especially for any “must-have” items on your list.
Major stores—including Amazon, Best Buy, Macy’s, Target, and Walmart—are already rolling out “early Black Friday sales,” Dworsky said on Checkbook’s Consumerpedia podcast. This makes it difficult to decide whether to buy now or wait for the actual Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, when the items you want may not be available.
“Most big retailers have a price guarantee or liberal return policy for holiday purchases,” Dworsky said. “So, if you wind up buying early in November and the price goes down later, you may very well be able to get the difference back just by going to the courtesy desk.”
Click here for a list of retailers that make price adjustments and/or match their competitors’ prices.
Comparison Shop
“Don’t use a ‘sale’ as an excuse to buy something,” said Jamie Lettis, an associate editor at Checkbook. “Do your homework to see if that ‘sale price’ is legit.” A six-month investigation by Checkbook’s researchers found that ‘sale’ prices are usually fake discounts. Online tools make it easy to do a price check. Camelcamelcamel tracks prices offered over time by Amazon. While Amazon doesn’t always have the lowest price, it’s a good reference point to help you distinguish genuine bargains from “super sale” marketing hype.
You can also compare current prices offered by major retailers by using comparison sites such as PayPal’s Honey, Bizrate, PriceGrabber, and Shopzilla.
Lettis uses her smartphone to “do research on the fly” when she’s in the store. This helps her determine if the price she’s excited about really is the best price she can get. If she finds a better price online or from another retailer, Lettis will head to customer service and ask for a price match
Lettis also checks for promo codes and visits her favorite cashback shopping portals, such as Rakuten and RetailMeNot, to see if she can get a better price and/or money back if she buys that item online.
“It’s the final number that counts,” Lettis said. “Maybe an item is the same price in-store, but that retailer is offering 10 percent cash back through Rakuten that day, and I can get $20 back. That’s worth it to me. I’ll buy online and wait for that item to arrive on my doorstep.”
Let AI Do Some of the Work
Shopping expert Lisa Lee Freeman, former editor-in-chief of Consumer Reports’ ShopSmart magazine, uses artificial intelligence to compare prices, locate products, and suggest similar yet more affordable alternatives.
Her “AI shopping buddies” also help her summarize customer reviews and provide answers to specific questions.
“You can ask it to summarize reviews for, say, a pair of running sneakers, and find out what the reviewers are saying about whether it runs narrow or wide, or how much cushioning it has,” Freeman explained on the “Holiday Shopping Tips” Consumerpedia podcast episode.
You need to be careful using AI, Freeman cautioned, because it can provide erroneous information (so-called “hallucinating”) or send you to a scammer’s website that was scraped from its web search. You need to verify results and check links to ensure the URLs are correct. Better yet, go to the retailer’s website yourself.
Think Outside the Box
Freeman is a big believer in buying “refurbished” products because it’s good for her wallet and the environment. She buys refurbished items for herself and plans to give them as gifts. Many manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Kitchen Aid, Lenovo, Samsung, and Sony) and retailers (such as Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target, and Walmart) now offer these pre-owned products at steep discounts.
Stick with “certified refurbished,” which means the products were inspected, repaired, if needed, and restored to factory specifications by the manufacturer. In some cases, these items have never been used or even taken out of the box; they’re returned products that can’t be sold as new. Be sure to check the warranty and return policy before buying.
Think Ahead About Returns
Most major retailers provide more lenient policies for holiday returns, and Dworsky expects the trend to continue this year. The return period for most holiday items lasts until the end of January. Computers, cell phones, and other expensive electronics typically have a much shorter return window, and some retailers charge restocking fees on these items.
To combat return fraud, some stores may have more stringent return policies than before.
Providing the recipient with a gift receipt, which indicates when and where the item was purchased, can make the return process easier for them. Without a receipt, the store may only refund the lowest price the item sold for in the last 90 or 180 days.
Remember, in most cases, it is legal for stores to refuse refunds or exchanges if the signs state, “All Sales Final.”
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Checkbook.org is a nonprofit organization that helps consumers get good service and low prices. It does this by providing unbiased ratings, advice, and price information. Checkbook is supported by consumers and takes no money from the service providers it evaluates. You can reach Herb at his website, Consumerman.com.
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