Alan wrote to tell me about a new site he discovered. Price Protectr is a smart little web app that helps consumers save money after they’ve purchased big-ticket items.
There are lots of stores out there that offer price protection policies — when the price drops on an item you’ve purchased, they’ll refund you the difference. But there’s a catch…it’s up to you to watch prices. Price Protectr makes it simple to keep track of your purchases and get your money back. It’s free. It’s easy. It’s free and easy money. How often do you get that offer?
Here’s how it works:
- Buy something from one of 70 supported merchants, including Amazon, Costco, Target, and The Sharper Image.
- Find the item you bought online. Copy-and-paste the URL to Price Protectr.
- Enter your e-mail address. (Price Protectr promises not to spam you.)
- Sit back and relax. If Price Protectr notices the price drop at any time during the protection period, you’ll receive an e-mail.
I’ve never paid much attention to price protection guarantees. I’ve never understood how I could make them work. I don’t pay close attention to ads, and I’m certainly not going to keep going into a store for thirty days after I buy something just to save a few bucks. But Price Protectr sounds like a great way to make this process painless.
The site also includes:
- A blog featuring useful tips, including the official PriceProtectr how-to.
- A deals page with special offers from supported businesses.
- And, of course, a FAQ with answers to common questions.
Alan also pointed me to yapta, which applies a similar concept to purchasing airfare.
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This is a great tip, thanks!
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Very cool tool. I will be using it every time!
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Awesome, i didn’t even know the whole Price Protection thing existed, and this website even covers Amazon UK! Definitely bookmarking.
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Price protection is amazing. The stores count on you to be too lazy to see if anyone has a better price. My Wife has saved over $30 by checking back on websites (amazon, target, circuit city)to see if prices have changed. Amazon tends to have some periodic change in pricing for items (ie. bought book for $50 and week later they were on $10 less. Went back to normal price after that week).
I will definitely try this thing out!
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I’ve saved quite a bit this year by checking Amazon’s prices of items I’ve purchased and asking for a refund due to their 30 day price guarantee. (It even worked one time when I was actually asking on the 31st day!) This is especially valuable when you buy electronics since they tend to depreciate rapidly. I’m sure it’s also useful when buying Christmas gifts, as they are often for sale for less after the holidays.
Remember that with Amazon you can request refunds multiple times, too. So if it drops $10, request that refund. Then if it goes up, you still have the money. If it goes down more, you can request a second refund.
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I agree with some other the other comments: very interesting and I’ll have to try it out. Thanks for the tip.
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[...] Get Rich Slowly wrote a great post covering Price Protectr if you’re interested in a bit more detail. [...]
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Excellent tip. I first learned about Price Protectr on Gather Little By Little, and glad to see another blogger endorsing it. I think I am going to try it out for my Christmas shopping.
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I’ve been using PriceProtectr for the last few months, after someone left a comment about it on Consumerism Commentary. It hasn’t saved me any money yet… but that’s probably because I only buy when I’m pretty sure I’m getting the best deal I could likely get over the next 30 days.
But it is neat and I expect to use it all the time.
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Thanks so much for this wonderful tip. I got back $27.00 on my very first purchase entered the first week! I posted about it on my own blog, and some of my readers, in turn, thanked me, because they, too, had saved money. One got $50 back from Amazon the 29th day, one day before Payment Protection would have expired. She never would have known about it without your post alerting me to Payment Protectr.
I am definitely going to be using this site often!
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I read about this on your site last week, and so far have had more than $40 refunded from Amazon in price drops. They even refunded shipping for one item that I had purchased through Amazon but shipped from target.com because it now qualified for the free shipping. This is an amazing savings and that $40 is on purchases totaling just more than $150.
I only wish I had ever known Amazon offers these price protections. I have been shopping there for nearly 10 years, I could have saved hundreds!
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[...] this site is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Last week I wrote about PriceProtectr, a free site that alerts you when prices fall on items you’ve recently purchased. This allows [...]
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I started using this after I introduced it to J.D. I’ve saved $20 already and will continue to use it. I hope this helps everyone!
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PriceProtectr is such an amazing application. I saved $300 on a 42 inch lcd that I purchased at Best Buy last week. It’s so easy to use and the site protects most of the well known retailers! I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to save money.
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