18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments

It can be frustrating to purchase an item at full retail price only to find it on sale shortly after you buy it. However, there's a chance that the store might credit you the difference if you let a sales clerk or its customer-service department know that the item you bought is now selling for less. That's because several retailers -- clothing and big-box stores, in particular -- have price-adjustment policies.

Typically these policies require that customers have a receipt showing the price they paid for an item that's since been marked down, and there's usually a limited period after you make a purchase that you can take advantage of these policies. An easy way to monitor the price of an item after you buy it is to set up a price alert with a Web site such as TrackIf.com, which tracks prices on more than 1.1 million products and will send an email when they go on sale.

The retailers listed below are among the many that have written price-adjustment policies. Even if a store doesn't publicize a price-adjustment policy, it's worth asking whether it will credit you the difference if the price on an item you buy drops.

Your credit card also might pay you back the difference in price if you used it to purchase an item that went on sale after you bought it. For example, Citi cardholders who register purchases they make with their cards will receive the difference in price if Citi finds the same item for at least $25 lower than what they paid within 30 days of a covered purchase. If you're unsure about your credit card, call the issuer and ask if the card offers price protection for purchases.

RETAILERS WITH PRICE-ADJUSTMENT POLICIES

• Anthropologie offers a price adjustment if the item you purchase goes on sale within 14 days after you bought it.

• Backcountry.com will credit you the difference if an item you purchased at full price goes on sale within 30 days of purchase.

• Banana Republic will offer an adjustment on full-price items if they are marked down within 14 days of purchase.

• Best Buy will match the price on merchandise if it lowers the price within 15 days of purchase.

• Children's Place will refund the difference in price if you purchase an item at full retail price and it's discounted within seven days of your purchase.

• Express will offer a refund in the form of your original payment if the price of an item drops within 14 days of purchase. Price adjustments are not offered during storewide sales.

• Gap will offer an adjustment on full-price items if they are marked down within 14 days of purchase.

• Gymboree will provide a price adjustment if an item is discounted within seven days of purchase. It may not offer adjustments during certain promotional events.

• Hollister will credit you the difference if the price on an item you buy drops within 14 days of purchase. It only offers price adjustments for items purchased at the original price.

• J. Crew offers a price adjustment on full-price merchandise that goes on sale within seven days of purchase.

• Kmart will give a price adjustment on in-store purchases that go on sale within seven days of purchase. It does not offer adjustments for holiday, seasonal, doorbuster or clearance items, or for online prices.

• Limited will offer a price adjustment on full-price items that are discounted within 14 days of purchase.

• Macy's offers price adjustments within 14 days of a purchase and will refund the difference to your original form of payment. If you bought an item in one of its stores, adjustments are made only if your original purchase was made without a coupon.

• Meijer will provide the difference of any advertised price for an item that goes on sale in its weekly ad within 10 days of the purchase.

• Old Navy will offer an adjustment on full-price items if they are marked down within 14 days of purchase.

• Sears will refund the difference if an item you buy goes on sale within 14 days of your purchase. However, it does not offer price adjustments between Thanksgiving Day and the Monday after Thanksgiving.

• Target will match the price of an item if you find it for less in the following week's Target weekly ad or within seven days at Target.com.

• Walmart will provide a price adjustment if the price changes within seven days of your purchase. Adjustments aren't available for clearance, special buy or value of the day items or for items bought up to seven days before Thanksgiving, Black Friday or Cyber Week (after Thanksgiving). And Walmart will not make adjustments if there's a difference between a store price and an online price.

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Cameron Huddleston is an online editor at Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.