Price matching

What It Means

Price matching is a store policy of lowering its price when you show that the identical item costs less somewhere else, such as at a competitor or on the store's own website. Each store writes its own rules: which competitors count, how long after buying you can ask, and which items are left out. A price adjustment is the related case where a store refunds the difference after its own price drops.

How It Sounds at Home

• "It's $20 cheaper online, can you match it?"
• "I bought it last week and the price dropped, so I asked for the difference."
• "Do they price match Amazon?"

The Breakdown

A short example. The Nguyens buy a vacuum at Target for $199. Five days later they see the same model for $179 on Target.com. Because it's the identical item, it's within 14 days and they still have the receipt, Target's policy lets them ask for the $20 back.

Where it goes wrong

• The cheaper listing has a model number one character different. Target asks for the identical item, down to the model number, so it doesn't qualify.
• They wait three weeks to ask. Target's window is 14 days after purchase.
• At Best Buy, the lower price is from a seller who isn't on its qualified competitor list, or the item is open-box, which Best Buy's policy leaves out.
• They threw the receipt away. Target asks for the original receipt, paper or digital, or the packing slip.

What to watch for. Before a big purchase, look up the price in two or three places and screenshot the lower one. Keep receipts until the match window has passed. Read the store's current policy, since each one sets its own list of competitors and exclusions.

Good to Know

Target's price match page says it matches a lower price on the identical item at Target.com, your local Target store or select competitors, when you ask at purchase or within 14 days, with the original receipt or packing slip. Best Buy's page says it matches qualified online and local competitors at the time of sale on new products it sells and has available, leaves out Marketplace, clearance, refurbished and open-box items, and allows one match per identical item per customer; it will also match its own lower price during the return and exchange period if you ask. Both policies can change, so read the current page before you rely on either.

Related Terms and Categories

• Coupon stacking

  Using more than one discount on the same item in one purchase, such as a manufacturer coupon plus a store coupon, where the store's policy allows it.

• Cashback

  Money a card or program pays back as a percentage of what you spend, usually as a statement credit, a deposit or a check.

• Rebate

  Money paid back to you after you've paid full price, such as a mail-in rebate from a store or manufacturer; a return of part of a payment.

• Price anchoring

  When the first price you see, such as a crossed-out original or a pricey option beside the one you want, sets the yardstick for judging the next one.

• Impulse spending

  Buying something on the spur of the moment, without planning for it or checking it against your budget.

• Frugal living

  A way of living that spends carefully and avoids waste, so more of your money goes to the things you value most.

Household money and budgeting