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Keep your holiday shopping merry and bright with an early gift from the Federal Trade Commission: tips to help you watch your wallet, shop wisely, and protect your personal information.

  • Make a list and a budget. Those impulse purchases (looking at you, cozy sweater) are less tempting when you have a game plan. Consider how much you’re willing to put on your credit card, and how long it might take to pay it off. If money’s tight, paying for a gift over time through layaway might help.
  • Do your research. Read reviews and recommendations about the product, seller, and warranties from sources you trust. If you’re shopping online, check for reports that items were never delivered or not as advertised. Spreading holiday cheer by donating to charity or a crowdfunding cause? Look into it first to make sure it’s legitimate.
  • Look for the best deals. Check out websites that compare prices for items online and at your local stores. Remember there may be shipping costs for online orders. Look for coupon codes by searching the store’s name with terms like “coupons,” “discounts,” or “free shipping.” To save extra money, keep an eye out for rebates.
  • Keep track of your purchases. Make sure the scanned price is right, and save all your receipts. If you shop online, keep copies of your order number, the refund and return policies, and shipping costs. Then have your packages delivered to a secure location or pick them up at a local store. Treat gift cards like cash and keep them in safe place.
  • Give gifts, not personal information. Protect yourself online by shopping only on secure websites with an “https” address. Stick to shopping apps that tell you what they do with your data and how they keep it secure. Avoid holiday offers that ask you to give financial information – no matter how tempting. They might be trying to steal your identity.

For even more timely tips, sign up for free consumer alerts from the FTC at ftc.gov/subscribe.

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

Don't use your…
November 20, 2019
Your site has the best information for non-savvy consumers. Everyone should be on your e-mail list. You give out common sense information I look forward to your communication everyday. Keep up the good work.
Hicky
November 20, 2019
Excellent information thank you FTC
Shopper
November 21, 2019
Warranties,Guarantees Most The Time If You Are Told It's Guaranteed for a life time GUESS who dies first -----Them. You are Stuck
Jrpinmaryland
December 02, 2019
Thank you good info