Consumer Watch: Search for discounts before you buy - Military Money, Navy Money, navy pay, pay charts - Navy Times

Consumer Watch: Search for discounts before you buy

As we careen toward the holidays, we start to think about making the best use of our shopping dollars.

Regardless of whether you buy things online, the Internet can be a valuable source of gift ideas and price comparisons before you make a purchase.

If you access the Internet from your smart phone, do some quick comparison checks on items while you’re in the store — you can even download apps for this purpose — before you decide to buy.

Start with your military exchange stores and their websites. Check every day for deals that may pop up. For example, the Exchange Online Store at www.shopmyexchange.com will feature “Super Daily Specials” on holiday items by national brands.

Starting Thanksgiving weekend, the online store will feature deals on children’s pajamas, ladies’ jackets, and electronics from name brands such as Nikon, FujiFilm, Sony, Sharp, Garmin and Hewlett-Packard.

Deals on two iRobot vacuums will be available Nov. 26-29 here. Purchase the iRobot 610 and get a free Dirt Dog 110 valued at $149.99, or save $50 on the iRobot Roomba 532.

The Navy Exchange’s website will also feature holiday deals Nov. 26-28. Items that are carried in the Web store will be sold at the same sale prices as brick-and-mortar stores.

On Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, there will be specials exclusive to the online store. On Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday, purchases — except uniform items — can be shipped free from the Navy Exchange online store. On other days, the shipping costs vary.

Shipping charges and sales taxes are important parts of your cost comparisons. Through the Exchange Online Mall, standard shipping is free on orders that meet any one of four criteria:

• The total is $49 or more.

• It’s being sent to a contingency area.

• It contains at least one military clothing sales store item.

• It’s purchased with a Military Star card.

Customers are charged a $4.95 standard shipping fee on catalog and Internet orders less than $49. Extra shipping and handling fees apply to oversized items.

Comparison shopping websites

The following are two examples of how comparing costs could save you money, based on prices in early November:

• Using the sites www.google.com/products, www.bizrate.com, www.shopzilla.com and www.pricegrabber.com for the Canon PowerShot A495 digital camera turned up a price of $89 at US Appliance, with no tax and a shipping cost of $5.99, for a total tab of $94.99. Although one other store offered it for $75.99, only four cameras were available at that price.

The Exchange Online Store offered the camera for a sale price of $99, down from its regular price of $109, with no shipping charges. The Navy Exchange store price was $104.99, with shipping charges determined at checkout.

• The Mattel I Love Lucy “Ballet Lucy” Barbie doll was on sale for $19.99 at the Exchange Online Mall, regularly $42.95. With shipping charges of $4.95, the total came to $24.94. The cheapest price elsewhere was $37.99 at Amazon.com, with free shipping.

Shop safe

Before making a purchase online, make sure your computer has the most recent updates for anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a secure firewall, says the Better Business Bureau of Western Michigan. Among other things, the group advises:

• Confirm that your online purchase is secure by looking at the address bar in your browser window for the “s” in “https://” and in the lower-right corner of the window for the “lock” symbol before paying.

• Pay with a credit card. Under federal law, you have more protection in disputing the charges. And many card issuers have “zero liability” policies, which mean you pay nothing if someone steals your credit card number and uses it.

• Save a copy of your order confirmation form.

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Questions or comments? E-mail Karen Jowers.