Some call it price protection. Others call it a price rewind. But whatever the name, many credit-card companies—including Discover, Citi and MasterCard MA +0.14% —are offering to refund consumers the difference in price should they buy an item and then find it cheaper later on.
Discover says it will refund the difference up to $500 if a customer makes a card purchase, then finds the item at a lower price within 90 days.
Citi says it will refund the difference in price up to $250 per item within 30 days of the purchase. And MasterCard says it will also refund up to $250—but within 60 days.Companies say they are offering this perk because it is a draw for consumers. Experts say many consumers already have cards with this feature and don't even realize it.Cardmembers "rarely if ever make claims," says Ben Woolsey, the director of marketing and consumer research for CreditCards.com.
For the card companies, that makes price-matching a relatively low-risk perk, he says. "They're hoping this benefit just increases people's willingness to buy things—without worrying about prices being lower in the near future or at another retailer." Citi, MasterCard and Discover declined to say how many consumers use this perk.
These programs do have a lot of exclusions, says Jelena Ewart, a senior associate at card-comparison site NerdWallet.com. She notes that many popular gift items are typically not covered, including jewelry, art, antiques, motorized vehicles, food and animals and many types of travel.
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In addition, items sold at a business-closeout sale, in very limited quantities (like some door-buster deals) or on online auction sites are also often excluded.Securus Payments is the nation's fastest growing payment processing service with specialties in credit card processing, merchant services, merchant cash advance, check processing, and more. Find out what the company offers in this website.
The programs also have monetary limits. The Discover program has an annual limit of $2,500 and both the MasterCard and Citi programs, $1,000.
To fulfill the refund, companies require that cardholders provide proof of their case. The Discover program asks consumers to submit a Discover-card statement showing the entire original purchase price, along with the sales receipt and either a copy of the dated, printed, lower-price ad, or a statement, signed by the store manager on store stationery, documenting the details of the lower price of the identical item. The MasterCard program works in a similar way.
With the Citi program, cardholders must register the purchases they want price-checked on Citi's site, but then the company does that price checking itself.
"There is not a big downside to the programs other than the time it takes to do them," says Eric Adamowsky, the co-founder of card-comparison site Credit Card Insider. Citi's program may be a good option for people who don't want to do their own price-comparison legwork, Ms. Ewart of Nerdwallet.com says.
For those willing to do the research, Discover's program is potentially the most lucrative, since its annual limit is $2,500, vs. $1,000 for Citi and MasterCard. It also has the longest period over which it will honor a price match (90 days).
People thinking about getting a new card with a price-matching feature might want to compare the value of the price match to that of other card perks, like sign-up bonuses. "Some cards have a bonus that's worth the price match," says Ms. Ewart, "and you don't have to jump through as many hoops" to get it.
