Nation’s Oldest Consumer Group Offers Shopping Advice for the Holiday Season

Tips to Make Holiday Gift-Giving Jolly and to Avoid Folly, from the National Consumers League

Washington, DC—The holiday season is a wonderful time to show family members and friends how much you care about them and to help strangers in need. But the holidays can strain finances and cause stress. Con artists also take advantage of the holidays to make their wallets fatter at victims’ expense. The National Consumers League, America’s oldest nonprofit consumer organization, offers these tips (and more at www.nclnet.org) to make your holidays jolly and avoid folly:

1.      Set a reasonable budget for gift-giving and stick to it. Why go deep into debt for the holidays only to spend the next year digging out?

2.      Give only to charities you know and trust. If you’re solicited by an unfamiliar charity, check with your state attorney general’s office to find out if it is properly licensed or registered. Always ask how much of your donation will go to the charitable work and how much goes to overhead and fundraising expenses.

3.      Beware of solicitations that promise loans or credit cards that require an upfront fee, especially if you have bad credit. Offers of extra money around the holidays are tempting, but they’re actually scams.

4.      When shopping for gifts by mail, phone, or online: get all details, including the physical address of the company; the full cost including shipping; the shipping time; and the cancellation and return policies.

5.      Know your shipping rights. Federal law requires orders you place by mail, phone, or online to be shipped by the date promised or, if no delivery time was stated, within 30 days. If the goods aren’t shipped on time, you can demand a refund.

6.      Know your return rights. Some people incorrectly think they have an automatic right to cancel orders. You do have the right to reject merchandise if it’s defective, if it was misrepresented, or if it didn’t arrive in time as described above, but in other situations, the company’s policies determine if you can cancel or return the purchase, and whether you can get a refund or credit.

7.      Use caution when you buy gifts through online auctions. Before you bid, check for any information on the auction site about other people’s experiences with the seller. Look into insurance or other forms of buyer protection, and read the fine print carefully. Consider using an escrow service, but beware of fake ones. Use services recommended by the auction site and check to make sure they’re properly licensed or registered in the states in which they’re headquartered.

Complete tips are available at www.nclnet.org. For advice from NCL about shopping safely online, go to www.nclnet.org/shoppingonline. For more tips about telemarketing and Internet fraud, go to NCL’s www.fraud.org Web site.

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