Citi Price Rewind: Protects You Against Lower Prices After You Have Made Your Purchase

Have you ever bought something during the holiday season only to find that the same product was discounted during the year end or new year? Well, it looks like at least someone is trying to do something about it. And that someone is Citi! This morning, they held a webinar and explained this new feature (that is only good for this holiday season) that will help protect you against situations like this. They have just launched this feature whereby you are protected against any decline in the price by $25 within 30 days of your purchase (assuming you use an eligible Citi credit card). There are obviously certain fine prints and details that you need to be aware of. So here is an explanation of how it works.

Let's say, you have a Citi Card. You make a purchase with it. Citi will be monitoring the price of the product you bought for 30 days. They will be monitoring this online only (since this is the only way anyone can do it on a mass scale) and you will be alerted if the price of the product you have bought is lower by $25 or more. You can then request a refund via email, online or fax. You can claim up to $25 per item and up to $1,000 in a year.

As simple as thing sounds, here are some FAQs and things you have to be aware of.

Which credit cards are eligible? Citi consumer cards are eligible for this feature. Their business cards are not. Also note that if you got a product using their Citi ThankYou points (ie you redeemed your TY points for merchandise), this feature does apply.

What if I buy a few of the same products? You can still claim the refund if the price is lower by $25 or more, but you can only claim up to a maximum of $250 per item. Hence if you bought a few of the same products, you may not get the "full refund".

Can I Claim this refund as well as the price protection feature that my present CitiCard has? If your CitiCard (most do anyway) has price protection features, then the feature that will give you the highest refund applies and it will only apply once.

What if I find a lower price advertised by a merchant on a newspaper? Citi does not monitor prices off line (it just cannot be done). But this feature applies to prices that you find offline that are $25 lower than the price you paid. Hence, if you come across a lower price from a newspaper ad, you can also claim your refund.

How do I make sure Citi tracks my purchases? Firstly, you have to log in into the www.citi.com/pricerewind site. You then have to search for the product to see if Citi will be monitoring it. You can search by UPC number, model number, product name and description. Once you have found the product, just fill in when and where you bought it and for how much. Once Citi has this information, they will be able to track it for you.

Are there any products that are not covered? On the Citi website, there is a list of items that will not be covered. They include things like boats, perishables, items purchased for resale or commercial use etc. You can see the whole list here.

References
Citi Price Rewind Site
Press Release: Citi Price Rewind Allows Consumers to save o purchases after check out