A lot of consumers will look to return unwanted gifts after Christmas and take advantage of clearance sales at the same time. Most stores make it fairly easy to do returns within 30 days, but these tips from Ebates make it less stressful:

 

  1. Don’t Procrastinate: Return it right away, store policies vary greatly, including select items
  2. Fine Print: There are a lot of “gotchas” with returns, including online vs in-store purchases, as well as variables depending on the product category.
  3. Receipts: Save gift receipts to assure getting the original purchase price back
  4. Unopened: Don’t take it out of the package or remove tags if you know you’ll be returning it
  5. Gift Cards: Trade-in unwanted gift cards at sites like giftcardgranny or Walmart. You can also sell them at raise.com.