Financial experts highlight trending holiday shopping reports
WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - The holiday season is here, and the financial experts at WalletHub say that with Americans still dealing with high inflation, you need to know how to get the most value out of your holiday shopping experience.
JCPenney, Belk, and Macy’s top the list for Best Places to Shop on Black Friday in 2022. They are each offering average discounts of at least 53%, with JCPenney and Belk above the 64% mark.
Pay attention to the prices for items on Amazon. Around 13% of the items listed on the site by major retailers will be more expensive on Black Friday than their current prices. Around 27% of all online items will offer no savings compared to their pre-Black Friday deals. WalletHub was able to find the best deals overall on Black Friday and what retailers will have the highest amount of discounted inventory here.
If you are looking for easy stocking stuffers like gift cards, Amazon and Walmart top the list with how popular they are as well as how much of a discount you can buy them for. Six other top-name retailers received a WalletHub score of 55. WalletHub tells consumers not to confuse gift cards with prepaid cards. Even though they are often displayed next to each other in stores, gift cards can only be used until the balance is empty while prepaid cards are reloadable and designed to be treated like a debit card. Prepaid also have many different fees that are associated with them.
“40% of the major retailers offering 0% financing use a dangerous feature called deferred interest, which has the potential to make holiday purchases up to 27.5 times more expensive than expected,” says Diana Polk, WalletHub Communications Manager. Deferred interest means you pay a reduced rate or no interest at all for a period of time, but if you miss a monthly payment or fail to repay the balance within the 0% period, your interest rate and overall cost of financing can go through the roof.
To find out more information about holiday shopping trends, visit WalletHub.com.
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