Your Guide to Smart Spending – March 13

A missed return deadline doesn’t always mean the money is gone. A lot of people give up the moment the official return window has passed, but customer support often has more flexibility than the website suggests. I once missed a Uniqlo return deadline on an order worth several hundred euros, wrote to support, explained the situation politely, and they let me return it.

If this happens to you semi-regularly, consider getting an American Express credit card. In Germany, both Amex PAYBACK* and Amex Gold* include 90-day return protection for eligible purchases paid with the card if the retailer refuses the return. Amex PAYBACK covers up to €300 per claim and €1,200 per 12 months, while Gold covers up to €400 per claim and €1,500 per 12 months. Amex PAYBACK is completely free, so you can just open it simply as an “insurance” for this type of situation – plus, it gives you a welcome bonus of 5.000 points (equivalent to €50) when you sign up.

And if neither of those works, reselling is still better than writing the purchase off completely. Kleinanzeigen, Vinted* and Nebenan are usually the easiest options for getting at least some of the money back. It’s not quite the same thrill as getting a full refund, but getting part of it back is still a lot better than keeping something you don’t want.

Even with subscriptions, it’s worth checking whether you’re still entitled to some money back. Germany has fairly strong consumer protections here: if you signed up online, you usually have 14 days to withdraw from a new contract, and for many consumer contracts entered into from March 1, 2022, automatic renewals after the initial term are only allowed on an open-ended basis with no more than one month’s notice, as Verbraucherzentrale explains here. That matters because if you paid upfront and end the subscription before the paid period is over, you may be entitled to a pro-rated refund for the unused time – so it’s worth checking the contract or reaching out to support instead of assuming the remaining amount is simply gone.

The same can work with monthly subscriptions or free trials that rolled into paid plans. If you forgot to cancel in time, it’s still worth writing or calling customer support and saying you didn’t mean to extend the subscription. I’ve done this with Uber One and Audible, and both refunded me straight away. You have nothing to lose by asking.

The reader-favorite free box offer is back, and it’s still one of the best food deals around. You can get a whole HelloFresh box* for free and only pay €5.99 for delivery. The free box includes 2 meals for 2 or 3 people, but you can increase the size for very little extra – for example, 8 portions (4 meals for 2) and 9 portions (3 meals for 3) are only €5 extra. That means that you can get 9 meals for €10.99 total including delivery, which is frankly a bit absurd (in a good way).

It’s set up as a subscription, and you get good discounts on your next boxes too, but you can cancel straight after ordering your first box. The deal is available to new customers and to people whose last order was more than a year ago. I’ve been ordering HelloFresh for a while and it's hard to overstate how much it simplified my life and meal planning. Get your free box here*.

Amazon has two great promotions going on right now. First, there is extra 20% off selected items in Amazon Resale*. Amazon Resale is basically the returned-items corner of Amazon sold at discount – think open-box products, items with damaged packaging, or just things that were sent back. For electronics in particular it can be worth checking before you buy anything new.

Then, there are Spring Deals – a massive sale with great discounts across categories. The sale runs until March 16, but some deals end sooner. Whatever you need to buy, you are very likely to find a discount on it, but here are some of my personal picks to serve as inspiration.

Gadgets:

Charging & cables:

Home:

Beauty & personal care:

Food and drinks:

Fashion:

Amazon also adds new deals with at least 40% off twice a day (morning and evening) during the sale, so it's worth checking back if you don't see what you're looking for right away. Browse all spring deals here*.

Money-back grocery and household product promos are one of the easiest ways to cut everyday costs. A lot of promotions from previous issues are still active – you can find them all here if you’d like to try more. For more free grocery products, Rewe product tests are worth a look as well.