Ask the Finance Expert

Farnoosh Torabi answers questions on the hot topics and gives advice for shopping and saving.

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Online Shopping

MHI: When you're shopping online, how do you get the best deals?

FT:Sign up for sale alerts. Don’t have time to scour the Web for deals? Have them arrive in your inbox, thanks to sites like Shop It To Me,Gilt,Rue La La, and She Finds. A note of caution: Either set up a different e-mail account for this purpose or create a filter in your existing e-mail account.

Seek free shipping and free returns. At RevolveClothing.com, shipping is free, and if you’re not happy with the item, the retailer provides prepaid mailing labels. Same goes for footwear retailers Zappos and Piperlime.Nordstrom also provides a free mailing label if you want to exchange an item.

Look for hidden deals online. The biggest coupons and deals are not always issued directly from the retailer. Sometimes you have to dig around. Go to Google or Yahoo and type in the search words "Macy’s" (or whichever store you want) + coupon + promo code + discount. RetailMeNot.com is one of my favorite sites at which to find deals.