translated from Spanish: Tips for not falling for cheating deals in stores

The time to buy gifts came: Christmas is a few days away and the shops are already crowded and full of offers… or at least that’s what they say. 
Personal finance expert Daniel Urias, founder and director of Financial Coolness, warns that the “promotions” that stores of all kinds usually offer in the holiday season are not always what they seem.
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“A super frequent is the illusion of interest-free months. You have to be clear that this is not an offer, nor a rebate (…) sometimes people think that they are smart purchases and that they suit the pocket, but no, it’s the normal price and they only differ it to a lot of months in front of you for longer,” he adds. 
According to Uriah the danger of interest-free months lies in that people make several purchases in a month with the idea that payments will be small, but by accumulating 6 or 7 purchases a month can be paid monthly amounts of 8 thousand or 10 thousand pesos.
Another store trap, Daniel says, is when they offer products for months without interest but at a higher price than if you buy cash, “you have to be very careful because if an item costs 5 thousand pesos of cash and at 6 months it is a trap of the store you can even report it to the Profeco”. 
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Uriah also recommends waiting for the real offers that arrive until January as many of those that are announced during this month, are not really and the reason is simple: in December everything is usually much more expensive because everyone wants to buy and the more demand there is, the more prices go up. 
And one trap we put ourselves is to go to the stores just to see what he bought and the worst thing is that we end up acquiring what we don’t need.
As for gifts we usually have the false idea that the more expensive the gift, the more affection we are showing, and it is not, but unfortunately that’s how we lose a lot of money,” the expert concludes.  
Before you buy something, compare at least three options, share spending at parties and meetings, or wrap gifts with materials you have at home.
First of all, you should make a special budget for these dates and avoid making panic purchases, because on the strongest days of the season, prices go up and up.
 
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Original source in Spanish