Hudson Valley Black Friday 2016: Tips for Smart Shopping

With Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and a couple of weeks of serious shopping coming up in the Hudson Valley, here are some good things to know to make sure you get the best bang for your buck.

For example, 0% financing may sound like a great deal, but did you know that retailers that offer it use a dangerous feature called deferred interest, which has the potential to make holiday purchases up to 27.5 times more expensive than expected?

Find out which retailers offer the sneakiest deferred interest deals from consumer finance site WalletHub, and check out their other tips:

• Macy’s — with local locations in Middletown, Nanuet, Poughkeepsie, West Nyack, White Plains, Yonkers and Yorktown — is on WalletHub's 2016’s Best Stores for Black Friday. Stage and JCPenney are also on that list of stores offering an average discount of at least 62.8%.
• Over 17% of items will actually be more expensive on Black Friday than they currently are on Amazon.com.
• Video games (software only) will offer the most value on Black Friday 2016 relative to their current prices, while jewelry is expected to be the worst deal.
• 11% of Black Friday deals are actually recycled from last year, per 2016’s Black Friday Freshness Report.
• Target, Netflix and Walmart top the list of 2016’s Best Gift Cards.
• Consumers can save $500+ with one of 2016’s Best Credit Cards For Holiday Shopping.
• Credit cards also have a number of little-known benefits that can really come in handy over the holidays, including price-drop protection, extended warranties and coverage for damaged or stolen items.
• 99% of store credit cards do not charge an annual fee, and the average card offering rewards in the form of discounts gives you more than 19% off your first purchase, according to the 2016 Store Card Landscape.