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Opinionbuyer beware
A Black Friday bargain is no saving if you’re still paying for it in January
Between convincing online scams and the temptation to spread payments, shoppers need to look beyond the advertised discount.
ONLINE SHOPPING AND endless scrolling tend to pick up pace around this time of year.
You know how it is, you spot a special offer, a shiny product that’s down to only €150, reduced from €250, a bargain! How could you let that go? It’s easy to tell yourself you’ve saved €100, but if you never intended to buy it, you have spent €150 that could have stayed in your account.
That’s the calculation I’d encourage people to keep in mind as the big brands limber up for Black Friday (27 November), that proud new Irish tradition we appear to have imported along with the discount codes.
For households trying to make Christmas affordable, the sales can be useful. Buying a planned present at a genuinely lower price can make a difference and there’s nothing wrong with seeking value or enjoying a purchase you have budgeted for. The difficulty comes when the excitement of securing a discount takes over from the question of whether you can afford it.
A countdown clock, a message saying there are only two items left, an offer that expires at midnight, they each encourage us to make a decision quickly. Yet there’s barely a moment to consider whether we actually need it, let alone whether our budget can stretch to it.
These quick decisions can also cause to us to fall victim to the ‘F’ word… Fraud.
A professional website proves very little
We need to move away from the idea that online scams are always easy to spot.
A familiar logo and reassuring customer reviews can make a fraudulent shop appear trustworthy.
Artificial intelligence adds to that challenge, allowing scammers to create convincing images and testimonials. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has specifically warned shoppers about these tactics, but telling people simply to “be careful” is not enough, we need to be clear about what checking actually involves.
If an advert catches your attention, find the retailer independently before buying. Check the website address carefully and look for verifiable contact details. Search for reviews beyond those displayed on the shop’s own pages. A business saying it has hundreds of happy customers is different from finding evidence of those customers elsewhere.
The same applies to messages about orders and deliveries. Around Christmas, many of us are expecting parcels, so a text about a delivery problem can arrive at a particularly convincing moment. Rather than following the link, open the retailer’s or delivery company’s official website or app yourself and check there.
These precautions take a few minutes, recovering money lost to a scam can take a lot longer.
Small repayments can hide a bigger commitment
There is another financial risk during the sales, even when the retailer and the discount are entirely genuine and this one’s on you!
This is all about buying more than your budget can comfortably absorb.
Buy Now, Pay Later services, such as Klarna, can make a purchase feel more affordable by breaking the price into smaller amounts. A €120 purchase looks different when the checkout emphasises three payments of €40, but remember the total coming out of your household budget remains €120.
Imagine making four purchases of €120 on that basis. Each might feel manageable in isolation, but put together, they represent €480 of spending, with repayments potentially overlapping. This really matters when the same income also has to cover groceries, electricity, childcare and everything else that doesn’t pause for Christmas.
My concern is that a decision about whether we can afford something becomes a decision about whether we can manage its first instalment. Those are very different questions.
Before taking on a payment plan, look at the full price, the repayment dates and any existing commitments. It’s really important to train yourself to stop and think whether you can afford the item upfront. If you can’t, ask what will make the later payments easier to meet.
There may be a clear answer, but “I’ll worry about that next month” is a poor starting point.
Decide what you need before the offers arrive
The most useful Black Friday preparation happens before you open the shopping app.
Make a list of what you intend to buy and set a total spending limit based on the money available after essential bills and existing repayments. If you are considering a particular product, compare its price across retailers rather than relying on the size of the advertised reduction.
Then give yourself permission to leave something in the basket.
You don’t have to make a purchase because you’ve spent time researching it. You don’t have to use a discount code because it expires tonight, and free delivery is hardly a saving if you spend another €30 on something you do not need to qualify for it.
I’d also encourage people to think about January while making November’s decisions. How much of that month’s income are you already committing? Will these purchases still feel worthwhile when the repayments arrive?
The question I keep coming back to is simple: would I buy this if it were not on sale? If the answer is no, pause before paying.
Black Friday can be a great opportunity to get something you need for less. Just remember that the retailers have sales targets to hit and you’re under no obligation to help them.
And if you finish the day having bought nothing, don’t feel you’ve missed out, your bank balance may consider you the winner!
Nick Charalambous is managing director of Alpha Wealth.
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