Thrifle

What Thrifle is, what each database covers and how big it is, how to cite it, and which tool answers which kind of question.

Matches a product name (and optional brand) against recent U.S. CPSC recalls using a strict matcher tuned for zero false positives. Returns matching recalls with hazard and remedy, or an empty list. Useful before recommending a product.

Side-by-side comparison of two US retailers' return policies with grades, per-axis winners (window, free returns, restocking fee, holiday extension) and an overall winner. Use for 'is it easier to return to X or Y' questions.

What a US restaurant or retailer gives away for your birthday, whether it is actually free or needs a purchase or prior spend, how to sign up and how far ahead, the validity window, ID requirements, and known gotchas. Call for 'what does X give you on your birthday' questions.

The full text of one Thrifle article by URL or slug (HTML stripped, long posts truncated at ~20,000 characters), plus its FAQ, author, date and URL for citation.

Step-by-step guide to cancelling a US subscription or membership: available channels (online, app, phone, in person), notice period, fees, refund after cancelling, retention tactics to expect, and an ease-of-cancellation grade. Coverage is still small; the response lists what is available when the merchant is not found.

Full record for one card by its card_key (from search_credit_cards): APR tiers, intro and penalty APRs, fees, promotional financing terms with the issuer's own fine-print quote, rewards, perks, welcome offer, and provenance (pricing-terms URL, verification date, confidence). Store cards link to the partner retailer's return policy.

Everything Thrifle knows about one deal, by its thrifle.com URL or slug: price and list price, merchant, coupon, why it's great, the editorial verdict, the price-history verdict for Amazon items, FAQ, and the buy link. Use after search_deals when the shopper wants detail on one item.

Thrifle's editor-picked deal of the day with price, merchant and buy link. Cheap to call; returns found:false when none is set.

Verified military (active duty, veterans, reserve) and student discount programmes for a US retailer: value, eligibility, verification method (e.g. ID.me, SheerID), online vs in-store, stackability, exclusions, whether it is running right now, and the source URL. Call for 'does X have a military/student discount' questions.

Current US macro numbers from Thrifle's Money Monitor: GDP growth, personal saving rate, average credit-card APR, revolving and total consumer credit, the federal debt, and mortgage / fed funds / 10-year Treasury rates, each with the previous reading and year-ago value. Sourced from FRED and the U.S. Treasury; refreshed daily.

Whether a US retailer matches competitors' prices (which competitors, proof required, exclusions, how to claim) and whether it offers a post-purchase price adjustment (window in days). Call for 'does X price match' or 'will X refund the difference if the price drops' questions.

Latest US Consumer Price Index by spending category (headline, food, energy, shelter, apparel, etc.) with month-over-month and year-over-year change, plus average gas prices by grade with week-ago and year-ago comparisons. Sourced from BLS and EIA.

Verified return policy for a US retailer: return window, free returns, restocking fee, holiday extension, non-returnable items, an A+–D− grade, how it compares with its category, and the retailer's own policy URL. Optionally pass what the shopper bought to surface a product-specific exception (e.g. electronics at Costco). Call this for any 'what is X's return policy' question.

The store and co-branded credit cards a US retailer offers, with APR, annual fee, whether promotional financing is deferred interest, and links to each card's full terms, the retailer's store-card page and its return policy. Call for 'is the X store card worth it' or 'does X card have deferred interest' questions.

A retailer's store page on Thrifle: how many live deals it has, the most recent ones with prices and buy links, and its military/student discount summary when known. Use for 'what deals does Costco have right now' questions.

Thrifle's Price Predict verdict for an Amazon product (ASIN or amazon.com URL): BUY / HOLD / WAIT with a buy score, current vs typical price, all-time low, 30/90/365-day averages, probability of a drop in the next 30/60 days, the expected low and timing basis. Reads Thrifle's tracked-price database (US and major international Amazon stores); untracked products return found:false with a link to run a live check on the site.

Browse verified birthday offers from US brands. Filters: actually_free (no purchase and no prior spend required), kids (child-eligible), no_signup, category (e.g. 'Restaurant', 'Beauty'), name fragment. Returns slim rows; use get_birthday_freebie for the full terms of one brand.

Find Thrifle articles by keyword: original data studies (e.g. what actually dropped on Black Friday, Prime Day fact-checks), buying guides, and the Money section's credit and BNPL explainers. Returns title, one-line summary, date, author and URL. Use get_blog_post to read one.

Browse Thrifle's US credit-card database (store and co-branded cards first): filter by issuer, retailer, store cards only, or cards that use deferred-interest promotional financing. Rows carry purchase APR range, annual fee, financing type, data confidence and the verification date. Numbers come from issuer pricing pages, never roundups.

Search Thrifle's curated US deals by product, brand or keyword. Returns live deals with price, list price, discount %, merchant, coupon code when there is one, the thrifle.com deal page, and a buy link. Expired deals are excluded unless include_expired is set. Use for 'is there a deal on X' or 'best price on X right now' questions.

Browse Thrifle's discount database: filter by programme type (military, student, or both), retail category, and/or a name fragment. Returns slim rows with the discount value and a link per retailer.

Find retailers in Thrifle's return-policy database by name fragment and/or category (e.g. 'Fashion', 'Electronics', 'Home'). Returns slim rows with the return window and a link. With no arguments it returns the category list and total count. Use it when get_return_policy says a retailer was not found, or to list retailers in a category.

Reverse lookup: the US retailers whose price-match policy explicitly names the given store as an accepted competitor. Optionally filter by the product category being bought so only stores that plausibly stock it are listed. Use for 'who will match Amazon's price on this' questions.