Issue date: Jan 3, 1999 In this article: How to get the most of your unwanted holiday gifts Alan Greenspan and you College Students! Order your textbooks online!

Stores have tightened policies so returning is harder. It is the season to head back to the stores - to return that chartreuse sweater, or the Celine Dion compact disc you got in triplicate. But don't expect to breeze in and out of the mall. Returning gifts (returning anything, in fact) has gotten harder. Stores have tightened their policies, particularly in areas where customers seem to be borrowing rather than buying (big-screen TVs returned after the Super Bowl; cocktail dresses brought back after one wearing). Many stores now charge "restocking fees." What you need to know:

• Don't wait too long. Stores mark down items after the holidays. Show up without a receipt on the second or third price cut and you may get only a fraction of what the giver paid.

• Keep the packaging. Sending back an item in the box in which it originally was shipped is the key to smooth mail-order and Internet returns. Companies are used to handling boxes of a certain size; send one much larger or smaller and it may be pushed off to the sidelines, delaying your refund, says shopping guru Elyssa Lazar. In some cases, no box means a missing-carton fee. CompUSA, for example, charges a 15 percent fee on any item returned without the box.

• Don't open the box. If you know from the minute you tear off the wrapping paper that an item is going back to the store, don't break the factory seal. Some stores charge a 15 percent fee to take back goods removed from the box. (For instance, Circuit City assesses the fee on computer products.) Policies on software and CDs can be even tougher.

• Keep the receipt. If you don't have one, make your case with the tag - especially the one with the bar code. Or breach etiquette and ask the sender for a receipt. Otherwise, you may not get full price.

Alan Greenspan and you: How the Fed's interest-rate cuts affect your life

hen Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cuts short-term interest rates (as he did three times last fall), you usually get a nice pop in your portfolio. But what else does it mean? Two things: You have more buying power, because you don't have to pay as much to borrow money. But you also earn less interest on the dollars you've socked away. Where you're likely to feel it most:

Mortgages. Contrary to what you'd expect, mortgage rates don't always drop when the Fed cuts rates. After the last four Fed rate cuts, mortgage rates were higher three out of four times in the four weeks after the cuts. In part, that's because the market anticipates the cuts before they happen, says Keith Gumbinger of HSH Associates. If you want to refinance soon, shop around and get your paperwork in order so you can lock in when rates drop.

Car loans: The real benefits won't be realized on a quarter-point rate cut. You'll actually get the lowest rates when a car maker uses a great financing deal to essentially discount the price. Like a rebate, a 2-3 percent interest rate helps move cars out of the showroom, without forcing the manufacturer to put the cars on sale.

Credit cards. If you have a variable-rate card tied to the prime rate, expect to see an interest-rate adjustment that reflects the full Fed cut. The only question is when. Most cards adjust quarterly; some, only semi-annually. Check your credit agreement to find out.

Savings rates. You probably thought the rates on savings and money-market accounts couldn't get more anemic, but each time there's a rate cut they will. Certificates of deposit will lose some steam, too, but shopping around really pays. The rates on the best CDs (often available from Internet banks) are usually double the rates on others. Find a list of the best at Bank Rate Monitor's site, www.bankrate.com.

Some classy savings Getting ready to hunker down for the spring semester? Forget about the long lines (and steep prices) - now you can buy your required texts online at VarsityBooks.com. To make things even more convenient, the site has posted reading lists for classes at some of the larger universities. But the best thing about the site is clearly the price. Books are offered at a 15-40 percent discount off list prices. Considering students spend an average of $300 on their reading material each semester, that's serious cash.

Illustration by ELWOOD H. SMITH for USA WEEKEND

Today, USA WEEKEND introduces a biweekly personal finance column by Contributing Editor Jean Sherman Chatzky. She'll cover topics from shopping online ("e-tailing") to insurance scams. Chatzky, editor-at-large for "Money" magazine and a contributor to NBC's "Today," is one of the nation's leading personal finance experts. Send questions to: Jean Chatzky, USA WEEKEND, 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22229 (or e-mail: finance@usaweekend.com).