Last-Minute Holiday Deals and Deadlines

Dec. 16, 2009 — -- Top retailers like Amazon, Overstock, and Sears.com say Dec. 17 is the last day they will guarantee delivery by Christmas using their free-shipping offers.

According to a survey by Web site freeshippping.info, 52 percent of the top 500 online retailers say they will end their free-shipping offers on or before Dec.18. After that many consumers will have to pay extra for expedited shipping to guarantee their gifts are delivered before Christmas.

The survey also found the minimum purchase necessary to qualify for free shipping was $52, although free-shipping codes can be found online at sites like freeshipping.org and coupon code sites like savings.com, retailmenot.com, and deals.yahoo.com.

If you are mailing packages yourself, here are the most important looming deadlines:

The UPS ground deadline was officially Dec. 16, but using the delivery estimation application on the UPS site, most domestic deliveries shipped by the Dec. 17 will still make it in time for Christmas Day, Dec. 25.

The Fed Ex Ground delivery date is Dec.17.

After the De. 17, costs for expedited services from UPS and FedEx escalate quickly.

A 20-pound package shipped from California to New York with UPS Ground costs approximately $29. Moving up to three-day shipping for the same box and destination costs $63.

If you are shipping to a military APO address, you have missed all the USPS deadlines except the Dec. 18 cutoff for Express Mail Military Service.

The Parcel Post deadlines for the USPS have already passed, so the next delivery date to be aware of is Dec. 21 for Priority and First Class mail service.

After the Dec. 12, you are limited to Express Mail delivery, which in the case of our 20 pound-box traveling from San Francisco to New York would bring the Priority mail price of $13.50 up to the Express price of $25.15.