Price matching is not a new credit-card perk, but it’s one that consumers often overlook — potentially forgoing hundreds of dollars in holiday savings.

Some call it price matching, some call it a price guarantee, but no matter the name, many credit card issuers and network, including Discover DFS, -0.22% , Citi C, -0.71% and MasterCard MA, -1.47% , are offering consumers refunds for the difference in price should they buy an item and then find it for a lower price later on. Discover will refund the difference up to $500 if you find your item at a lower price within 90 days of making a Discover card purchase, Citi says it will refund the difference in price up to $500 per item if its price-finding service discovers a lower price within 60 days of the purchase, and MasterCard will refund up to $250 within 60 days or 120 days, depending on which type of MasterCard you use.

They say they’re offering this perk because it’s popular with customers. Discover says that their program, which they launched in June 2012, has been “very well received” by cardmembers and a MasterCard spokeswoman says “these benefits test extremely high in our research with consumers.” Citi says it launched a limited version of its price-match program in 2010, and then, due to positive consumer feedback expanded it to cover all of its cards in 2012 and since them has expanded more by increasing both the amount it will reimburse consumers and the number of days with which it will have its price-matching service look for lower prices for consumers.

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Still, experts say that a lot of consumers have cards that offer this feature and don’t even realize it. Ben Woolsey, president of credit card discussion and review site CreditCardForum.com, estimates that less than 1% of consumers who have the price-match perk know about it. “Cardmembers just aren’t aware of it and rarely if ever make claims.” For the card companies, that makes it a relatively low-risk perk, he says. “They’re hoping this benefit just increases people’s willingness to buy things without worrying about prices being lower in the near future or at another retailer.” (Citi, MasterCard and Discover didn't share numbers with MarketWatch on the percentage of their consumers who used this perk.)

Even those who do know about the perk may be stymied by the red tape involved in actually taking advantage of it. “They all have a lot of exclusions,” explains a spokesperson for card comparison site NerdWallet.com. Indeed, many popular gift items are typically excluded from the price match programs, she says: jewelry, art, antiques, motorized vehicles, many types of travel, items sold at a business closeout sale, items sold in very limited quantities (like some door-buster deals), items sold on online auction sites, food and animals. Plus, the programs have monetary limits. The Discover and Citi programs have an annual limit of $2,500 and MasterCard $1,000.

What’s more, consumers often have to jump through hoops to get these perks. With the Discover program, not only do you have to find a lower priced item, you have to submit your Discover card statement showing the entire original purchase price, the sales receipt, and either a copy of the dated, printed, lower-price ad, or a statement, signed by the store manager on store stationery (this is considered proof of the lower price, if the dated, printed ad cannot be provided), documenting the details of the lower price of the identical item. The MasterCard program works in a similar way. With the Citi program, you register the items you want to price check on Citi’s site, but then the company does that price checking for you.

So is the price-match guarantee worth using? “There’s not a big downside to the programs other than the time it takes to do them,” says Eric Adamowsky, the co-founder of Credit Card Insider. Citi’s program may be best for people who don’t have the desire to do legwork to find competitive prices, experts says. s, experts say. For those willing to do the legwork, Discover’s program may be best, as it is has a high annual limit of $2,500 and has a long period over which it will honor a price match (90 days).

Those thinking about getting a new card that does price matching might want to “compare the value of the price match to that of a sign-up bonus for another card,” the NerdWallet spokesperson says. “Some cards have a bonus that’s worth the price match, and you don’t have to jump through as many hoops to get the bonus,” she says. And some cards offer both a sign-up bonus and a price-match guarantee. Finally, of course, it’s important to remember — price match or not — to get a credit card that makes sense for your lifestyle (if you carry a balance, for example, the first thing you should be looking for is a 0% card).

This story has been updated.