Buyer's Remorse: Why It Happens and How to Shop With Fewer Regrets

The doubt usually turns up after the payment has gone through: a sinking sense, hours or days later, that you paid too much, chose the wrong model or should not have bought anything at all. That feeling is buyer’s remorse, and it is most often linked to big, hard-to-undo purchases such as a car or a home.¹ It is normal, and it gets easier to handle once you separate the part that needs action (usually a deadline) from the part that only needs time. In short:

1. Name what the regret is about
2. Check your deadline and your rights today
3. Decide once whether to keep or return it
4. Stop shopping for what you already bought
5. Set “good enough” before you browse next time

Beliefs about money shape spending in many ways beyond this one; the article on how psychologists define a money mindset gives the broader picture. Here the focus is one moment, the regret after you pay, and the first thing to settle is whether you can still undo the purchase.

Can you return something because of buyer’s remorse?

Sometimes. The answer turns on your country and on how you bought. In the UK and the EU, most goods bought from a business online or by phone (and, in the EU, from a seller at your door) come with a legal 14-day cooling-off period, while in a UK shop, changing your mind gives no automatic right to a refund; many shops offer returns by policy instead.²³

Myth

You can always return something if you simply change your mind.

Fact

Only some sales carry a legal cooling-off right. In a UK shop, for example, a refund for a change of mind is up to the seller.

Rules differ by country and change over time, so the table below gives examples from Citizens Advice (UK), the European Commission’s Your Europe site (EU) and the US Federal Trade Commission, checked in October 2026, rather than a complete guide.

Exceptions matter as much as the rule. Citizens Advice lists items that get no UK cooling-off period, including anything bought from a private individual, goods that spoil quickly, personalized or made-to-measure items, and sealed media or hygiene-sealed goods once the seal is broken; a business must tell you before you buy if an item is excluded.² The EU rules also exclude goods bought from a private individual, and dated bookings such as flights, concerts and hotels.³

In the US, for purchases outside the federal rule, check the store’s return policy before you buy, and your state’s rules: New York, for example, requires stores to post their refund policy and, if none is posted, to accept returns within 30 days of purchase.⁵ If you live elsewhere, your national consumer protection agency or consumer association can tell you which rules apply, and for a purchase from another EU country, the European Consumer Centre in your own country can help.³

1. Bought online, by phone or at your door: for most goods from a business, a legal 14-day cooling-off period in the EU, and in the UK for online and phone orders; the US federal rule covers only certain sales at home, at work or at temporary venues, not online, mail or phone orders
2. Bought in a shop: in the UK, for example, changing your mind gives no legal right to a refund, so the store’s own returns policy decides; some places, such as New York, add rules of their own
3. The item is faulty or not as described: that is not buyer’s remorse; different consumer rights can apply, so check them before you settle for a store’s goodwill offer

Find out which route you are on within a day of the regret arriving. A faulty item or one that is not as described is not buyer’s remorse at all, and it can carry different rights.²

What causes buyer’s remorse?

Buyer’s remorse is usually explained by cognitive dissonance, the theory Leon Festinger set out in 1957: holding two thoughts that clash is uncomfortable, so people work to ease the clash. After a purchase the clash is plain. “I chose this one” sits next to “the other one had things I liked”.⁶

The classic test came from Jack Brehm, Festinger’s student, in 1956. Women students rated household appliances, chose one of two as a gift, and then rated them again: the chosen appliance went up and the rejected one went down.⁶ Brehm predicted the pressure would be strongest when the two options were close in appeal.⁷ Later work questioned the method: in 2010 Keith Chen and Jane Risen showed that this rate, choose and rate design can produce the same pattern even when preferences do not change at all (abstract only).⁸ So how much choosing reshapes what you like is still debated, while the discomfort of a close call is easy to recognize.

Picture two laptops that seem almost equal. You buy one. The next evening a review praises the other, and the doubt arrives. Nothing about your laptop changed; what changed is that the rejected option is back in view.

Researchers who built a 22-item scale for measuring this discomfort just after a purchase found it is not only a thought but also a feeling (abstract only).⁹ Their items fall into three groups: emotional unease, doubts about the wisdom of the purchase, and concern about the deal, as in wondering whether you were fooled. Wikipedia’s overview of the topic notes that remorse tends to grow with what a purchase demands: money, effort and long-term commitment, which is why a car weighs more than a sweater.¹

In practice, buyer’s remorse comes in kinds, and each asks for something different. Unease often fades on its own, doubts about the purchase need an honest test, and doubts about the deal need facts.

Why maximizers feel more regret after shopping

People who insist on finding the best option, whom the psychologist Barry Schwartz and colleagues called maximizers, report more regret about their purchases than satisficers, who stop at the first option that clears their bar. The finding comes from a 2002 paper that reported several studies.¹⁰

The study

Limited evidence

Best-option shoppers and how they felt about a recent purchase

In one of the studies, 401 undergraduates at Canada’s University of British Columbia filled in a questionnaire about how much they aim for the best, then described a recent cheap or expensive purchase. Students who scored higher as maximizers reported considering more products, taking longer to decide, comparing themselves with others before and after buying, more “what if” thinking and less happiness with what they bought. Spending was no different. The data are correlational, from one student sample, so they show an association, not a cause.¹⁰

The authors’ reading is that comparisons feed the regret: every product and every person you measure your purchase against is a new way for it to come up short.¹⁰ The link may also depend on culture. In a 2012 survey of adults in the US, Western Europe and China, maximizers in the two Western groups reported lower well-being, mostly through regret, while Chinese maximizers reported more regret but no lower well-being (abstract only).¹¹ Maximizing is a habit of mind rather than a fixed type, and it costs more than shopping regret; the guide to why too much searching leads to analysis paralysis covers its other effects.

What about having too many options? The evidence is less tidy than its reputation. A 2010 meta-analysismeta-analysis: A study that combines the results of earlier studies on the same question into one overall estimate. Pooling makes the estimate more precise, but it cannot repair the studies it pools: a meta-analysis of surveys is still survey evidence.Full entry in the glossary pooling 50 experiments found that extra options made almost no difference on average, though results varied a lot between studies.¹² A 2015 meta-analysis narrowed down when a bigger range does hurt: when the options are complicated, the decision is difficult, you are unsure what you prefer, or you mainly want to choose with minimal effort; regret was among the outcomes it pooled (both read as abstracts only).¹³

On a shop shelf full of coffee machines, if you already know you want a small one under a set price, most of the shelf drops away. If you do not, every extra model is one more thing to weigh and, later, one more thing to wonder about. Deciding what matters before you look is what makes a big range manageable.

How long does buyer’s remorse last?

No study we found has timed buyer’s remorse, so nobody can honestly say it lasts a day or a week. The closest evidence comes from research on regret in general: a 1995 review by the psychologists Thomas Gilovich and Victoria Medvec reported that regrets about actions sting more in the short term, while regrets about inaction last longer.¹⁴

A purchase is something you did, so on that reading its sting is likely to be sharpest early and to fade with time. That is an inference from the review’s abstract, not a measurement of shoppers.

The first days are when the feeling is loudest, so do not let it make a big decision alone. They are also when the return window is open, so do not wait for the feeling to pass if you already know the item is wrong.

How to get over buyer’s remorse

Getting over buyer’s remorse is mostly about making one clear decision and then letting it stand. The steps below follow the three kinds of remorse described above and the research on what keeps regret alive.

1. Name what the regret is about

Ask which of the three kinds you feel. If it is unease, give it a little time. If you doubt the purchase, test it by using the item for its intended job. If you suspect a bad deal, check the facts: the price elsewhere on the day you bought, the terms you agreed to, and any missing information.

2. Check your deadline and your rights today

Find the receipt or order confirmation and the seller’s returns policy, and write down the last day you can act. In the UK, Citizens Advice suggests telling the seller you are cancelling in writing, keeping a copy as proof, and following up any phone call in writing.²

3. Decide once whether to keep or return it

A reversible choice can feel safer but leave you less content. In a 2002 study by Daniel Gilbert and Jane Ebert, photography students who could still swap the print they had chosen liked it less than students whose choice was final, yet most people wanted the chance to change their minds (abstract only).¹⁵ An open option keeps the comparison going.

4. Stop shopping for what you already bought

Comparing after you buy is the habit that went with more regret among maximizers in the Schwartz study.¹⁰ Once you have decided to keep something, stop checking its price, reading reviews of the model you passed over or browsing alternatives. Use the item for what you bought it for.

How can I avoid buyer’s remorse before a big purchase?

The most useful habit before a big purchase is to decide what “good enough” looks like before you start looking, and to stop when you find it. That is satisficing in practice, the opposite of the maximizing habit described above.

5. Set “good enough” before you browse

Write down your must-haves and a price limit, then compare a few options that meet them. When one clears the bar, stop, even if a better one might exist somewhere.

Be careful with imagining regret, too. In three studies in 1992, Itamar Simonson found that people asked to imagine how they would feel after a wrong choice were more likely to buy a sale item now rather than wait, and to pick a well-known, pricier brand over a cheaper, less-known one (abstract only).¹⁶ Dwelling on possible regret can tilt you toward the familiar, more expensive choice, which is not always the one that fits your needs.

Waiting periods and other ways to slow a purchase down are covered separately, in the guide on how to curb impulse buying. The checklist below covers the points this article adds.

Before a big purchase

• Write down my must-haves and a price limit
• Compare a short list, then stop when one is good enough
• Check the return window and who pays return postage
• Check whether the seller is a business or a private person
• Keep the receipt and order confirmation together

Signs the regret is about more than one purchase

Ordinary buyer’s remorse is tied to one purchase and fades. When distress about spending keeps coming back, or the buying itself seems beyond your control, that calls for professional help rather than a better checklist.

• Now: call your local emergency number if worry about money ever turns into thoughts of hurting yourself. For a free, confidential helpline in your country, Find A Helpline is a worldwide directory, covering more than 150 countries, that the suicide-prevention body IASP sends people to.¹⁷
• Soon: if shopping urges are hard to resist, or spending keeps leading to distress, debt or arguments, raise it with your doctor or a qualified counselor or therapist. If bills are falling behind, the article on money anxiety, with free debt advice routes in several countries is a place to start.
• Before a large purchase you cannot easily undo, such as a car or a home, check the cancellation terms in the contract itself, and ask a consumer advice service or a lawyer if anything is unclear.

The bottom line

Buyer’s remorse is the discomfort of a choice you cannot fully take back, and it hits hardest when you keep comparing. If you are feeling it now, find your deadline and your rights today, then decide once whether to keep or return the item. Next time, write down what good enough means before you start looking, and stop when you find it.