EVGA has announced a new European-wide extension of its Step-Up trade-in programme, allowing those buying graphics cards or motherboards to upgrade to a better model up to 180 days after launch.

Previously, the Step-Up programme had required users to purchase an extended warranty on their item and provided a ninety-day period during which customers can relieve their buyers' remorse by upgrading to a higher-end model by paying the difference in purchase prices.

'Our Step-Up programme is one of the many benefits available to end users when they join the EVGA community,' crowed Lee Rossiter, EVGA's European sales director, of the programme's extension. 'The Step-Up programme protects the investment an end user makes in an EVGA product, and gives them the opportunity to upgrade to a higher performance EVGA graphics card or motherboard. This promotion enables our end users to have the flexibility to "trade up" through pretty much the first half of 2013.'

There are, naturally, one or two caveats: the Step-Up programme allows a product purchased to be upgraded within 180 days - up from the previous 90 days - from purchase, but requires the buyer to pay shipping both ways along with the difference in price based on the retail price through EVGA's own online store. It's also restricted to selected models from which and to you can upgrade.

The extended timescale, plus the waiving of the typical requirement for an extended warranty purchase, is valid from today through to the 21st of December. Any purchases made after that will require extended warranties to take advantage of Step-Up, and will be limited ot the traditional 90-day period.

Details on the Step-UP programme are available on EVGA's website.