The great rebate debate: Are mail-in offers worth it?
Posted
Jan 16 2008, 12:05 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Last week, Office Depot sent me the kind of e-mail I love getting -- the kind that says, "We owe you money."
I got two of these notices last week, confirming that $30 in rebates were (finally) forthcoming for a couple of purchases I made on Black Friday.
By combining sale prices, the rebates and some store credit earned from trading in ink cartridges, I wound up getting a cordless phone and a computer keyboard for free.
In fact, I made 78 cents on the deal, even after paying for two stamps.
I know that lots of people hate rebates. I love 'em.
How not to mess up
Recently, fellow Smart Spending blogger Karen Datko linked to a post at the Stop Buying Crap personal-finance blog. A blogger named Cap was amusingly rueful about having missed some rebate deadlines, even though he'd taped reminder notes to his desk.
(If his desk is anything like mine, I'm not surprised he missed the deadline. You can't be reminded by what you can't see.)
To keep the rest of us from missing out, Cap offered a handful of useful tips, including:
• Follow instructions to the absolute letter, and pay attention to the dates of the promotion.
• Don't wait until the last minute of the last day to submit your rebate. Your envelope might not be postmarked in time.
• Be sure you want to keep the gizmo before you send in the rebate, because many offers require you to tear the UPC from the box.
• Make copies of all forms and receipts. This is especially useful if your rebate doesn't show up and you have to file a complaint.
Why you should bother
I can see why some people dismiss the smaller rebates. The chance to get a dollar for buying a bottle of mustard doesn't exactly thrill, especially since the stamp you need for the rebate costs 41 cents.
Personally, I'll usually send away for even a buck. I have a low thrill threshold. I'd consider it an extra 59 cents off the mustard's purchase price. Since I tend to buy things on sale and with coupons, rebates are just an additional piece of the bargain puzzle.
With bigger-ticket items -- cell phones, computers, etc. -- I'm kind of mystified as to why people don't follow through. For just a few minutes of work I got a free phone, and my daughter got a free keyboard that she really needed.
Here's an idea: If you buy something with a rebate attached, fill it out as soon as you get home from the store. If that's not possible, fill it out within 24 hours. Create a new rule: You can't set up the computer/use the camera/activate the cell phone until you've filled out the rebate form or forms.
Remember when you were a kid and your parents wouldn't let you play with a gift until you'd written a thank-you note? Think of your new purchase in this way. It's a gift to yourself from yourself, but some kind of acknowledgment is still necessary. After all, the only reason a lot of this stuff gets bought is that the rebates make the prices so attractive.
And the reason that manufacturers continue to offer rebates is that a whole bunch of people never get around to filling out the forms.
Buck that trend. Fill out the forms. And have fun cashing the checks.
