Rebates – Reward Or Rip Off?

Rebates have become very popular in the last few years on a lot of items and surely on electronic items and computers. Rebates of $20, $50 or $100 are pretty common.

I’ve even seen items advertised as “free after rebate”. Do these rabbets come under the heading of “too good to be true”? Some of them do and there are “catches” to look out for but if you are careful, rabbets can help you get some really good deals.

The way a discount works is that you pay the retail price for an item then mail in a form and the bar code to the fabricant and they send you a back a percentage of the purchase price thus reducing the price of what you paid for the item except with a time delay of several weeks.

Rule #1. rabbets from reputable companies are usually just fine.

You can be very sure you will get the promised rebate from Best Buy, Amazon or Dell but you should probably not count on getting one from a totally unknown company. If you really want the product and are OK with paying the full price that's listed then buy it but don’t expect actually getting the refund.

Rule #2. Watch rebate expiration dates.

Many times products will stay on the shelf of a vendor after the date for sending in the rebate offer has expired so check that date carefully.

Rule #3. Be sure you have all the forms required to file for the rebate before you leave the store.

Discounts will almost always require a form to be filled out, a receipt for the purchase as well as a bar code.

Rule #4. Back up your rebate claim.

Make copies of anything you send in to receive your discount - this includes the bar code. Mailings get lost in the mail all the time and if the discount is for $50 it’s worth the hassle to back up your claim.