I’ve noticed lately that when I’ve gotten rebates, they’ve come as credit cards, rather than checks. This has happened with a $200 rebate for contact lenses and a $20 rebate from Staples. This is a pain, as you have to be careful not to overspend, because there are penalties for exceeding the amount loaded on the card. I’ve used part of the $200 card, and now I have to find a way to spend exactly the balance.
I had a brilliant idea today. I loaded $20 on my Amazon gift card and used the rebate credit card to pay. I wish I’d done this with the $200 card. I may try to do it with the balance; I wonder if Amazon will let me load an odd amount?
I don’t understand why the companies do this. It must be much harder for them to manage this system. Or do they make money from the merchants?
Many merchants can take more than one type of payment so you could use the rebate credit card plus another form of payment for any overage on a purchase.
My guess is the usage rate is lower with the credit card so they save on that percentage not used by consumers.
I use a sharpie and write the balance of any gift card on the card itself–crossing off and writing in new amounts as balance declines. I then use the card until it zeros out and pay any other balance by CCard or cash or other method. It works fine. I’ve never had any problems using the cards this way.
When I get rebate cards, I figure out a way to spend the entire amount. I used the last ones from a computer part manufacturer to pay most of my monthly broadband internet access bill.
0 out the entire rebate card in one go so I won’t have to worry about it and the manufacturer/card issuer doesn’t get to make much off of me.
Careful with these cards - I just realized a card I had which had a few dollars left on it expired - check yours for an expiration date - after that date you lose your balance (they are not protected like gift cards which are not allowed to have expiration dates)
I once read most people never fully redeem rebate or gift cards. Seems that would be a boon to the cc companies that actually supply them. And I believe the merchants (eg, Staples,) negotiate for them in bulk, at some preferential pricing.
Have Visa gift cards improved when it comes to using them for online purchases? I once had a Visa gift card for $100 or so, and knowing the frustrations with using it I decided to just buy myself an Amazon gift card as mentioned by others. What a serious pain! First the card was rejected even though I had registered it online. So I had to call the number on the card and found out that I also had to call and register it for online use in addition to “regular” use. Then they charged some ridiculously high fee, like $5-$10, for me to use it online. So I think I had an hour’s aggravation and $90 use out of a $100 Visa gift card. That was several years ago and left a pretty bitter taste in my mouth so I’ve avoided them like the plague ever since.
Oh, my first experience with a Visa gift card was a gift my D received for her birthday. But when we tried to use it there was $0 credit. When I called it turned about it was never loaded, so somehow whoever bought the card got screwed by an incompetent clerk or something. I just let it go. Darn I hate those things!
I use them just like I wouid cash - usually at the grocery store. I don’t hold on to them at all so I don’t have to worry about them expiring or losing them.
I bought a visa gift card to give as a donation. I had to pay sales tax on it and a fee! Whoever uses it will have to pay sales tax for whatever they buy too. That was the end of that for me.
it never occurred to me to use them on amazon–best advice ever here!
i hate them too. i have a wallet full of them in little odd amounts and i constantly forget to use them. i think i might gather them up and make it todays project to add them to my amazon account.
now if you could just figure out a solution for unused itunes cards i’d be a happy person!
I have missing and partially used gift cards and rebates cards probably in every room in my house , my office at work and in my car. that is lost money for me, and the issuer gets to keep the money and never does anything for it. a credit to your phone bill is 100% used once they put it on your account.
I had some rebate and visa gift cards. What I did was buy amazon gift cards with them. So a partially used one would work as long as it was a certain dollar amount like $20.
I’ve never had a problem using one of these credit cards for less than the amount I’m spending and being able to pay the balance due with one of my regular credit cards. I’ve done this at the grocery store, CVS, Target, etc. When those rebate credit cards isn’t a large amount, it typically gets used on a single purchase.
I am not a fan of those CC cards either. When we receive them I use them for an Amazon gift card or for groceries. (Groceries because I don’t want to end up using it on something I might return and have a potential complication because I no longer have the “credit card” it was purchased with. And I make sure I spend more than the amount so I don’t have leftovers). I avoid restaurantsor hotels etc. or other special situations where there is small print about additional fees.
I HATE those rebate cards! I’ve run across situations where retailers won’t accept split payments or I forget the balance or I lose the card completely…just annoying.
Thank you so much for the Amazon suggestion. I have an existing $75 Amazon gift card from Christmas just sitting in my account online (yeah, what’s with that?).
I just found FOUR of these cards in my wallet, each with a few dollars left on them
Took a few minutes on Amazon to type in the card numbers but was able to ADD to the existing gift card balance, even in little odd amounts…So I have $16.41 more to spend on Amazon and I threw the dopey cards away.
In the future, I’ll load any rebates directly to Amazon from the get go…We have prime and are frequent Amazon-ers.