Mail-In Rebates

Mail-In Rebates (MIRs) offer tons of savings, however, it does take a little more work than some of the other ways to save money, but often the rewards are larger.

When you purchase something, the retailer often advertises the after rebate price ($39.99 after $30.00 MIR). When you purchase the product, you will pay $69.99 + any applicable taxes. You then must submit the rebate forum in order to get your money. Normally there are very strict requirements on how to submit your rebate form. Some of these include that the rebate must be postmarked within 30 days of the original purchase date, you must include a copy of the original receipt, and you must include the original UPC barcode.

James K. Hickel has written an excellent article about MIRs called Confessions of a Mail In Rebate Junkie that you defiantly should read. I am just going to highlight a few of the points that I think are extremely important.

• Always read the offer carefully. There is almost always a catch that the company will use so they don’t have to give you the rebate. If you read the offer and it sounds like something you can’t do, then don’t do it. Make note of the dates which make the rebate valid, as well as when you must submit the rebate.
• FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!!! If it says to jump up and down three times on the rebate instructions then by all means do it or somehow they will find out. Make sure that you include everything that they want. If they want the UPC, give it to them, if they want you to highlight in purple highlighter the item on the receipt, even if you only bought one item, HIGHLIGHT it! Before you send it in, double, even triple check the information and make sure it is all accurate.
• Always keep a copy of EVERYTHING for your records! Before sending it in, make a copy (or scan) of all the items you are sending in. Copy the form that you have filled out, copy the receipt, copy the UPC. Copy everything. Now place all of this in a folder somewhere, and don’t touch it until you need to. If they need something else, or say that you didn’t include something you can go back to your folder and pull it out and say here it is. After you have cashed the rebate check, I see no need to keep this any longer.
• Keep a log of everything you send it. Record all the details that you can. If the paperwork says that it will take 8-12 weeks to process, then put in your log the day you sent it in, and then mark down when 8-12 weeks is so that you know when to start looking for it. If you haven’t heard anything after 12 weeks, begin to contact the company to see what is going on. There is a program that you can use that does some of the work of tracking your rebates for you. You can find the program here.

If you don’t receive your rebate in the time that you are supposed to, then you need to start contacting the company to find out what is going on. Again Mr. Hickel has some more information on how to go about doing that, and I will be writing up my own article on this as well, so keep a lookout for this to be coming soon!

Leave a Comment