How to Save Money on Products with Mail in Rebate offers?

Mail-in-Rebate (MIR) is a temporary discount on a particular item offered by retailers, while allowing them to maintain current price. You pay full price for the product and then submit rebate coupon (or application form), sales receipt and barcode by mail (within time limit) to receive a check of discount. MIR is great way to get additional discount on products. But many are doubtful about MIR or they may have bad experience in the past with rebates. However, it can be excellent way to save some extra money if it is used with some caution. You can avoid lots of hassle and headache if you are careful with it. This article will show you how to save money with mail in rebates to get great deals.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. The first step starts even before you buy a product. Make sure who is providing rebates. Rebates are offered by either the retailer or the manufacturer of the particular item. There are some companies who are just notorious about their rebates. You may think that you are buying a product from major reputed retailer. But the rebate may be provided by manufacturers who don’t have good reputation with rebate redemption.
   
   So, Even before you buy a product, read few rebate reviews about the company who provides the rebate. Just Google ‘company name rebate review’. You can also try http://www.rebateroulette.com/, which has good database of rebate reviews from different companies. (Direct link is provided in the resource section of this article.) You will surely get the some idea weather to jump in or not. After all, you are not the first one to try it.
2. Also make sure the rebate is not expired already. Especially, when you buy it online, take into consideration time for your product to arrive and time for you to send rebate.
3. Be cautious, if the rebate amount is large, anything above $50-75 can be risky. However, it depends upon the item. If you are buying a laptop or camcorder worth $500-700, they may have rebate of $50 or more. (I myself received rebate of $200 from Amazon once in cell phone deal.). But if you are buying a product of worth $75, and rebate amount is $50. I would not go for it.
4. Once you buy the product, you must send rebate within a week. It hardly takes 30 minutes to fill it up. Companies profit from the fact that many of their customers either fail to submit rebates on time or do not follow up in process of rebate redemption. According to Wall Street Journal, up to 95% of people forget to claim the rebate. Many customers just give up.
5. Read the instructions carefully and twice and make sure you do exactly as told. If you miss one detail, you are offering them an opportunity to reject your claim.
6. Most important of all, is expiration date or postmark date. Even if, you send everything according to their policy, if you miss date, you will probably be denied. Don’t wait until last day. Send it ASAP. (A postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service.)
7. If you are extra careful about the rebate, keep the postal receipt of the rebate mail. Or even use delivery confirmation for your rebate mail. (You may pay $1 more, but you will have a proof, in case of any trouble receiving rebate.)
8. Most of the rebates have three items to submit. Rebate form or coupon, sales receipt and UPC code from product box. (UPC code is a barcode with 12 digits at the bottom. This is most common form of UPC code, though other variants of the UPC may exist.). You should be able to find UPC code easily on the box. Read instructions for more details.
9. Finally, keep a photocopy of all the forms. Keep them where you can find it later on. You can make a separate file folder for rebates. (I often scan them, so that I can send it at attachment, in case needed. And it’s easy to store them in a computer!)
10. Typical wait time for receiving rebate is 6 to 8 weeks. And it is easy to forget about mail-in rebates, so I always use reminder of 6 weeks in my online calendar, when I submit the rebate.
11. I also keep track of rebate submission with excel sheet. Check out the sample: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p94uMaIH54sV_QAWYw7mXOQ&hl=en (Link is also provided in resource section of this article.)
    
    (Am I too cautious?)
12. Finally, if your rebate is denied, even though you have done everything right. Be prepared to fight. Don’t give up that easily. It’s your money. Call on 1-800 numbers, send them emails. Tell them that you are ready to submit it again if required. (Generally you won’t need to send it again; they don’t need a hassle either. If they don’t respond to your emails, then give them warning about filing complaint! After all this, if you don’t get the rebate, write a really negative review about the company online, you can at least get satisfaction of saving other from falling into the trap!!)
    
    I think, I just got carried away too much. Your experience will not be that bad, if you follow these guidelines. I have used rebates many times. And my personal experience has been very good.

Tips & Warnings

• Some retailers also offer to submit their mail in rebates over internet, completely eliminating mail delay and processing times. (Staples, Walgreens etc.)
• There are many websites which shows many different MIR deals available online. One of which is www.freeafterrebate.info.
• If you get better at it, there are some occasional offers online (mostly electronics) in which you can actually make money. It is not for weak-hearted though.