We can be so anxious to buy a special cell phone or other electronic that we become so consumed with other things that we often put the rebate form in a secret hiding place to fill out and send in at a later time. Over the past year, I have lost our on over $250 in mail in rebates that I have neglected to simply fill out and mail in to the rebate companies.

One of which was $50 for a new cell phone I bought through Verizon. After I bought the phone and recieved the rebate form, I put it away in my wallett and started playing with my phone all day long. Soon after, I bought a laptop from Toshiba for school with a $200 mail in rebate and guess what I did? I stashed it away in my wallett and completly neglected it for a few months. Even though I knew the rebates were there and I would recieve a nice check soon, I kept putting it away for two reasons:

1. I thought I had plenty of time to fill it in, they usually give 30-60 days to claim the rebate.
2. I was annoyed at the fact that it took 6-8 weeks for the rebate to be sent to me and I felt that I could put it off for a while since I didnt really need the money for anything.

According to BusinessWeek magazine, recently estimated a return rate of 60 percent. Some estimates have been as low as 2%. For example, nearly half of the 100,000 new TiVo Subscribers in 2005 did not redeem their $100 rebates, allowing the company to keep $5,000,000 in additional profit. Youve got to be kidding me? Not surprising why all of these companies offer so many rebates with these low claim rates.

Typically, most rebates are offered on products that are in the $250-2,000 range but can go all the way up to cars and even some real estate companies offer them on houses ever since the housing market began to fall.

One thing that always worried me was if I would recieve the mail in rebate. After all, with millions of products being sold, some of these claims have to be ignored or unfilled. Also, how can we show proof to a company that we have not recieved our rebate? Simple solution- buy products that already have the INSTANT rebates attached into the purchase price. Virtually every electronic product category as well as most applicances have this attached to the total cost, so your guarenteed to get an instant rebate even though you don’t have the luxury of recieveing a check in the mail.

In any case, don’t be lazy like myself. Send in those rebates and get the money you deserve.

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Filed under: Due Diligence, Saving