Rebate card

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A rebate card is a debit card that provides funds promised by a business as a rebate. They are often offered to those who make a specific purchase, or for loyalty to a company by accumulating a certain amount of money or number of points worth of purchases from a particular company.

Contents

While some rebate cards are valid anywhere where a major credit card is accepted, others can be used at a more limited number of locations, such as certain companies, [1] business types, [1] or localities, [2] or at participating retailers.

Criticism of rebate cards

Rebate cards have been criticized for not offering consumers the full amount of their value. With many of them, it is impossible to know exactly how much is remaining on the card at the point of sale. A purchase for less than the amount remaining can be made with the card, but a purchase for even one penny above this amount will be declined. Very few stores will allow split-tender transactions (transactions in which the rebate card is used for part of the purchase, and some other form of payment for the remainder.[ citation needed ] Due to the likelihood of a purchase being equal to the remaining amount being so low, most consumers do not get every penny that can be found on a rebate card, and the companies offering them pocket the remainder. [3]

Rebate cards often have expiration dates, allowing very little time for consumers to use them. [1] Some deduct a certain amount from the card as time passes during their life. [4]

To combat these problems, critics recommend consumers exchange their rebate cards on websites like eBay, or Craigslist, where consumers can receive cash or cash equivalents for their rebate cards. [5]

Laws regarding rebate cards

Use of the term "rebate card" has been outlawed in Canada. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

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A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either the front or the back. Many new cards now have a chip on them, which allows people to use their card by touch (contactless), or by inserting the card and keying in a PIN as with swiping the magnetic stripe. Debit cards are similar to a credit card, but the money for the purchase must be in the cardholder's bank account at the time of the purchase and is immediately transferred directly from that account to the merchant's account to pay for the purchase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyalty program</span> Marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at a business

A loyalty program or a rewards program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of one or more businesses associated with the program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stored-value card</span> Payment card with a monetary value stored on the card itself

A stored-value card (SVC) or cash card is a payment card with a monetary value stored on the card itself, not in an external account maintained by a financial institution. This means no network access is required by the payment collection terminals as funds can be withdrawn and deposited straight from the card. Like cash, payment cards can be used anonymously as the person holding the card can use the funds. They are an electronic development of token coins and are typically used in low-value payment systems or where network access is difficult or expensive to implement, such as parking machines, public transport systems, and closed payment systems in locations such as ships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrip</span> Any substitute for legal tender or currency

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gift card</span> Prepaid-stored-value money card

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The Community HeroCard (CHC), introduced in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1998, is a community currency that uses debit cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touch 'n Go</span> Malaysian expressway smart card

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Credit card interest is a way in which credit card issuers generate revenue. A card issuer is a bank or credit union that gives a consumer a card or account number that can be used with various payees to make payments and borrow money from the bank simultaneously. The bank pays the payee and then charges the cardholder interest over the time the money remains borrowed. Banks suffer losses when cardholders do not pay back the borrowed money as agreed. As a result, optimal calculation of interest based on any information they have about the cardholder's credit risk is key to a card issuer's profitability. Before determining what interest rate to offer, banks typically check national, and international, credit bureau reports to identify the borrowing history of the card holder applicant with other banks and conduct detailed interviews and documentation of the applicant's finances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Payment card</span> Card issued by a financial institution that can be used to make a payment

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A cashback website is a type of reward website that pays its members a percentage of the money that they spend when they purchase goods and services via its affiliate links.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interchange fee</span> Fee paid between banks for card-based transactions

Interchange fee is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee paid between banks for the acceptance of card-based transactions. Usually for sales/services transactions it is a fee that a merchant's bank pays a customer's bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuel card</span>

A fuel card or fleet card is used as a payment card most commonly for gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at gas stations. Fleet cards can also be used to pay for vehicle maintenance and expenses at the discretion of the fleet owner or manager. Most fuel cards are charge cards.

Loyalty marketing is a marketing strategy in which a company focuses on growing and retaining existing customers through incentives. Branding, product marketing, and loyalty marketing all form part of the customer proposition – the subjective assessment by the customer of whether to purchase a brand or not based on the integrated combination of the value they receive from each of these marketing disciplines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Dot Corporation</span> American issuer of prepaid debit cards

The Green Dot Corporation is an American financial technology and bank holding company headquartered in Austin, Texas. It is the world's largest prepaid debit card company by market capitalization. Green Dot is also a payment platform company and is the technology platform used by Apple Cash, Uber, and Intuit. The company was founded in 1999 by Steve Streit as a prepaid debit card for teenagers to shop online. In 2001, the company pivoted to serving the "unbanked" and "underbanked" communities. In 2010, Green Dot Corporation went public with a valuation of $2 billion. Since its inception, Green Dot has acquired a number of companies in the mobile, financial, and tax industries including Loopt, AccountNow, AchieveCard, UniRush Financial Services, and Santa Barbara Tax Products Group.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cash on delivery</span> Method of package delivery where payment is made upon receipt

Cash on delivery (COD), sometimes called payment on delivery, cash on demand, payment on demand or collect on delivery is the sale of goods by mail order where payment is made on delivery rather than in advance. If the goods are not paid for, they are returned to the retailer. Originally, the term applied only to payment by cash but as other forms of payment have become more common, the word "cash" has sometimes been replaced with the word "collect" to include transactions by checks, money orders, credit cards or debit cards.

Card transaction data is financial data generally collected through the transfer of funds between a card holder's account and a business's account. It consists of the use of either a debit card or a credit card to generate data on the transfer for the purchase of goods or services. Transaction data describes an action composed of events in which master data participates. Transaction focuses on the price, discount and method of payment interaction between the customer and the organization. They are based on volatility as each transaction data changes every time a purchase is made, one time it could be $10, the next $55. Since debit and credit cards are commonly used to pay for goods and services, they represent a strong percentage of the consumption expenditure in the country.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Are gas-rebate cards for you?". NBC News . 21 August 2006. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013.
  2. "Rebates are keeping dollars in town". www.startribune.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-20.
  3. 1 2 http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/09/28/when-a-rebate-isnt-a-rebate-its-a-ripoff/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main%7Cdl9%7Clink4%7Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.walletpop.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F09%2F28%2Fwhen-a-rebate-isnt-a-rebate-its-a-ripoff%2F
  4. "Pahrump Valley Times - Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation". www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11.
  5. Kuperstein, Adam (March 22, 2010). "Solution to Lousy Rebate Cards". NBC.