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Turbo Tax Gift Card Reward Program
By JLP | January 28, 2006
Turbo Tax is offering a gift card program this year. Here’s how it works:
If you get a tax refund, you can have a portion of it put on gift cards for certain retailers. Then, when you use the gift card, the retailer will credit back a portion unto the gift card. I know it sounds confusing but it works out to a 10% to 30% bonus depending on the retailer. Here’s a list of participating retailers.
They even have “real world examples.” In this example, the guy receives a 14% bonus.
There is a $14.95 shipping and handling charge, which seems a little steep to me considering we are talking about gift cards.
I’m not recommending this deal, but if you are going to spend your refund anyway, you might as well consider this program.
I’ll write more about this later.
Topics: Taxes | 13 Comments »
January 28th, 2006 at 4:42 am
I completed my $3K refund online at turbotax.com and decided agains the gift card reward program as well. In may case, the $29.99 program fee and the not so great discounts caused me to decline. Since I have the ability to by many more desirable gift cards via a GC program like dealpass.com, I chose to receive the cash and buy the GC’s via those programs.
January 29th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I think the gift card / tax rebate makes sense if you have a large purchase at Lowes plannned or are a cappicino addict at starbucks.
The funny thing is that a lot of Turbotax users are also quicken users, so there has been some analysis of “good deal / bad deal” sorts of things with this.
$30 + $15 ship on $3k plus the discount is more than a wash… the real question is: why are you loaning the gov’t $3k interest-free? Might be time to look at this.
Foob
March 7th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
I took advantage of this program since DELL was participating in the program and I was in the market for a new computer. I got my gift cards yesterday… tried to spend them today. DELL only accepts 3 forms of payment and I received (4) four $200 cards. I can’t use the cards unless I want to PAY AMERICAN EXPRESS to convert the (4) cards to (1) card. More than 5 phone calls to DELL, AMERICAN EXPRESS & INTUIT and no one can help me. The program is complete CRAP – participants BEWARE!! I have a hard time believing (after being a DELL and INTUIT customer for so many years) that no one thought a head and no one is willing to fix this issue. I can’t even get my hard earned money back…
I’m done venting…. here anyway…
SHS
March 15th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Buyer beware. There are a lot of restrictions on the Amex cards – these are so-called ‘shopping cards’ not the regular Amex gift cards everyone knows and loves.
Quite frankly, it’s a scam. They appear to be gift cards, are marketed with other gift cards but unless you want something from Pottery Barn or Dell, forget spending them.
A call to Amex will put you talking to someone if India who has no desire to help you. Intuit won’t do anything as well and pass the blame back to Amex.
All I want is my money back. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so.
March 26th, 2006 at 6:59 am
I also got hooked by purchasing American Express gift cards – bought 4 of them – what a scam. Only limited vendors, then the vendors only let you but certain items. The best part? Everytime you put a card number in (online) to purchase an item, AMEX subtracts $1 just for you entering that number. Tried to get a refund – good luck, AMEX tells you to call Intuit, who tells you to call AMEX. I’m done with both companies – my AMEX gold card has already been cut up and as far as taxes? H&R Block, here I come!
March 26th, 2006 at 9:27 am
I purchased 4 AMEX gift cards from my return – what a scam! The cards are only good at certain retailers, then the retailers put restrictions on what you could buy. Supposedly, no expiration date or usage fees, but… the expiration date is right there and it costs $1 everytime you use of of them. Trying to get my money ($720) back is a joke – Intuit says to go to AMEX, AMEX says to go to Intuit. I’m done with both companies.
May 7th, 2006 at 11:46 am
I have had no problems with the AMEX gift cards I purchased through Turbo Tax. At the time the AMEX card offer was made they provided a list of vendors that accept the card, so I knew up front that only certain companies would honor the card. There were enough companies that I shop with that I felt comfortable making the purchase. I have never been restricted in what I can or cannot purchase at those stores. I have not made any online purchases with the card. I am surprised that they are charging a $1 fee just to use the card online. I can’t verify that, but will double check.
October 14th, 2006 at 12:28 am
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October 27th, 2006 at 9:41 am
The turbo tax American Express cards are a total rip off and the biggest scam. Just another way to rip off hard working people. I saved my cards until I got on vacation. What a joke. There I sat with 3 cards worth a total of what I thought was $600.00 spending money. No one takes them. Turbotax rippped everyone off and miss lead the public and there is NO way to get your money back.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Mona and others… I regret that the American Express cards obtained through TurboTax did not meet your expectations. Although the gift card conditions (including the participating retailers) were clearly disclosed within the TurboTax product, and on the TurboTax confirmation page, and on the card and the accompanying card material sent to you), we want your experience with TurboTax to be great. Our goal always is to ensure complete customer satisfaction. (By the way, we are not aware of any conditions that would limit you to certain merchandise at participating retailers or fees for online usage.)
If you (and others) would like to follow through on this and allow us to earn your trust back, please contact me at turbotax_advocate@intuit.com. I have no way of contacting you based on your post other than through my post here.
Thanks.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
November 7th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
I just sent an email to Bob Meighan to see what he is willing to do. I have had a horrible time trying to redeem these gift cards. I sent an email to Intuit and all they said was that they would not be using this program in the future. Well, that is fine, but what am I supposed to do with $800 worth of gift cards!?!
November 8th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
I got my money back from these american express cards!!
Call Gary Green at 520-901-3000. It took only 10 days!
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
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Thanks.