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Trade Your Tax Rebate for a Giftcard
By JLP | April 28, 2008
Did you know that many retailers are offering 10% bonuses to people who use their tax rebates to purchase store giftcards? So if you give Sears your $600 refund, for instance, they’ll hand you a $660 Sears gift card to spend.
Some of the retailers offering these offers include Kroger, Sears, K-Mart, and Lands End. Wal-Mart is expected to announce a similar plan within days. Some stores (Kroger) will give you change if you only want to use part of your rebate, while others (Sears) require your whole rebate to qualify for the deal.
Liz Pulliam Westin’s Yahoo! Finance article on the subject urges consumers to say “no” to these offers, but it has convinced me to consider the offers instead.
Even if you are planning to save your rebate, you can still take advantage of these offers. You have to buy groceries anyway, for instance, so let’s say your grocery budget is $150 per month (as mine is). I could use my $600 rebate to buy a Kroger gift card, use the gift card for groceries for the next 4.4 months, and put the $150/mo I would be spending on groceries during that time into my savings account.
So I can get a 10% return on my rebate and effectively save it anyway!
Note: Liz does make some good points in her article about the importance of buying American. If you want to do the patriotic thing and spend your stimulus check, then consider the following:
- Buying American-made products (including groceries grown in the US) from local, American businesses (such as the mom and pop grocer in your town) is the most effective thing you can do.
- Buying American made products from a non-local American company (like Kroger) is also great.
- Buying imported products (such as a Japanese-made plasma TV) from an American company is OK too. At least you can feel semi-good for buying it from an American company and supporting our consumer-driven economy during these rocky times.
What are you doing with your rebate check (if you are getting one)?
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