Consumer Law

Oregonian's Hunsberger on Rebate Cards

By Jeff Sovern

by Jeff Sovern

The Oregonian's Personal Finance Columnist, Brent Hunsberger, has a column here on his experience with rebate cards. It turns out that some companies, instead of issuing rebate checks, are issuing cards loaded with the amount of the rebate.  Hunsberger's could be used anywhere that accepts Visa.  But the card was good for less than five months, and Hunsberger didn't use it up during that period.  One thing that I find interesting about that is that under § 4-404 of the UCC, checks are good for at least six months, so if the company had issued Hunsberger a check (without providing that it was good for a shorter time), he would have had a longer period to use the money.  I wonder if this is yet another way for companies to recapture rebates.  Hunsberger points out that in Oregon unclaimed rebates go to the state, so it might not have worked in his case--and maybe that has something to do with the fact that the company relented and has promised Hunsberger a new card with the remainder of the balance.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on October 03, 2010 (boomark / email).