Originally Posted By: JTK
Anyone else ever have difficulty using these so called "rebates"? DTD doesn't mail you a rebate check, they send you a stupid prepaid VISA card that has proven to be a bit of a challenge to use. It says "Debit" on the card, but the fine print says to use it as credit. My wife tried to use it at a restaurant. Declined. I've tried to use it for gas. Declined. I guess I'll try it for online purchases next. What gives? Anyone have a similar experience?
This is how tons of rebates work these days. What I do is use it to pay bills, like my cell phone. I just enter a payment amount of $50 (if I have a $50 card, for example), punch in the card number, and it's done.
The reason it won't work for restaurants or gas sometimes is that these places do an authorization above the actual credit limit. Let's say you are planning to buy $25 worth of gas and have a $50 card -- the gas station might do a pre-auth of $100, which is, of course, higher than the card's limit. Restaurants do it because they aren't sure how big of a gratuity you'll leave.