Here’s why Pep boys latest $15.98 full-synthetic motor oil deal for Mobil 1, Pennzoil, Valvoline or Castrol Full Synthetic will end up being a bad deal for you thanks to a shitty rebate card.
Earlier this week I received a Pepboys mailer with various deals, with one of them that catching my eye and I presume will catch thousands of eyes too, their $15.98 Mobil 1, Pennzoil, Valvoline, or Castrol Full Synthetic Motor Oil deal. Regularly priced at $30.98, to get the rebate you must apply for their $15 rebate which will arrive as a pre-pard Visa card where technically you can use anywhere where Visa is excepted. But, here’s why it’s a bad deal for you.
The Visa Rebate card they give you plain sucks thanks to terms and conditions.
If you follow the rebate instructions correctly, you’ll get a Visa Rebate card in the mail except it’s not as good as plain old cash. Here are the details as stated on the deal itself.
“Visa prepaid cards cannot be redeemed for cash and cannot be used for cash withdrawals. Visa prepaid cards can be used everywhere visa debit cards are accepted. Visa Prepaid cards expire 120 days after the date of issuance, which date will be shown on the front of each card. Additional terms and restrictions apply.”
First, you must only use this card where Visa is excepted.
In addition, this Visa rebate card has an expiration date, just 120 days or three months. Pepboys is counting on you to forget this rebate card and its expiration date and, in three months when the rebate expires, the money that’s rightfully yours is now theirs. By that time, you either used the card once or not at all and $15 or less is honestly not worth fighting for. And even if you did, they have small print to prove you’re wrong.
Ultimately, these Visa rebate cards are a headache because of small remaining balances. You must use what’s called a “split tender transaction” to use what’s left. For example, if you pay for a $5 bottle of Vitamins at Walgreens and want to use your Pepboys rebate card with $1 on it, you must insist the cashier use the $1 remaining balance and then $4+tax on another payment method.
And if you think you can withdraw the remaining balance as cashback, you can’t.
See how these cards are a headache?
CreditCards.com does a great summary of the pits and perils of these kinds of rebate cards.
Just go to Walmart instead, the same oils are only $22.98 and cheaper.
All the same oils Pepboys is selling are on sale at your local Walmart literally every day.
Even if you are the frugal type who’ll actually use the full $15 pre-paid gift card, is a potential $7 savings over the same oil at Walmart worth the headache of remembering all those Visa Rebate card details? Maybe, but for me, I’ll just go to that big blue box store everyone loves or hates.
Source: Pepboys
