Fashion Store Rebates

A rebate is a refund that arrives after the purchase instead of a discount taken at the till — buy the garment at full price today, follow the offer's steps, and part of the money comes back to you as a check, a prepaid card or account credit.

Coupons, sales and rebates are equally valuable methods for saving money on fashion purchases, but they work in different ways. A coupon reduces the price before you pay and a sale reduces it for everyone; a rebate asks you to do a little work after you pay. Understanding that difference — and the paperwork each offer requires — is what turns a promised rebate into money actually received.

This guide walks through the process in order: what a rebate is, the five steps of claiming one, mail-in versus instant rebates, reading the terms, stacking rebates with sales and coupons, and cash-back programs that apply the same idea to whole online orders.

Rebate BasicsWhat a Fashion Store Rebate Is

A rebate is a type of sales promotion that marketers use primarily as incentives or supplements to product sales. The retailer or the manufacturer of the chosen product offers it — a clothing brand may fund a rebate on its own shoes, while a department store may offer one across a range of brands. The amount depends on the product, the time of purchase and often the place of purchase.

Most rebates are handled under contract by rebate clearinghouses, companies that specialize in processing rebates and contest applications. That is why the envelope or upload goes to an address that matches neither the store nor the brand: the clearinghouse checks each claim against the offer's rules and pays the claims that qualify — which is why every required item has to be present, legible and on time.

The ProcessHow to Claim a Rebate, Step by Step

• Step 1: Find the Offer Before You Buy
• Step 2: Read the Terms and Check the Dates
• Step 3: Buy the Item and Keep Everything
• Step 4: Submit the Claim Exactly as Directed
• Step 5: Track the Claim and Spend the Refund

1. Step 1: Find the Offer Before You Buy

   Rebates are tied to specific products, dates and sometimes specific stores, so the search happens before the purchase, not after. Rebate forms and special receipts are sometimes printed by the cash register at the time of purchase on a separate receipt, and forms are also available online for download. Note the offer's exact requirements while you are still in a position to meet them.

2. Step 2: Read the Terms and Check the Dates

   Every offer states what qualifies: the product, the purchase window, where it must be bought, and the deadline by which the claim must be submitted or postmarked. A claim sent a day late, or for a style outside the offer, is refused no matter how carefully the rest of the paperwork was prepared.

3. Step 3: Buy the Item and Keep Everything

   The mail-in rebate — the most common form — entitles the buyer to mail in a coupon, a receipt and a barcode in order to receive a check for a particular amount. So keep the receipt, the form and the packaging with its barcode until the claim is settled, and photograph or scan each document before sending it, so you hold a copy of everything the clearinghouse received.

4. Step 4: Submit the Claim Exactly as Directed

   Typically, a mail-in rebate takes a certain amount of time and effort: figuring out the rules, filling out the forms, preparing and dropping off the mailing, and keeping track of the paperwork while it is processed. Some retailers now offer ways to submit rebates easily over the Internet, completely or partially removing the mail-in requirements — and online submission gives a confirmation that paper mail cannot.

5. Step 5: Track the Claim and Spend the Refund

   Keep a simple note of each claim: the offer, the product, the date submitted and the amount expected. Then check it off when the check or credit arrives, and follow up with the clearinghouse if it does not. The refund only saves money when it is received and spent — a rebate forgotten in a drawer is just a higher price paid for the garment.

Going Deeper 01Mail-In, Instant and Online Rebates

The mail-in rebate described above is the traditional form, and its delay is deliberate: the shopper pays the full price first and claims the refund afterwards. In some cases, though, the rebate may be available immediately, in which case it is referred to as an instant rebate — the saving comes off at the register or in the online cart, with no forms, no envelope and no wait. An instant rebate is worth exactly its face value; a mail-in rebate is worth its face value only to a shopper who completes the claim.

Online submission has narrowed the gap between the two. Rebates can now also be received instantly online through various services, and many offers that once required a stamped envelope now accept a photographed receipt and a web form instead. The terms still govern, but the effort and the uncertainty of the mail are largely removed.

Going Deeper 02Stacking Rebates With Sales and Coupons

Because a rebate is claimed after the purchase, it can often be combined with the other two saving methods: buy the garment on sale, apply a coupon where the store allows one, and then claim the rebate on top. That stacking is how the deepest fashion discounts are usually reached — a clearance price, a percentage-off coupon and a manufacturer rebate on the same pair of shoes can together outweigh any one of them alone.

Read both sets of terms before assuming the combination works. Some offers set a minimum purchase price, some exclude clearance or coupon purchases, and a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon may not both be accepted on one item. The rebate's own conditions are the final word — plan the purchase around them rather than discovering a disqualification at the mailbox.

Going Deeper 03Cash-Back Shopping Programs

A close cousin of the rebate pays a percentage of a whole online order back to the shopper. Ebates built its program on a simple exchange: like almost every online shopping center, it received a commission from stores when a member made a purchase, and instead of keeping that money it shared it with the member as cash back. Each store offered a different cash-back percentage, shown next to the store name, and members were paid four times a year or more by check — the service's well-known Big Fat Check — or by a transfer to a PayPal account.

The program described here is the Ebates model; the Ebates address now leads to Rakuten, which continues the same cash-back approach under its own name. The fashion range inside such programs is wide: the retailers taking part in March 2013 included Lands' End, Macy's, JCPenney, Nordstrom, Adidas, American Eagle, Ann Taylor, ASOS, Calvin Klein, Chico's, Dillard's, DKNY, DSW and Eddie Bauer, among many more. The current list and percentages always live on the program's own site, so check there before a purchase — starting the trip through the program is what earns the cash back.