Cell Phone Rebates Explained

When purchasing a cell phone, you will come across many phones with rebate offers. At times, rebates can be very confusing and make something very simple look hard. This brief explanation of how rebates work and more specifically how cell phone rebates work will help you understand the process, what's needed and required.

How does the rebate process work?
A customer makes a purchase and then submits the rebate form along with all the requirements mentioned on the rebate form. Once the rebate form is submitted, it usually takes around 6-8 weeks for the rebates to be processed and payment sent back to customer.

Cell Phone Rebates
When purchasing a cell phone, you will come across different kinds of rebates. The most common and popular rebates are 1) Instant/upfront rebates. 2) Mail-In rebates relating to voice plan 3) Mail-In rebates relating to data plans (usually associated with smart phones and pdas).

1) Instant/Upfront Rebates
This is the amount discounted from the regular price of the phone to be sold with a plan. Usually purchasing a cell phone without a plan is a lot more expensive compared with purchasing with a plan. This is the instant rebate. For example: The T-Mobile Motorola Razr v3i Dolce and Gabbana's regular phone price is currently at $299.99 with your cost today at $149.99. This means the instant/upfront rebate amount is $150.

2) Mail-In Rebates relating to voice plan
You qualify for this rebate when you purchase a voice plan contract with a phone. Mail-In rebates require you to pay the up front cost today and after receiving your purchase, you mail in a form following all its requirements. Following the requirements of a rebate form is crucial, not only for cell phone rebates, but for rebates for any other purchases. Once you have submitted your rebate form, you are required to wait approximately 6-8 weeks for the processing and receiving of your rebate amount.

3) Mail-In Rebates relating to data plans
Data plans are plans that are needed in order to access e-mail and the internet over your phone. Mostly, these plans are used with Blackberry phones or Palm One Treos. The way the rebate works is just like the rebate for voice plans, the only difference being is that you must purchase a data plan and keep the data plan for a certain amount of time. Many times, you will have to purchase a voice plan to use the phone for voice calls and in addition purchase a data plan to access email and use the internet. In this case, you would submit two rebates, one for the voice plan and one for the data plan.

Throughout LowCostCells.com, you will see just "Rebates" after the cost today. This rebates amount is either the total amount of just the voice plan rebate or the total of voice plan rebate plus data plan rebate. You will have a chance to see the details of the rebates during the checkout process.

We have rebates available for all our carriers including Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel and Alltel.

Hope this brief explanation has helped clear what rebates are and how they work.