Beware Free Shipping by MasterCard!

Free Shipping from Major Retailers with MasterCard

MasterCard offers a nice little perk to cardholders to pick up the tab on shipping charges from five popular online retailers.

The Free Shipping by MasterCard offer provides rebates of up to $20 on two-day shipping charges for purchases from Macy’s, Best Buy, QVC, Kohl’s, and Walmart.  

You can get up to $500 in rebates over a six month period.

To be eligible for a rebate you must:

  • register your MasterCard with the free shipping program
  • begin your purchase from the Free Shipping by MasterCard shopping website
  • choose the retailer’s two-day shipping option at check-out
  • pay for the entire purchase, including two-day shipping, using the registered credit card
  • Email the order confirmation to MasterCard within 30 days of the original purchase date

If you follow these steps, a rebate of up to $20 will be credited to your account and appear on your billing statement in one to two billing cycles.

A variety of MasterCards are eligible for the program, such as the popular Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®,  the Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® and the The US Airways Premier World MasterCard®, among others.

Beware the Jabberwock, My Son!

Sound good?  Tread carefully.  Like the Amex ShopRunner program that also offers free shipping, participation in this MasterCard rebate program means that you will forgo any cash back or points payouts that you could have earned by going through an online shopping portal like FatWallet, Ebates, or the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall.

If you can remember to forward you order receipt to MasterCard to receive reimbursement,  the rebate might be worthwhile in certain instances.

For example, if you make a lot of small purchases from these five online stores and don’t usually buy enough to qualify for free shipping, this offer could be worthwhile for you.  Alternately, if you buy items with very steep shipping charges, there may be some savings there.

MasterCard also offers an option to extend your free shipping subscription to 30 online retailers for $69 a year.  No thank you!

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