Iowa’s Treasurer and Attorney General are going after a Minnesota company that processes rebate requests for major retailers. Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald says he’s asked the Attorney General to file a lawsuit against Young America Corporation for unpaid rebates. Fitzgerald says if you’re in the grocery store you see rebates promised for two dollars or five dollars if you buy the product and send in the rebate slip. He says, “This company and many of these other mailorder companies are notorious for just pocketing the money.”
Fitzgerald says the company is not allowed to keep the rebates. He says it’s a violation of unclaimed property laws if they don’t honor the requests or send out the checks. He says the money should be turned over to the state, so the state can try to return the money to the rightful owners.
Fitzgerald says the small unfulfilled rebates add up to some big cash. He says all the companies have to file with the I-R-S and the S-E-C and he says the filings show they owe over 43-million dollars nationwide in unclaimed rebates. Fitzgerald says that adds up to over 400-thousand dollars in rebates owed to Iowans.
Fitzgerald says the lawsuit asks Young America to turn over its unclaimed rebate dollars to the state. He says once the state gets the money, they’ll put it in the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt and try to return it to Iowans. Fitzgerald says they’ll ask people to go to www.GreatIowaTreasure.com to see if they have money coming. Fitzgerald says they hope this lawsuit will make other rebate companies also come forward and send unclaimed rebate dollars to the state. Fitzgerald says Young America Corporation has handled rebate programs for Target, Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard, and other major retail companies.