Radio Shack Wants to Help You Spend Your Tax Stimulus Check

It's been announced that the tax stimulus checks will begin mailing on this coming Monday. Rather than letting you waste it on say, food or bills, Radio Shack, in an interestingly titled press release, announced plans to help you "redeem" your tax stimulus and tax refund checks.

The press release, titled "RadioShack Announces Plan to Help Consumers Redeem, Spend and Save Their Federal Stimulus Checks and IRS Tax Refunds," says that customers that use their checks to pay for purchases above $50 between May 4 and July 12, 2008, will receive a 10% discount on their purchases.

Anything left over will be placed on a placed on a Vision Silver Prepaid MasterCard and that, of course, can be used anywhere that takes MasterCard. Maximum redemption amount is $2,500, and there will be no check or card activation fee charged.

Peter Whitsett, executive vice president, merchandising for RadioShack said in the press release:

"What's unique about RadioShack's offer is that we are giving our customers 10-percent off their favorite electronics with a small minimum purchase amount while allowing them to convert the unspent balance of their checks into prepaid cards for spending at a later time or place. While we would certainly love for them to spend everything at RadioShack, we understand other obligations may be necessary. Fortunately, our offer gives them the best of both worlds: save upfront on their consumer electronics purchase and save the rest of the money for a later date. This is the kind of personalized solution that keeps our customers' best interests at heart."

Despite my flippancy in the initial paragraph, this isn't really that bad a deal. After all, you do get 10% off and the amount required isn't that high. On the other hand, I've never found Radio Shack to be particularly competitively priced, and typically only use them as a last resort.

The tax stimulus checks, purportedly to help the U.S.' flagging economy, will range from $600 for an individual to $1,200 per couple, with an additional $300 per dependent child.