Cingular Rebate Card

After waiting for more than 2 months, I have finally received my Cingular rebate Visa cards. With the plan I signed up with Cingular, I was eligible to receive $280 worth of rebate cards. Cingular sent me four $50 and four $20 rebate cards. These rebate cards work like credit cards and can be used anywhere that accepts Visa. I love rebates, who doesn't? However, I absolutely hate these Cingular rebate cards. It is a hassel to use them. After using any of the cards at any place just once, you have to start keeping track of the remaining balance in each card. You may either check your balances online or call the 1-800 number. Who has the time to continuously check and track the balances of 8 rebate cards? And, let's say if your card has $10.20 remaining and your purchase is $12.50, you need to tell the vendor to charge $10.20 on the rebate card and pay the rest with a secondary payment method such as cash. The problem is most vendors do not like accepting multiple payments for just one purchase. Stores like Target do not allow payments using multiple credit cards. I finally decided to just save my rebate cards to pay for my bills online. Why did Cingular decide to offer rebates using these troublesome Visa cash cards? What's wrong with using traditional rebate checks? C'mon Cingular, stop handing out rebates using these cards, just send the checks.