The Offer
Direct Link (next week’s ad, page 8)
- Purchase $300 Visa gift cards and receive a $20 instant discount. Can be done twice per customer.
The discount will be taken off at register which means that the total you’ll be paying is less than the cost of the gift card.
Typically, the $200 Visa card have a $6.95 fee and the $100 cards have a $5.95 fee.
The Fine Print
- Valid 5/3/15 – 5/16/15
- Limit 2 offers per customer
Our Verdict
This deal really is very good. I’m getting tired of the Staples offers in which you have to submit the rebate, plus it’s just one per customer. With this deal, the rebate is instant and you can do two at a shot.
Beware, though, that the Visa gift cards might go fast. It’s valid for two weeks which gives us time for them to restock.
I’m also not sure if it’s against the Terms to come back that next day and do it again. Since the discount is taken off at the register it can be repeated, unlike the Staples rebate method.
I’d be in on this one if I had an Office Max/Depot nearby. Though I don’t have an INK card it would still be worth my while. I’d buy $600 of gift cards, probably split in two transactions just in case (it does not sound like this is necessary). I’d unload them at Walmart.
In total, I’d profit over $14, plus I’d get $12 back from my credit card at 2% cashback, for a total of around $26 profit. Of course, with INK it gets much better.
[UPDATE: Many readers have confirmed that you can do the $600 in one transaction, so you can buy 3 $200 Visa cards in one shot and get a $40 discount. This makes it even better at a $19 profit, plus points.]
Remember that there’s also some Staples gift card deals going on starting this Sunday as well. Time to pull out trusty INK…
HT: suchadeal on Slickdeals
Mine in Southern Oregon said cash only. 🙁
🙁
pretty obvious micheal used the proverbial “you”
@Michael, Why? Are you jealous?
@Gene, In that case I’m way ahead of you. So far I have done $9.6K. So, you have a way long way to catch up with me…:)
not likely. leaving for an around the world trip tomorrow… partially courtesy of office store GCs & ink 5x.
does anyone know when Chase will shut you down?
@MilesCollector
i wish.
3.3k in VGCs. might go for 4.5k
$3300 in profits or VGCs?
@William Charles
thanks for all the info.
scooped up $3300-worth so far
Went to two Office Depot locations. Only Vanilla Visa cards. If I had a redbird I would have jumped on this, but since I don’t I gave it a pass.
Office Max is the way to go here, they the grey metabank Visa cards that you can unload at Kate. None near me unfortunately.
My experience today.
There are two OD and one Officemax store close to where I live.
1) First OD I only found Vanilla Visa GC and no VGC issued by MetaBank. Ended up buying three Vanilla VGC of $200 with my CC (activation fee $6.95 x 3). I talked to cashier to see if I need to split the transaction to get two $20 off and cashier said no need to do that. I ended up paying $580 for three Vanilla VGC in one transaction. I know Vanilla VGC is hard to liquidate tho…but there was no pin-enabled VGC issued by MetaBank!
2) Second OD. Apparently I saw the places for $200 VGC were EMPTY. Must have been removed. So I ended up paying $570 for two variable load VGCs (still Vanilla, ahhh, activation fee $4.95 x 2). Loaded $300 to each card with cash. Still $30 off $600 purchase so not too bad.
3) The Officemax store. Only found $100 VGC issued by MetaBank ($5.95 activation fee) so I bought six of them. I have a new opened CC to MS so I don’t mind. At least I still earned a tiny little bit and hey are all pin-enabled so I could load them to my BB.
I don’t have INK or Amex SimpleCash, so I don’t earn a lot by CC purchase. Just share with you guys. I got a lot of Vanilla VGC so now I have problems to spend or liquidate them. I would appreciate if you have any idea on that. Btw I’ll be in another town with a lot of OD stores next weekend so will try again to check out the pin-enabled VGCs.
Good luck!
Sometimes if they don’t have any cards on the rack, you can ask them at the customer service area and they have them behind the counter. I know the place near me does this because people were hiding them around the store.
I actually did. I asked if there were some pin-enabled VGCs of $200 and I was told if there is none on the rack, then no.
hi
i just bought 3 x 200 visas gc at office depot at 40 off. These gift cards are vanila issued by The Bancorp Bank. are those ok to load at walmart??? i know that meta bank is ok but they only had these vanila. am i screwed or? thanks
Probably not. We are in the same boat now. Some said Vanilla VGC is banned by Walmart some said you can still unload up to $49.99 (not even $50)
Yup, Vanilla is problematic. See this post from FQF
http://freequentflyerbook.com/blog/2015/5/3/liquidating-deeply-discounted-200-vanilla-visa-gift-cards
ok so i was able to purchase a money order at my grocery store. Question? how do i fill this thing now? do i put my name as purchaser AND as “receiver”(cant think of a better word). OR do i put someone else’s name as purchaser? is it strange if i deposit Money Order that i purchased for myself??? btw thank you for this great website!
Small amounts shouldn’t be a problem at all. I just put my name as both purchaser and receiver. (If they flag it, you can say you were going to pay a bill, but realized the bill was already paid. It won’t come to that with small amounts.)