The Offer
- Receive a $15 discount when you purchase $150 or more in American Express Gift Cards at Office Depot or Office Max. Click here for your closest stores.
At Office Max you will need to ask the cashier to scan the coupon in their book.
The Fine Print
- $200 gift cards are excluded
- Variable load gift cards are excluded
- Limit to one per household/business
For Office Max it’s up to the cashier to enforce the limit as when they scan the coupon it’ll automatically apply to multiple gift cards in multiples of $150 (e.g if you have $300 in gift cards it’ll give you the discount twice).
Our Verdict
This is a pretty decent deal for those with an Office Max or Depot near them. You’ll want to use a credit card that earns at a high rate on office supply stores to get the maximum benefit. Here’s how to make the most of the promotion:
If you’re able to get multiple discounts applied your best bet will be to purchase three $100 American Express gift cards ($5.95 fee):
- Purchase three $100 American Express gift cards ($17.85 in fees)
- Ask them to scan the $15 off coupon bringing the total to -$287.85
- Use a rewards earn credit card for the purchase (Chase Ink cards will be your best bet, they’ll give you 5% in Chase Ultimate rewards netting you a profit of +$14.40 or 1,440 points)
- Unload your American Express gift cards for cash (we’ll have a post on this later this week) +$300
In total you’ll end up with $314.40 in cash or cash equivalents and you’ll have spent $287.85 which is a profit of $26.45 or 9.18%
If you’re unable to get multiple discounts applied per purchase your best bet will be to purchase two $100 gift cards ($5.95 fee each).
- Purchase two $100 American Express gift cards ($11.9 in fees)
- Ask them to scan the $15 off coupon bringing the total to $196.9
- Use a rewards earning credit card for the purchase (Chase Ink cards will be your best bet, they’ll give you 5% in Chase Ultimate rewards netting you a profit of +$9.85 or 985 points)
- Unload your American Express gift cards for cash
In total you’ll end up with $209.85 in cash/cash equivalents for a spend of $196.9 which is a profit of $12.95 or 6.17%. This is pretty close to what you can currently get by using a cash back portal and a rewards earning credit card to purchase American Express gift cards so it’s probably not worthwhile doing.
Unfortunately it’s not possible to stack this promotion with others (e.g ShopKick, Plink, Visa Savings Edge, MasterCard Easy Savings or OPEN Savings), it’s still a pretty decent deal and I’ll be trying to take advantage of it if I am near an OfficeMax/Depot.
Tried this one out with the 3x $100 GC. My Office Max cashier rung me up with only one $15 discount. So working through it, $300 in cash equivalents, $2.85 in fees, and $12.29 in UR points from Ink. Not a bad return for the little time involved.
Sticking with the 2x $100 GC would be the way to play it safe and maximize returns in my view. YMMV!