The Offer
Direct Link (page 14)
- Spend $250 Â in Visa gift cards and get a $20 Visa rebate card via Staples Easy Rebate.
The fees for the $200 Visa gift card are $6.95, for the $100 Visa gift card it’s $5.95, and for the $50 gift card it’s $4.95.
These are MetaBank gift cards and can be liquidated by loading Bluebird/Serve. The last 4-digits of the card is the default PIN.
The Fine Print
- Deal valid from Sunday 3/15/15 until Saturday 3/21/15
- In-Store only
- Must complete a Staples Easy Rebate to get $20 Visa Rebate card
- Limit of one rebate per household
[Read: How to get more than one staples easy rebate]
Our Verdict
Nice to see another one of these. The past deal we had in January was the same $20 rebate card for $300 in gift card spend. Nice to see that they lowered it to $250 this time.
Here’s a few sample deal scenarios:
- If you have an INK card or a different card which earns 5x at office supply stores, then your best bet is to buy two $200 gift cards for a fee of $13.90. You’ll get back $20 from the rebate and another 2070 Ultimate Reward points from the credit card.
- If you don’t have INK, and you’re planning on unloading the cards on regular spend or to load REDbird, then your best bet is to buy one $200 card and one $50 card to minimize the fees. You won’t gain any credit card points (since you’ll be using the cards in place of ordinary credit card spend) and you’ll just gain $8.10 after accounting for the activation fees.
- If you don’t have INK, and you’re planning on unloading by loading Bluebird/Serve, then you’re best bet is to buy two $200 gift cards. You’ll profit $6.10 after accounting for the fees, plus you’ll get 414 credit card points, or a $8.28 value on a 2% cashback credit card. Total profit of $14.38.
Ultimately the deal is mainly good for someone with an INK card, but it may be worthwhile for someone who can unload via Bluebird/Serve or maybe for someone who will unload with regular spend.
