The Offers
- Staples is currently selling select happy gift cards for 23-25% off (really 20% if you don’t include the standard purchase fees).
- $50 happy kid gift card for $40 (normally $51.99). Use at any Gymboree, Jamba Juice, Rainforest Café, Regal Cinemas or Buy Buy Baby location in the US.
- $50 happy dining gift card for $40 (normally $51.99). Use at The Cheesecake Factory, Red Lobster, Bravo Brio, Texas de Brazil or McCormick and Schmick’s location
- $25 happy bites gift card for $20 (normally $26.99). Use at Peet’s Coffee, Panera Bread, Burger King, Jamba Juice or Noodles & Company location in the US
The Fine Print
- Limit of 3 of each type
Our Verdict
Make sure to use a card that earns at a high rate on all office supply store purchases.
Happy Kid is no longer on sale.
When does this expire
Just ordered and the ship date is Dec 21, and the Chase 10% offer ends Dec14. May need to cancel. Is this offer good for in-store purchase?
The applicability of your Chase offer should be based on your online purchase date, not your store delivery date. The Chase offer also works in store, but the Happy Card offer is online only.
These sheety cards make me unhappy. Bring back VGCs!
VGCs are still right where they’ve always been. Good luck getting VGCs at 10-25% off, ever… you’re lucky to just get the fees waived on a VGC sale.
I will have to go look at again in store at Staples.
The time I bought 2x $25 was for the Chase Offers 10%.
At the time it seemed that Staples only had the $25.
This offer is online only.
Limit is 10 each.
Happy Kid gift card can be used at Bed Bath & Beyond. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/purchase-200-mastercard-giftcard-at-bed-bath-beyond-get-25-bed-bath-beyond-giftcard-rebate-limit-of-2-starts-11-23/#comment-667535
looks like a huge pain. since the promotion here is for $50 happy gc, this would require either doing a 4 swipe transaction (which will no doubt arouse suspicion) for a $200 gift card or just buying $50 gcs. either way is a pain and not worth the effort
That 200 offer is expired anyway. The comment above was just pointing to the usefulness of the Hapyy Kid GC. Look at the new BBB offer where you can buy 3rd party GC 12/15 to get 10 rebate. That is what I would use this for.
But remember it’s extremely YMMV if the cashiers will let you use the Happy gift cards for 3rd party cards,
‘Happy’ GCs run as a Visa, not as a store GC. So anything you could spend a Visa GC on at the specified stores should be buyable with these.
“Should” is the YMMV part. Yes, the computer allows you to do this, but a number of people in another group I follow have had cashiers stop them before they could swipe thier Happy Card. And despite it saying run as credit the cashiers flat out refuse. Managers are called over who also refuse the transactions. So while some people have no issues, others are completely blocked. It’s definitely YMMV.
MoreSun is right. If a cashier wants to see the card, it causes issues, mostly because they think it’s a gift card when it’s not. Luckily for me, my BBB has their machine at the end of the counter so they never really see what I’m swiping. But you have to be prepared for the potential that they’ll say something. So YMMV.
Combine with this deal in that case? https://www.doctorofcredit.com/bed-bath-beyond-purchase-50-in-third-party-giftcards-get-10-rebate-12-15-18-1-01-19/
The annoying thing is that Staples expects it to take 2 weeks to deliver to store, but still in time for the BB&B sale. I only want to try one as an experiment though before buying more.
Also appears Staples GC works for these. Tried 4x southwest rapid rewards shopping to see if that works also.
I am trying to stock up on Disney GCs for a trip there soon, for a $50 disney GC: $10 off happy GC + $10 BB&B GC + using Staples GC or 5x UR looks as good as it gets.
According to DPs, BB&B split tender transactions required manager’s approval. Purchasing $50 in 3rd party GCs with a $50 Happy Kid card should not require a split tender transaction. Polite social skills will get you through on this one.
These are a total PITA to use at Panera. The cashiers never know how to run them and if your order exceeds the amount on the card it just rejects the transaction rather than splitting.
At Panera locations, don’t you swipe it yourself, not the cashier? Next time you have full value one, just buy a Panera gift card for the exact amount, swipe it and you’re done. If they ask what you’re swiping, say Visa. Works great during tithe buy $50 get $10 bonus.
We want to buy a $50 with 2x$25 from this deal. CNS1280 is saying the cashiers don’t know how to run it, and it sounds like he’s saying it won’t autodrain to do a split tender.
You need a $50 to make it work right for the current Panera deal. Only way I could drain a $25 was to buy a $25 gift card and of course, that doesn’t qualify for the bonus. I have never used a Happy card for anything other than a straight dollar amount.
YMMV, my Panera gave me 3 $10 bonus GCs for buying 1 $100 GC and 2 $25 GCs. They were not required to force me to buy in exact $50 denominations to receive bonus.
Good tip. I would eat there frequently enough at 40% off, but I’m not sure I would that often at 20% off, so I’ll pass this time.
Paid $120 for $180. That’s 33% off, IF I make use of the bonus cards between 1/1/19 and 1/22/19, which I intend to do.
Was referring to the need to spend in one transaction. So you can’t buy a $25 and then another $25 in separate transactions to get the $10 bonus. Specifically for this Happy deal, you’d have to get a cashier to split payment to be able to buy $50 in one transaction.
Yes, one $50 Happy Lady / Bites / Eats / Dining for $40 from Giftcardmall is easier than two $25 Happy Bites for $40 from Staples. If you’re not looking for office supply store category, then do that. Otherwise, what I did was split tender two $25 in one transaction. The $10 bonus did not appear on the 1st receipt and appeared to be a 2nd transaction, as I received the $10 bonus on a 2nd receipt. HTH!
Why are you ordering thru the cashier? Load these cards to the app and skip Panera’s hugely annoying lines and wait times.
Maybe OP went through the drive thru??? :p
I order using their self-order tablets.
I can customize my Pick 2 items to exactly how I want it.
Anyway, at “Checkout”, I swiped the Happy card as a credit card. Going to get more.
And there is not activation fee when purchasing.
It seems these “Happy” gift cards aren’t gift cards per se.
They are more like VISA debit cards that can be only used at select merchants but don’t have the VISA activation fees.
the tablets are loaded with fecal material. Make sure you wash your hands after touching the disgusting tablet then 10mins later eating your food
IME they auto-drain fine at Panera at least at the cashier. The real problem I’ve had is that the magstripes on the cards are very fragile — I’ve had a few fail completely on me including a high value happy card that I’m still waiting for a refund on.
10% cash back through chase offers or boa deals can be used here for extra savings?
Yes
Do they have activation fee , last time Kroger didn’t charged any fee on these
I buy them at Kroger too and I’ve never paid an activation fee.
I believe he’s referring to the Staples purchase fee of $1.99 that they tend to tack on to gift cards for “security.” The breakdown: $50 happy kid gift card for $40 (normally $51.99).
I am not a Happy Guy.