[Live now.]
The Offer
- Staples is offering a $20 Staples gift card via Easy Rebate when you buy $300 in Amex gift cards at a Staples store
The Fine Print
- Valid 8/27/17 – 9/2/17
- Limit one per household
- In-store only
- Not valid in VT
Our Verdict
Amex gift cards can’t be liquidated as debit cards, yet this deal still helps rack up some Staples spend which can earn bonus points as an office supply store. Buy a $200 card and a $100 card or two $200 cards to rack up more Chase UR points. Also, check if you were targeted for 10% or 5% back on your Bank of America cards (expires 8/31) as another payment option.
Learn more about Staples Easy Rebates in this post.
Hat tip to milestomemories
Does anyone know why they excluded Vermont on this one?
Amex and and staples gc? I’ll pass
@DoC
Received BankAmeriDeals for 10% back at Staples.
That’s $40+$20 minus fees if you buy $400 worth of GCs
I should have read the fine prints before making the outrageous comment above 🙂
Here are the fine prints: Earn 10% cash back on your Staples purchase, with a $11.00 cash back maximum! Offer expires 9/23/2017. Offer valid one time only. Payment must
be made on or before offer expiration date.
It is sad that people do this to float debt longer. You need to learn to avoid the situation that put you in debt. Interest free carry is ok. I don’t give the bank money before they send me a bill. Its people who borrow from their credit cards that allow me to fly first class for a fraction of the costs. Banks want you to go into debt, thats how they tease you with all these 5x points. You will rip and pay interest. Avoid CC debt at all costs. Do it for the points but not until you are debt free. Learn to manage your $ first, don’t let it manage you.
@Chaser,
Not sure if that was targeted at me; that is not the reason I want to buy visa GC with my amex gc. It is simply so I can unload. I have the funds to float this just fine if no luck.
I had a very tough time liquidating these amex cards today…but I did. Heres my story.
1) Went to Staples with my Amex SimplyCash and bought 2x 200 Amex gift cards. Got recipt w/ rebate ID.
2) Went to King Soopers (like walmart in Colorado) and tried to buy Visa gift card w/ pin using the amex cards. Clerk called the manager who looked at my ID and said “You cannot buy gift cards with a gift card.”
3) Went to walgreens to try to do the same thing. Lady was very nice but said, “sorry, the system won’t you buy gift cards with a gift card.”
4) Went to Safeway supermarket and successfully bought $400 Mastercard variable load balance using the two Amex Gift Cards.
5) Went to walmart to buy money order with the Mastercard gift card, and the guy kindly said, “Sorry, you can’t buy a money order with a gift card.” He didn’t even see the gift card, the system just didn’t accept it. But FYI I have bought walmart money orders with VISA gift cards before, perhaps mastercard gift cards are different.
6) Went back to king soopers and successfully bought a money order for $395.
7) Desposited the money order into my account
8) Loaded my amazon gift card balance w/ the remaining $4.31.
9) Ripped up and threw away the Mastercard. Celebrated.
Feel free to use this experience for all the data points in provides.
Oh, almost forgot
10) Successfully submitted Stables Rebate request online using Rebate ID at the bottom of the receipt.
6.95 purchase fee for the amex gift card x2 = $13.9 in fees
Mastercard purchase = $5.95 fee
I made 20 from the rebate, and will get 20 from the simplycash 5% cashback.
Money order was 0.69
40-20.54= $19.46 profit.
Don’t forget the $10 in gas and wear and tear for your car and the 2 hours you spent. I just don’t see the point in something that takes mor than 15 minutes for this tiny amount of money.
I personally see these types of deals as best if:
1) You need to meet a minimum spend requirement. (I do, and don’t have a large enough non-manufactured monthly spend so I’ve been taking advantage of the Staples GCs.)
and/or
2) You earn less than about $10/hour.
In either or both cases it’s worth it.
That said, I don’t bother with liquidating via money order. I load up my Amazon balance since I use Amazon enough over a year to use it up.
I think the point is that it effectively gives you a free cash advance, to pay off other cards before they accumulated interest. I never viewed this as a for – profit activity,I’m just looking to break even. It’s a skill used to better manage credit. If card A has a due date in a few days and you can only make the minimum payment, why not use a simplycash / ink cash card to get a gift card, liquidate it, then pay off card A in full. Then you have 1-1.5 months to pay off the simplycash/ink cash. View it as a cash advance where you MORE than break even!
I’m having a very difficult time buying Visa gift cards with Amex gift cards. No luck at Walmart or Hyvee. Amex appears to be blocking somehow. With that said, for you mastercards at Walmart, remember you must not let the clerk push any buttons before you swipe; you swipe, hit change payment option, then select Pin. Then, have the clerk enter or split the payment.
Previous VISA or MASTERCARD deals showed words “$300 or more”, e.g.:
Get a $15 Staples Easy Rebates Gift Card on a Purchase of $300 or more of MasterCard Gift Cards (SKUs 763603, 192695, 763608, 763455, 725725) at Staples Stores ONLY
But this time, only $300, no “or more”, so I’m afraid you end up with $200+$100 AGC.
Excellent point. I followed your advice and got just $300 instead of the usual $400 today. Rebate printed with no problems.
Sorry Preacher, the ad is misleading. The rebate online shows “$300 or more”.
But usually our local staples allows us to buy only one $200 VGC/AGC
“Get a $20 Staples Easy Rebates Gift Card on a Purchase of $300 or more of American Express Gift Cards (SKUs 763865, 763874, 763600, 763873, 763598, 763601) at Staples Stores ONLY”
According to rebate form from staples easy rebates.. includes the “or more” part..
Thanks SteveX. Today the new rebate is online (Rebate offer number: 17-22208) and it shows “$300 or more”.
this makes no sense at all…
Best way to liquidate it is to buy visa gift cards at Safeway which has a promotion of $10 discount until 9/2.
Since when does Safeway accept Staples gift cards? :=)
Make sure you guys READ the offer….
he’s talking about liquidating the AMEX gift card…
How are you going to liquidate the visa gift card ?
Buy money order at Wal-Mart.
Is paying a friend on paypal the best liquidation method right now for these? Still has a 3.5% fee I believe.
I’m sure they will liquidate on plastiq. at 2.5%. I did this method from the last visa and mc deals at staples, will probably do the same again.
No. Paypal doesn’t accept Staples gift cards.
Whenever these deals pop up, I only see the option of using Chase cards mentioned to earn 5x points.
Is there a reason that you don’t mention using e.g. an Amex Simply Cash Plus card that earns 5x points for office stores also, so basically same value?
well, what you say is true… but many of us value UR way more than 1c… so with Amex you’re getting 5 cents back on the $ but with Chase you’re getting 1.5-1.8x more than Amex (most people value UR in this range)
Hey Doc,
Just wanted to add this, let me know if this makes sense. If you stack this with MPX and pay with Amex Plat, you could technically pay $283.95 (without taxes) for the $300 gift card ($300 + 3.95 purchase fee – $20 rebate) & earn 851.85 United miles and 1519.75 MR because some DPs on Reddit are seeing MPX purchases posting with 5x
You can’t usually use a Staples gift card to buy an Amex gift card.
I sure did make that same mistake once—thought I was really rockin’ it
! lol Sat on Office max GC for quite a while…
Is there a $300 Amex card, or is $200 + $100 the only option, so a $7.90 purchase fee?
No 300 card