Deal has expired, view more Staples deals by clicking here.
The Offer
- Staples is offering no purchase fees on $200 Visa gift cards in store
The Fine Print
- Valid 8/4-8/10
- Limit 1 per customer
Our Verdict
Make sure to use a card that earns at a high rate at office supply stores, there is also an amex offer.
Hat tip to GC Galore
I had my ebates/Rakuten clawback the instore offer after buying these.
So I had an interesting but ultimately positive experience with this deal today. I initially tried to split payment across 5 cards (4 AMEX + 1 BofA). The initial cashier (a senior citizen woman) said it could only be split across 2 payments. I told her that was not what I had read online, and then the cashier next to her (who seemed to be some sort of supervisor) confirmed it. Then a manager started ringing people up at a 3rd register and she said the same thing. The first cashier seemed to be having problems even figuring out how to split payment at all so I said that I would wait for the manager to ring me up. Did that and she split it $100/100 across two cards. Then I asked if I could buy a second card and she didn’t care (the store had plenty of cards) so I did the same thing with two other AMEX cards. When I checked my AMEX emails I had six instead of four, and two of them had a $5 credit. Turns out I had the $5/25 office stores deal and was able to double dip on 2 of the 4 cards!
Then I was near a different Staples later on and I realized that I really wanted to do the BofA deal since I was one offer away from getting to four coins and an extra $5 back. So I went there (they also had plenty of cards) and paid in full with the BofA card. Their offer is a max of $7 but I get 2.625% back on that card so still a good deal. I asked the cashier there how many cards I could split payment across (figuring he would tell me 10) and he said he wasn’t even sure that it could be split at all. So it’s a good thing I didn’t try doing it there.
One odd thing was that the manager at the first store ripped something off the bottom of the receipts before giving them to me. I had a feeling it was the survey and sure enough that was what I found on the last receipt. I’m guessing she didn’t want me filling it out and complaining about not being able to split across more than two cards. Normally I wouldn’t go out of my way to complain but it seems like she’s just inviting me to contact corporate. Of course, I have no idea if they will care.
Forgot to mention that the cashier/manager wouldn’t even TRY to split it across more than 2 cards. That was what really upset me.
dear friend, could you limit the back and forth with the cashiers, store managers and staples corporate, so you do not burn these locations for all. thanks
Interesting point you make. However, this store (and my area in general, judging by the fact that both stores had plenty of gift cards when others reported none) has never been big for deal hunters, even back when Staples had stuff worth buying on a weekly basis). In the old days I would have known the manager and they would have done things correctly. I actually had this cashier previously and she is fine if she’s ringing up a simple order but not big on anything out of the ordinary.
In any event, I won’t bother complaining since I did get to use my AMEX and BofA offers.
Staples is tracking your purchases of these gift cards even if you don’t enter your staples rewards number. I have bought multiple in the past and never provided my rewards number yet all the gift card purchases under separate transactions show up under my rewards account. They must be matching data they are pulling from the credit card with rewards member information.
Maybe you registered you credit card with them at some point?
Just got a new 10% offer on my Bank of America card.
Same
Went to four local Staples, all said limit 1. Managers at two of them said corporate is cracking down.
Went to 5 stores so-cal south county
All said 1 card only.. same as above “Corporate supposedly sent memo for 1 card only “
One of our local staples had the visa cards with alot of the back strips ripped off. Safe for quick cash out? 1 hour or less from purchase to cashout.
i wouldn’t risk it personally, but if you are feeling brave go for it. couple sales ago it was a last day of the sale and there was 10 ripped off cause their registers were down and i didn’t want to chance it at all.
I feel the same way about buying walmart gift cards at the register. I’m going for another round in the morning and if the store close to wm has 1, i’ll buy if thats all they have.
Ask if they have any more, they often only display a small portion of their GC inventory. The last time I was at a staples the shelf was cleared but I asked and the cashier was able to get more in about 30 seconds.
i picked up 5 today… I love stopping by small-town staples on vacation. they actually seemed glad to have my $1000 sale instead of the attitude Karen shows.
They are “out” of these even before they open Sunday. Ha!
I went to three different stores today which have always had cards available late in the week of a special. Today, all three of them were completely cleared out of the $200 Visa cards. Everything else was available, Visa or MC. My impression is that they pulled the $200 cards for reasons that are only know to Staples.
My regular Staples, which has allowed me to buy 10 cards/day for past offers is now saying they have to limit to only 1 card for this sale and future sales, so I won’t be going back unless I can get a BOA/Chase/Amex offer to stack with the no fee deal since getting one card is a waste of time and effort.
FYI I just got a new BofA offer. Wasn’t there yesterday.