Deal has ended, view more Staples deals by clicking here.
The Offer
Direct link to offer (search Visa; not yet live)
- Staples stores will be offering fee-free Visa gift cards during the week of September 5 – September 11
The Fine Print
- Limit 5 per customer per day.
- Offer valid in store only.
Our Verdict
Make sure to use a card that earns at a high rate on office supply stores. This is always a popular deal.
Hat tip to GC Galore
Yeah should be live now
Does the $200 MB VGC at Staples with vertical opening have any different behavior for loading BB or for purchasing MO? The BIN is the same as the one with horizontal opening. I am assuming just the packaging change and nothing else. Thanks
since lots of restaurants in NYState are now charging up to 4% for a “convenience fee” (now allowed by law in NY due to covid) if you use a credit card. Some do not charge..yet. Some go as high as 4% and some are 2%. And all they need is a small sign by the register noting this fact. it you have curbside or pickup or pay the server, you will be surprised. So Ill use these 200. cards for 5%,get money order and deposit to bank, than withdraw cash and pay. Screw these biz that are ripping us off. At least i get 5%. Some small biz do not charge.
Where do you buy money order using these gift cards?
Walmart
grocery store
They should limit Dishdash/GrubHub/UberEats restaurant charges to like 5%, that would help a lot more. Here in CA I haven’t seen any restaurant surcharges for credit card use, but have seen some 5% discounts for paying with cash. But here restaurants just charge any litany of random ‘fees’ they want to your bill, even long before the pandemic. Pizza Hut charged a 10% CA fee (I think, can’t remember fully) because ‘it’s expensive to do business in CA’. I kid you not, that’s what the small print said in the fee description. For the busy/inattentive customer, it looks like tax — until you notice that there’s 2 lines that look like tax. I just changed my cheap pizza supplier to Dominoes, who also does business in CA but doesn’t feel the need to nickel & dime on the bill. Many restaurants in SF charge a ‘health fee’ since they are required(?) to provide healthcare for their servers. UberEats also charges that fee since they promised to pay for insurance for their driving ‘contractors’ (not employees). Some have a ‘takeout’ fee. Some cities also have a ‘sugar’ tax.
Is the primary reason people still buy these for MS? Or is there another reason?
I bought mine for MS, but I only bought 2 (limit 5). I use my GC for reg purchases over time as I don’t know how to convert them to cash. I was *shocked* at the # of people in line at 10am on Sun when Staples opened, every single one of them buying 5 $200 GC (CA Silicon Valley). It was like a Black Friday sale where they were giving away good things for free. These people *must* be using it for MS and/or 5% or higher credit card cashback/points and then converting to cash somehow. I can’t see any other reason they are getting $1000 in GC at a pop. And my store keeps all MC/Visa GCs behind the register to counter hoarding. I was like #25 in line and I arrived at exactly 10am (I was ‘too late’ for my OD $15 back for $300 GC promo the prior week).
Is there any exaggeration in your statement because if not, that would be your store had sold 120 gift cards before you were able to purchase your 2 cards. That’s an insanely high number from my experience. Also, people lining up? That’s just crazy but you are in Silicon Valley where people have money and time to do that.
I am estimating, because though I got to the store ~10am, there were people walking out of the store and cars driving away already. So I don’t know how many people bought their cards before I got there. There was a long line in the store to checkout, and I was concerned they would run out of cards before I got to the front. There were 2 people working the registers, and everyone was getting 5 cards. I saw my cashier had a 6-8″ box of cards, but there were maybe only 10 or so left by the time he got to me. My receipt says 10:28am, so I was in the store about 1/2hr in line. Yes, it’s crazy. Like I said, I was shocked when I saw the long line and thinking that many people are playing the giftcard-cashout game. Oh, the receipt had a $10 off your next in-store $20 purchase too, with the usual list of exclusions.
Anyone else’s local store have these disappear all of a sudden once a promotion is announced? Weird, I know!
I was able to get up to the daily limit today
It’s not the stores doing. Most likely the gift card rack is empty and hasn’t been restocked or people are stealing the gift cards so they can activate them whenever there is a promotion.
No it is the store. I go in day before and it’s full. Go in next day and it’s empty.
yeah, in some cases, it’s definitely the store. It’s so dumb.
I once asked the manager why they hid them during promos, he said to prevent fraud. I replied with “weird…so fraudsters only commit vgc fraud during promos? i’d think they do that any day possible, regardless of promo or not”. He didn’t have a response to that. lol
Does anyone know if Staples MB VGC works for full $200 swipe for loading BB Visa? I know BB Amex is limited to <=$99/swipe loading with this MB VGC from Staples. Appreciate it if someone can confirm this information. Thank you.
No on can really confirm this as dumping these off is purely YMMV.
Are these ever in stock in rural locations? The urban/suburban Staples I’ve been to all refuse to stock these, even during off-promotion weeks.
You should look at a Staples location directory. They’re not located in rural locations. Only in cities. I think cities are classified as urban.
When I was living in Ft. Lauderdale these were never in stock. I just moved 30 minutes away and the Staples here always has them in stock–both Visa and M/C.
These cards are a tricky thing for stores. I work at an office supply store. Let me provide some information. These cards are not an inventoried item. So the system doesn’t know when these cards are low on stock or out of stock. The blackhawk network will ship these cards to the store but a vendor is responsible to come to the store and place the cards on the display rack. That is why when you ask someone working in the store about the cards, they aren’t really helpful because they are not responsible for doing anything on that rack.
We get customers that will steal a bunch of unactuated cards and keep them at home. Then when there is a promotion, they bring in the cards they have previous stole and try and purchase them. I always refuse those customers because it encourages stealing. Even if the cards are unactivated, they don’t have the right to remove them from the store. Some customers try to stay within the law and stash a bunch of cards somewhere in the store so they always have stock for themselves. At least they aren’t breaking the law, but it’s still not a good thing to do.
Thanks for the info, although in my case I find that the Staples staff are actually very helpful when I ask about the cards. Recently one of them even spent like 10 minutes going thru all the cards behind the display to try to find me one (unsuccessfully)
Interesting that they are separate from the rest of the inventory. I hope stealing the unactivated cards is not commonplace.
Nice good to see it, I’ve been too late the other weeks as they were sold out (even with the mastercards)
Why even bother? Just use your debit card.
Huh? I do use a debit card in fact. Completely irrelevant comment why bother making it?
I disagree with you that shit tastes good.
I wish that I could order online. Not really sure that I understand why Staples and OD/OM keep doing these deals over and over lately but trying to take advantage when I can. I cannot imagine there are a lot of people going into the store and buying $300-1000 worth of prepaid giftcards and saying “hey let me pick up a lot of other random merchandise while I am here”. I wonder if Visa/Mastercard do special promotional deals with these companies. Even Safeway/Albtersons was doing promotions with Visa and Mastercard prepaid cards weekly for a while not too long ago (although I have not seen a deal on them with them for a few months now).
It’s all a waste of time! There will be no stampedes to buy a $300 card worth $300. People are simply DUMB.
My surmise is that they run these sales to goose their revenues. Even if Metabank gives them some money for selling these, it can’t be much.
Of course, Staples is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I get coupons for $5 off a $5 purchase every few weeks “for being one of their best customers.” About all I ever buy there is no-fee Visa and MC gift cards and the free Kleenex I get with these $5 coupons.
Probably to get people in their stores (to hopefully buy other things)
I wish they’d start carrying the Five Back cards or the Everywhere cards that can be loaded up to $200.
I wish they would give out free money.
I’m a douchebag
Only the government can give out free money.