This deal has now been verified by readers, I’ve updated this post to include more information and make it more accurate. Enjoy this deal, it’s a great one!
The Offer
- Receive a $20 discount when you purchase $300 or more in Mastercard/Visa giftcards from Office Max
At Office Max you will need to ask the cashier to scan the coupon in their book.
The Fine Print
- Limit of two discounts per household/business is stated in the promotional poster, in the Office Max promotional booklet (which they use to scan a barcode to “activate”) it states a limit of one per household business. To get around this show them the promotional poster and you should not have a problem with them honoring two per household/business.
- Valid in store only
- Valid until November 29th, 2014
- Some cashiers will claim they can’t split tender, others will happily do so. This is a your milage may vary situation.
- Activation fees are $6.95 on the $200 cards
Our Verdict
Usually the most profitable method would be to use a credit card that earns 5% on office supply stores. Let’s look at that first:
- Purchase three $200 gift cards, total cost: $580.95 ($560 after two $20 discounts and $20.95 in activation fees)
- Earn $29.0475 in cash back
You’d end up making $48.0975 using this method, more if you value certain loyalty points are more than a penny a piece.
If you recently got the American Express sync offer for $10 back on purchases of $50 or more at Office depot the deal is much more profitable (this deal is now over unfortunately). Ask your cashier to split tender and use multiple American Express cards enrolled in this offer to get the biggest bonus. Theoretically you could use 11 separate cards to score you $110 in statement credits. You’d get the following for your $580.95 in outlay:
- $110 in statement credits
- $600 in Mastercard giftcards
- Loyalty points from $580.95 in spend
You’d be profiting $130+ from this deal, although chances are you don’t have 11 cards that are enrolled in this offer.
