Staples Visa Gift Card Deal
Staples sells a variety of Visa & Mastercard gift cards. Depending on the value (up to $200) the fee to purchase these can cost as much as $6.95. This week they are waiving the fee on the Visa gift cards. The discount is applying to multiple cards in the same transaction but YMMV on how many the store will let you purchase.
The Offer
- No purchase fee when you buy a $200 Visa® Gift Card
Key Terms
- Valid 9/2/18–9/8/18.
- The Visa Gift Card is issued by MetaBank
- Limit 1 per customer.
- In the past people have been able to purchase more in multiple transactions.
You can find the full terms in the weekly ad (PG 5)
Maximizing This Deal
There seems to be a limit of 1 discounted purchase fee per transaction (who knows if that will be enforced) you may be able to purchase multiple in separate transactions.
Cards like the Chase Ink Plus, Ink Cash and Amex SimplyCash Plus will all earn 5X/5% back on these purchases. I also assume you may be able to visit multiple stores and/or ask to do multiple transactions despite the terms, but that is obviously YMMV.
Stay away from American Express Cards with the 10% Amex Offers if you have earned $100 in credits already.
Liquidating Visa Gift Card
The Visa gift card is pin-enabled. The PIN number is usually the last four digits of the card number. You can utilize my previous liquidation strategy or simply use it for normal spend.
Conclusion
It’s nice to see Staples move away from the restricted rebate program to a discount that is seemingly more scalable. Test it out with multiple Visa gift cards in same transactions, and hopefully it works again. That would make things much easier.
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@Eastern Traveler – If you have a Bluebird card, you can load these pin enabled cards to Bluebird. Bluebird offers a ‘Pay Bill’ feature that enables you to indirectly use a rewards earning card on something you typically can’t charge (mortgage, daycare, car payments). You could also pay your credit card bill but this may increase the odds of your account getting shut down.
I do not understand how any of this is of benefit. If I use my credit card to buy a gift card from Staples. I now have cash on a gift card that I have to use. Using the gift card to make any purchase that I normally would make with a credit card, negates the bonus from the card the second time so I am still in the same place as I would have been using the credit card to make the purchase. The only way it would make any sense is if I could use the credit card to buy a gift card and then cash out the gift card to put the money in my bank account and pay the credit card off. In that scenario I could effectively add bonus that I normally would not receive.
That second part of it is exactly why it is of use. But even if you used it for regular purchases you are using a card that earns 5X to purchase the gift card which is better than you would get from other cards when you go to spend the Visa gift card.