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As you probably know, the new Chase Ink Bold business credit card is a great option for credit card churning. It offers 50,000 valuable Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5000 in three months with no annual fee the first year (For more info, please see Preparing for Miles). Beyond simply credit card churning, though, the Ink Bold is a great option for gift card churning:
Gift Card Churning
The Ink Bold will give you 5 points for every dollar spent on office supply stores, cable and wireless service, and landline communications. The office supply store category is especially interesting because you can use your Ink Bold at office supply stores in order to buy gift cards for other types of stores and restaurants. In that way, you can effectively get 5 points per dollar for virtually all of your purchases!
Double Dip
If you have the Ink Bold then you also have access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Here you can get extra points for clicking through the mall to online retailers. You can easily double dip with the Ink Bold by clicking through to office supply stores such as Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples. In this way, you will earn 5 points per dollar from the Ink Bold for office supply purchases, and another 3 to 5 points per dollar from the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Until the end of January, Staples is offering 5 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, so you can get a total of 10 points per dollar for all Staples purchases!
Staples.com
Staples.com is one of the few online merchants I know about that sells gift cards from other merchants. Many stores have gift card racks in their brick and mortar stores, but not online. The interesting thing is that not only does Staples sell these cards online, but several readers have reported that they have received Ultimate Rewards Mall points from buying gift cards at Staples.com. This means that, by buying gift cards at Staples through the Ultimate Rewards Mall using your Chase Ink Bold credit card, you will earn 10 points per dollar for all purchases using those gift cards! For your convenience, here is the list of cards currently available online:
Ironically, one gift card to be wary of is the Staples gift card itself. It can only be used in-store and not online. So, if you buy these, make sure you plan to make purchases in person!
NOTE: I haven’t yet confirmed this double dip on my own, but since Staples is likely to reduce their Ultimate Rewards bonus starting February 1st, I thought it was important to get this information out right away. I have heard from more than one reader that it works.
Triple Dip
In a future post I’ll show how to take this trick a step further to triple dip for as much as 20 points per dollar!
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[…] without any shipping, handling, or service fees. You can read more about this approach here and […]
Many many thanks!
Many many thanks! I will do exactly as you say….and take the stack of cards to the Whole Foods customer service desk. Good for them, good for me!
By the way, I am most eager to see your upcoming post “showing the pros and cons of buying the Visa gift cards online vs. in store.”
Steve K: Good luck! Overall, buying online with the Ink card is a better deal if you’re willing to put up with the smaller denomination cards ($100 online vs. $200 in store).
Hi! Really enjoy your posts, and creative (and lucrative) ideas!
I am in the process of meeting an Ink Bold spend requirement, and have purchased about a dozen Visa gift cards. In a few weeks I will have about $50 or $60 left between all of them. (Say about $5 or so on each.)
Would you suggest going to a retailer and explaining that I would like to use 12 credit cards to pay for a single $60 purchase? Or what better options do you know of?
Many many thanks!
Steve K
Steve K: thanks for the compliments! I’d suggest finding a local grocery store that handles these gift cards automatically. For example, my experience is that at Whole Foods you can swipe your gift card even when your card doesn’t have enough money on it and the register will automatically take just the balance on your card. Then you can swipe the next card, and the next one, etc. that way you don’t need to know exactly how much is on each card.
Yes, I went thru UR mall and got 5x for buy.com. And yes, you do earn buy.com points on the purchase of gift cards.
Pete: Great!
Just wanted to post again to say that it does work on buy.com. I bought a $50 gift card last week and 250 points posted today.
The shipping charges are $2.99 per card, and then 0.99 for each additional card. Looks to be $4.97 for 3 $200 Home Depot gift cards, so a good deal to get 3000 points for $4.97.
Pete: Thanks for the tip! Are you saying that Chase classifies Buy.com as an office supply store?
[Edit]: oops, I think you are saying that you went through the UR mall to get 5X at Buy.com, right? Did you also earn buy.com “super points” for your purchase?
Anyone have experience buying other gift cards thru buy.com? The T&C say
“Purchases paid by gift certificate, check, or method other than credit card are not eligible. Wireless Plan, purchases made through Buy.com Canada, and music downloads are not eligible.”
This doesn’t rule out the 5 extra points/$ but I haven’t seen any mention anywhere. Looks like they charge $2.99 shipping regardless of the card amount so so you can do well on points. Home Depot is available, and many others.
Pete: Good question! I don’t know the answer. Anyone?
[…] The reason? The Ink Bold gives 5 points per dollar at office supply stores. And, as I’ve written about before, you can go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Staples and buy gift cards to effectively get 9 […]
[…] Chase Ink Bold 10 Points Per Dollar […]
You might also be able to triple dip with the Visa cards by registing the Visa cards with one of the Airline dining programs (Southwest, Amercican, etc.) and then using them at a listed restaurant in the program.
Worked for me when I got AmEx gift cards before the holidays.
Chuck: Great idea! Note, though, that if you can get the restaurant’s gift cards through Staples, that is an even better deal. You don’t get the dining program points, but you don’t have to pay a service fee either.
Thanks missed that. I did get the 5x UR shopping on Staples last week. Waiting for statement to close to see if I get the Ink 5x. I may have to buy some more before then just in case.
Where does it say the staples offer is only until 1/31?
Em: If you go to “Rewards Home” and click on “Current Offers” it shows Staples 5X, Target 5X, etc. and says “Offers valid through 11:59 p.m. EST January 31, 2012.” It doesn’t mean that they will necessarily change after Jan 31, but they might.
Staples gift card will not give you 5 points on Bolt, since its sold not Staples, when you buy it online!
They’re not available online but Staples does sell $200 Visa gift cards in their stores. I bought one this weekend because it was only $6.95 for the $200 card vs. $5.95 for a $100 card (or $11.90 if you tried to get $200 worth of Visa $100 Gift Cards).
SB: Yep, that’s a great way to go! I’ll write up a post soon showing the pros and cons of buying the Visa gift cards online vs. in store.