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A couple of Free After Rebate (FAR) deals at Office Depot can be a nice point bonanza for those with Chase Ink cards.
As I reported earlier this month, Office Depot is currently offering 10 bonus points per dollar for Chase Ink customers who shop through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. When you add on the 5 points per dollar that the Ink gets for office supply purchases, that leads to an awesome 15 points per dollar for Office Depot purchases!
If you’re not interested in any products at Office Depot, you can still benefit by buying Free After Rebate (FAR) items. That way, you get the points, but also get all (or mostly all) of your money back.
FAR Deals
Office Depot is currently advertising two FAR deals that are good through tomorrow (July 7th):
- McAfee Total Protection 2012, For 3 Users, Traditional Disc: $65
- Kaspersky Anti-virus 2012: $45
Each rebate is good for just one copy per household. If you buy both, you will spend $110 and get $110 back in rebates. Unfortunately, unlike Staples’ easy rebates, these are mail-in rebates.
Ultimate Rewards
By going through the Ultimate Rewards mall and paying with a Chase Ink card, you will earn 15 points per dollar, or approximately 1650 points. I say “approximately” because you should earn a few extra points for the sales tax portion of the bill. Usually, you will not get mall points from sales tax, but you should get the Ink’s automatic 5X points.
Sales Tax
If you live in a state that charges sales tax, then you won’t really get this software for free. Still, it’s not a bad deal. Suppose, for example, you pay 10% sales tax. In that case, you will be out $11. In other words, you will have paid $11 for slightly over 1650 points: about 2/3 of a penny per point. Not too bad. You might even be able to recover your $11 loss by selling the items on EBay.
McAfee
People have reported that McAfee does not pay rebates to people who have received rebates for the same product in the past, even if the rebate form itself was different. Make sure you don’t fall into that category before buying.
Kaspersky
For some reason, the “add to cart” page for this item doesn’t advertise the rebate:
If that makes you nervous, note that the rebate is shown in the Office Depot ad:
Also, you can click here to see the rebate for yourself:
Not for me
This is a good solid pair of FAR deals, but I’m not going to buy them. I’m the guy that rebate companies love: I tend to get lazy and then forget to mail in the rebates. I’m not willing to bet $110 on my habits changing in the next few weeks 
.
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How about getting office depot gift cards and then buying vanilla reload for amex prepaid at the retail location ? 15x vs. 5x everywhere?
How about getting office depot gift cards and then buying vanilla reload for amex prepaid? 15x vs. 5x everywhere?
Meric: It’s unlikely that you’ll get Ultimate Rewards points when buying gift cards at Office Depot through the UR Mall. It’s against the T&C. If you try it, please let us know how it goes. Also, it’s unlikely that Office Depot will allow you to use the gift card to buy vanilla reload cards. Others have tried and failed.
I just jumped on this. 15x for pennies is just too good. I have multiple trips in mind using UR points and I am going to be short on them!
Thanks for the heads up!
just received an email that the Kaspersky has been backordered due to “unforeseen demand.” Now I have to contact them to make sure they don’t mail it to me after the rebate date. Oh well, at least the McAfee worked.
Grant. Thank you for that math. I may pass on this now.
For 1,650 UR points, you could just use your Chase Ink Bold card to buy a $330 (1,650 pts / 5 pts per dollar = $330) vanilla reload back and add it to your prepaid/reloadable amex card, that would really only cost you $3.95 and is much easier to do
For 1600 points, I don’t think it’s worth the trouble, especially when u have to pay $100 for it. Too many uncertainties.
Bob: I think that you would get tripped up by the ‘1 per household’ restriction.
Do you think it would be okay to do both rebates for my wife and I from the same mailing address? Thanks!
I’d add that eBay and Paypal’s commission will run you north of 10%. You will also want to send your item with Delivery Confirmation or some sort of tracking, to prevent the buyer from claiming that they never received the item. That will run you another $2.
@Grant eBay will not allow downloadable or digital copies. Items being sold must be “tangible”
Don’t forget the cost of stamps here. + 90 c.
Does anyone know how the McAfee subscription period work? I actually would like to use it when my current subscription expires, but I’m signed up with them through January 2013. Can I buy now and hold on to it and start running the clock next year?
I tried to sell the digital copies of Trend Micro on eBay but they kept killing the listing after a few days because the ad looked suspicious or something. But I have had better luck selling physical software on eBay but you will only get cents on the dollar compared to the price you originally paid for it.
I still have my 10 Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus copies from earlier this year, and it’d never crossed my mind to try selling them for a few bucks each. Do you have any experience reselling these and if there’s anything to keep in mind when doing so?