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Staples.com is now offering $300 Visa gift cards for purchase online.
Each card has a fee of $8.95 ($7.95 purchase fee + $1 shipping fee). While that sounds steep, it’s better than Staples’ previous best option: $200 Visa with $6.95 fee. As a percentage of total, the fee for the $300 gift card is approximately 3% whereas the fee for the $200 Visa is approximately 3.5%:
- $200 Visa: $6.95 fee is 3.475% of face value
- $300 Visa: $8.95 fee is 2.98% of face value
This is a good deal when paying with a card that earns 5X points at office supply stores (e.g. Ink Plus, Ink Cash, Amex SimplyCash).
Notes:
- You must purchase less than $2000 worth of cards per order.
- These Visa cards can be used at stores like Walmart and Target as debit cards. Use the last four digits as the PIN.
- Shopping through portals does not work to earn additional rewards, but it can’t hurt to try.
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Hat Tip: Dan’s Deals
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These have been out of stock for a few weeks now. Frustrating.
I recently ordered a $300 VGC on staples.com and I received a Vanilla gift card. It did not work for at at WM. Are they only selling vanilla gift cards now?
That’s the first report I’ve heard of that. Are you sure it’s Vanilla? And are you sure it came from Staples?
They wont approve me for Chase Ink, because i have too many recent apps. However, I DO have Chase Business United Explorer, which gives 2 miles per Dollar spent on office supply stores. Still, I dont see this Staples deal as Profitable. Thoughts? I already hit threshold Bonus…just trying to manufacture some miles now. Should i go 2 miles per Dollar at staples or just 1 X through Giftcard.com, or something like that. Kind of pricey when I have to Pay $7 for $500 VGC, and only earn 500 miles with it. That’s $14, per 1000 miles.
I don’t think that the $300 cards are worth it unless you earn 5X points. You’re better off buying $500 Visa gift cards at a Simon or Macerich mall for $3.95.
Anyone spot a $300 VGC in store?
[…] $300 Visa gift cards now available online at Staples.com […]
Anybody else having trouble loading the $300 gift cards at WM to the BB? I can load the $200 fine at the register, but the $300 ones got rejected twice.
Just did 6x $300 a week ago, all went thru fine.
I tried to load a $300 gc to bb at the kiosk today with no success
Today the $300 gc went through fine.
If I maxed out BB, that’s 17 card total ($151 fee) for 25K UR. If I redeem on UA for NA to APAC tix, with stop in EU on J, I would need 160K UR pts. That’s 7 mo, since BB is maxed out at 5K load. Quite a long runway, but a rr NA to APAC tix with EU stopover in J can price at more than $20K.
On the left coast, I can go to a local store, load 2K5 at 2045, then load another 2K5 at 2105. 1 trip per month, about 30 min in the store.
Any one know if Staples GC can be used to purchase this online?
I don’t think so
Anyone get a shipping notice? I ordered Friday and my order is still processing. Does it normally take this long? Is it possible to cancel the order if it hasn’t shipped?
Any chance they will sell these IN STORES?
its possible
Since I am in the middle of meeting a minimum spend on my Ink, this was excellent news today. I just bought 6 x $300. Ten minutes later, I got a call from Staples verifying my purchase. Everything was fine, but I wanted to warn people to expect a call. I did not have an account with Staples and checked out as a guest.
Can anyone answer these questions:
1) why does gift card mall put a shipping fee on these when they don’t on other (e.g. Regular retailers) ones?
2) if you buy multiple cards, I assume they will ship them all together vs. one at a time. So do they still add the $1 s/h fee per each one? Isn’t that kinda of a money grab on their part?
I would stock up since the overall fees ( as a percentage) is lower than the $200 version. Thanks.
1) I think its just a way of collecting more money for these cards which have much lower margins than merchant gift cards.
2) Yes and yes
[…] News and notes from around the interweb: Staples.com now selling $300 visa gift cards […]
Newbie here, if I go thru chase mall using Ink Cash to buy Staples.com GC, would that be 10%( 2 points per dollar spend in chase mall and 5% cash back)? Then VGC to BB.
Unfortunately, no, you won’t earn extra rewards from the Chase mall
[…] Frequent Miler, you can now buy $300 Visa gift cards from […]