Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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Office Max / Office Depot started a promotion yesterday that runs through Saturday, May 12, 2018 for an instant $15 off $300 or more in “Everywhere” Visa Gift Cards. Note that while these cards have a lower activation fee than other Visa Gift Cards, they can be more challenging to liquidate, so go slowly if you haven’t used them before.
The Deal
- Buy $300 or more in select Visa Gift Cards (Fuel Everywhere, Grocery Everywhere, Dining Everywhere, Movies Everywhere, or Style Everywhere), save $15 instantly at Office Max / Office Depot
Key Terms
- Valid May 6-12, 2018
- Limit 1 per customer (may be enforced per transaction in some stores)
- Only valid on those select Visa Gift Cards noted above
- “Everywhere” gift cards are issued by Metabank and are PIN-enabled, but they are coded to only work at the type of merchant intended (though YMMV as the definitions bend at times)
Quick Thoughts
Again, I’d suggest going slow and experimenting with where these work in your area before going bananas on this promotion. Some people have a very easy time liquidating these and others struggle a bit more, so try them out and see what works.
The attractive thing about the Everywhere Visas is that the activation fee is only $4.95 per $200 card, which makes the math work out pretty favorably with this promotion if you buy two of these cards:
$409.90 (2 cards at $204.95 with activation fee included)
-$15.00 instant savings
$394.40 total cost (plus earn 1,975 Chase Ultimate Rewards points if you use a card that earns 5x)
That’s a great deal if you’re using a card like the Chase Ink Cash (or if you still have an Ink Plus) that earns 5x at office supply stores as it works out to nearly 2K points per transaction at a negative cost. While the promotion terms limit this to 1 per customer, some stores / cashiers may allow you to do multiple transactions.
If you know that your liquidation options for these are limited, you may want to check out this write up that Mark Ostermann recently did at Miles to Memories as he found a pretty good way to maximize the Fuel Everywhere Visas that would make sense with this promotion.
Overall, it’s great to see a negative-cost Visa Gift Card promotion.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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[…] EASY 5X AT OFFICE MAX – FREQUENT MILER & FEE WAIVED VISA GC’S AT STAPLES – DAN’S DEALS […]
You can also get 3% back through Ebates in store using a linked card
Except it excludes GCs… But always worth a try.
I wonder if these can be used online for stuff like domain names etc. at least the “style” card? Will give it a try.
The Grocery Everywhere card works to buy third-party GCs at my supermarket (Jewel-Osco), whereas Jewel’s own GCs will not. So that’s a possible opportunity for 5x plus a bit of cashback on a slew of GCs you do not see at OM/OD/Staples.
Does third party mean visa GC too?
Did not try.
Staples is doing a no fee deal with the regular visa. That $5.60 is just not worth the hassle.
You don’t have to choose one or the other 🙂
Nick, sounds like you’re saying that buying a money order(our go-to way to liquidate the usual Meta-Bank OD Visa cards), is a maybe, at best with these cards?
It’s possible with some of them in some places. It’s not always consistent in the sense that I can’t say Everywhere card A always works at WM or Everywhere card B always works at _____. You’ll have to test and see if it works at your liquidation spots. The idea is that they are coded to work at the kind of place they say. For example, the Dining Everywhere should work at places where they sell food. Some WM locations have a Subway or something like that and therefore the Dining Everywhere *may* work at that location. To my knowledge, it’s just not easily predictable. So what I’m really saying here is to buy a couple of them and try them at your places before you go in full tilt and have a large sum of cards that can’t be easily liquidated where you live.
Thanks. On it today…slowly….