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Staples.com is once again offering fee-free $100 Mastercard Gift Cards right now. The maximum is 2 cards per account, but this is still a great deal in terms of easy 5x spend. Given the low cap, it should be pretty easy to use these for paying for items or bills that wouldn’t ordinarily present the opportunity to earn 5x regardless of other liquidation options.
The Deal
- Staples.com is offering fee-free $100 Mastercard gift cards (online only)
- Direct link to this deal (our affiliate link)
Key Terms
- Limit of 2 per account.
- These typically sell out within a day but given the limit of 2 have lasted since at least yesterday.
Quick Thoughts
They have run this and other similar promotions previously a couple of times. I did successfully place an order for 2. Note that the estimated delivery date is 2 weeks away and in my experience they typically take about that long to arrive.
Several readers have in the past reported that these cards can be a pain to activate (sometimes requiring multiple phone calls). Personally, I haven’t had any issue the past few times they ran this deal. Keep in mind that Mastercard gift cards have been known to be more susceptible to fraudulent draining and they can be harder to liquidate. That said, if you have a system for these, fee-free is a nice deal. That is especially true if you’re paying with a card that earns one of the Best Category Bonuses at office supply stores. For example, you’d earn 5x Ultimate Rewards if paying with a Chase Ink Cash card. If you are able to buy two of these cards, that’s an easy 1,000 UR points.
H/T: GC Galore
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Just a dp, neither of my cards will activate and support is clueless
Ditto, 2 cards arrived. Attached letter says to call 877-233-4633 which then says you can only activate at GCkey.com, which doesn’t recognize the card numbers as valid. Called the number on the back 877-322-4710 and after entering the card # 3 times you get a prompt if you want to report the card as lost/stolen which will immediately make the card unusable (this is deceptive) which you select to get through to an agent. Who then tells you Blackhawk can’t support Staples orders (despite the cards having shipped from Blackhawk and not from Staples) and to call Staples at 800-333+3330. That’s my next step.
I just tried to activate and encountered the same issue, which is ridiculous. Did you get any relief from Staples?
Here is how it was resolved (painfully). The 800 # is to Staples.com support. They can confirm your order but can’t help. They will pass you to their back office (877-246-6255) but here is the catch – they have to stay on the line as the back office are only supposed to talk to Staples staff. Otherwise all the back-office can do is create a case and have you try again to have Staples.com on the line. I did this and they told me the cards would be active in a few hours. 2 days later they were still inactive. 6 days later they were fine and now work. I hope this helps you.
Thanks! However, I will skip the next deal. This is a pain.
Anyone know if these can be liquidated thru Venmo? Does it incur a fee if you do so? From what I read on Venmo’s site, you can add it to your account: https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012932154-Adding-Money-to-Your-Venmo-Balance
It would be nice if we could do the store pickup, im sure they have them in stock. They get shipped even if you choose in store pickup.
[…] offered fee-free $100 Mastercard Gift Cards online for a few hours before the deal sold out (we reported it here). I have not yet had any issues (I used one successfully so far), but many readers at Doctor of […]
Thanks for the comments. I’ve marked this dead again.
Got in one purchase of 10! Then was using my daughter’s account, and got the message they are sold out.
Already says “This item out of stock for delivery”
Sold out online already
(also have a 10% off Staples offer with Chase, up to $6)
Do the Chase Staples offer works on egc and gc on staples dot come?
Anybody have any luck getting a portal to pay out on gift card purchases?
Not to my knowledge for quite a while now, though if someone finds one that works they likely aren’t going to broadcast that tip publicly. I still tried clicking through one (that I haven’t tried before for this purpose) just in case.
Used 2 Biz cards for $1,000 total and $100 back in AMEX Offers. I actually use some of these for gifts, the $100 ones are the best. Love discounts on cash, thx Nick!
This promo makes it easy to use up the Staples AMEX offer that was just posted yesterday.
more trouble than it’s worth tbh
I guess if you just want to pay an online bill with these (and it actually works!), these cards are a good way to harvest the credit card bonuses. But since there are so many $200 GC deals at physical Staples stores, I’m inclined to just wait for the next round.
You must live closer than 70 miles from your nearest Staples store :-).
I love the $200 VGC Staples deals when they come around and I actually get a chance to get to a Staples store, but when I’m at home, I’m an hour plus each way from the store and when I’m visiting family a couple of times a year (as I was when at least one of those promos ran during the holidays), they have no Staples stores within a few hours’ drive, so I’m glad to pick up an easy 5K URs that doesn’t require me to drive on the front end.
That’s not to say you’re wrong — the $200 fee-free cards are great if you can take advantage and live in an area where they allow you to buy multiple. Not everyone has the convergence of those two things, so this deal could make sense.
If I lived 70 miles from my nearest Staples store, I would have been a buyer of the online $100s today too! 🙂 BTW, I have a similar problem with Office Depot deals. I used to have local ODs, but mine closed and my nearest OD is now about 50 miles away. So I realistically can only do OD deals when my travel puts me in the right place at the right time. Of course, with Staples seemingly running a gift card deal every 2 or 3 weeks, I don’t really care about OD opportunities anymore. 🙂
I ordered 10 just now. We’ll see what happens.