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Offer valid 6/9/13 thru 6/15/13 only.
I visited two nearby OfficeMax stores yesterday to checkout this OfficeMax deal. By buying $200 worth of Visa or MasterCard gift cards at OfficeMax you’ll get $10 off. Is that a good deal? Is it worth it?
First let’s look at the terms & conditions. I’ve pulled out the important parts:
- Limit 1 offer per transaction
- Customers may purchase multiple Visa gift cards and/or MasterCard gift cards in denominations that cumulatively amount to $200 or more to meet the minimum purchase requirement
- MaxPerks® Rewards are not redeemable for this offer.
Here is what the first and third parts of the T&C mean to me:
- Limit 1 offer per transaction = No limit. Since it doesn’t say limit 1 per customer, this means to me that if you want to buy more than $200 worth, you could simply ask the cashier to ring up each $200 bundle separately.
- MaxPerks® Rewards are not redeemable for this offer = OfficeMax gift cards are redeemable for this offer. It doesn’t say that you can’t use OfficeMax gift cards to buy these gift cards, so it appears to be OK.
My Experience
I still had a few OfficeMax gift cards laying around from previous deals, so I brought the gift cards and my Ink Plus card along on my shopping trip. At the first stop, I reconfirmed what I had learned before: my local OfficeMax store no longer carries $200 Visa gift cards. Rats, that would have been a good deal. The best alternative was to buy two $100 cards, each with a $5.95 fee. I chose Visa gift cards over MasterCards because the Visa card PINs tend to work better. I brought four $100 cards to the register and asked to pay in two transactions. No problem.
After the first two cards were rung up, I saw that the total came to $211.90. That was wrong. Where was my $10 off? I showed the weekly ad to the cashier. She got out her big black binder full of scan-able coupons, found this deal, and scanned it in. Success! The new price came to $201.90
I gave the cashier my OfficeMax gift cards which she took and processed without comment. I then paid the small remaining balance with my Ink Plus (so as to earn 5 points per dollar). Done.
At the next OfficeMax store, I again couldn’t find anything better than $100 cards with $5.95 fees. I bought two. This time the cashier had much more trouble finding the scan-able coupon (it hadn’t been put into the binder yet), but eventually everything rang up correctly. I was out of OfficeMax gift cards so I paid for the whole thing with my Ink card.
Is it worth it?
If you buy two $100 Visa or MasterCard gift cards and get the discount applied, the total comes to $201.90. The fee is very close to 1%. That’s not bad, but you can do just as well by buying $500 Vanilla Visa gift cards for $504.95 at various stores (drug stores, gas stations, etc.). And, dealing with a single $500 gift card is much easier than dealing with a bunch of $100s.
The benefit of the deal comes in if you want to liquidate OfficeMax gift cards (as I did) or if you can earn bonus points on your credit card at OfficeMax. The best credit card options are the Chase Ink cards that earn 5 points per dollar, and the Amex SimplyCash card that earns 5% cash back at office supply stores (see Best Category Bonuses). Either way, you will earn approximately 4% profit by buying gift cards, or more if you value Ultimate Rewards points higher than 1 cent each (and you should!).
If you decide to use OfficeMax gift cards to pay, keep in mind that some OfficeMax stores do not allow buying gift cards with gift cards. Your mileage may vary.
So, the answer to the question is yes, under certain circumstances, this is a good deal. I don’t plan to buy any more of these gift cards though because I find dealing with $100 cards to be a hassle. Even loading the cards onto my Bluebird card (see Gift card PINs) is a bit more of a hassle than I want to deal with.
How about you? Is this deal worth it to you? More importantly, does your local OfficeMax store carry $200 Visa gift cards anymore?
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Tried to buy 5 $200 cards today. After the cashier rung up the first two, she called the manager over because she said if you buy $1000 or more you have to fill out some form with all your info. When the manager came over with the form, he then claimed that the deal was only for one transaction a day. The first two were already rung up and he wouldn’t let me buy any more. I didn’t fill out the paper and left.
@jack – I hate it when managers make up rules as they see fit. The only limit is one per transaction. I’ve had some stores say they need to call my credit card company OVER $200 per transaction. Even though the total was $196.xx they still insisted. I asked them if they knew $196 was less than $200, or that $200 is not OVER $200 and they said they still had to call. Idiots.
@Everett – From DansDeals site, the user CtownBin stated the following:
There are 2 solutions:
1) Use a MoneyCenter ATM- in my experience, for whatever reason, the ATMs read it as a regular Debit right away and you can unload them just like the Visas.
2) If you must use a register- after you swipe, wait 2 seconds and then hit the red cancel button. Then, a screen should come up asking you if you want to use “credit” or “ATM Debit” (along with a couple other options). Select “ATM Debit”, it asks for your PIN, and that’s it! The only small caveat is, you can’t use them this way if you’re using more than one card per transaction; you’ll have to do separate transactions for each card. IME the cashiers won’t be happy doing more than 2 in a row… that’s why the MoneyCenter ATM is by far your best option, if possible where you are.
@Groobie Could you explain more? She rings up the amount, it prompts me to swipe, I swipe and then it instantly says credit. At what point do I hit a button to change to debit, and what button? The yellow back button? or the red cancel? or green approve?
Everest – you have to be quick on the pin pad and change it to debit before the cashier automatically rings it through as credit. I have been able to load the MC gcs to BB that way.
Has anyone bought the Mastercard versions? I bought a whole bunch of them, called and set a pin for each, but when I go to Walmart to try to use them to buy money orders or reload my BB it always rings up as a credit card. ALWAYS. I don’t even have the option to use them as a debit, and hence, can’t unload them at all. HELP!!!
I stopped by today and they had just put the sign with $10 off for next week as well. The salespeople also confirmed it.
oh crap… do I have the self control to not get chase to ban me this upcoming week…
Grado: No, the discount is in-store only
Jon Chan: yes the deal has been extended a week
Is it true that the deal has been extended for one week? Anyone? I thought today is the last day, so I bought two.
Would this deal have worked if you bought the cards on om website with ink?
Ok, I’ll share my secret for any Denver metro readers. The Office Max in Boulder off of 30th is STOCKED TO THE GILLS with $200 visa GC’s. They don’t care about multiple transactions either. I’ve been stopping there nearly every day this week since I work in Boulder. Now that I’m done for the week, the rest of you can GET AT IT! 😀
@Gabriel – Thanks. The Stapleton OM is out of $200 cards, someone cleared them out a few days ago. I live by DIA so Boulder would be a trek for me.
RK: I’d guess that you’re safe but there’s no way to know.
Jack: you have to take the cards to Walmart to use then to load Bluebird. Use the last 4 digits on each card as the pin
i just a couple $200 cards from OM. I tried to load to BB but it wants an address and says mine doesn’t match. How do you load the cards on?Thanks
I bought 7 cards on 6/10 and 10 more today (6/12). Chase called me to confirm after the 10th card. I was using Ink card and It was fraud department’s call.They were ok when I confirmed the transactions. Do you think Chase will shutdown my account if I but 10 more tomorrow. OM near to my office has plenty of cards available.Hopefully they will be available tomorrow too..
Realistically, how many can I buy before Chase gets mad? I bought 20 $200 cards and 10 $100 cards today. Since I made $3.05 per $200 card I’m considering going back to get more $100 cards. Too greedy?