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Office Depot and OfficeMax are running another profitable deal on Mastercard gift cards this week, although it’s a return to an old type of deal rather than their more recent “Buy $100, Get $10 Off” deals.
The Deal
- Buy $300+ Mastercard gift cards at Office Depot/OfficeMax and get $15 off.
Key Terms
- Expires September 26, 2020.
- Limit 1 per customer.
Quick Thoughts
To maximize the number of points you earn, it makes sense to buy two $200 Mastercard gift cards, especially if you have a Chase Ink Plus or Ink Cash card seeing as those earn 5x/5% at office supply stores.
The $200 cards come with a $6.95 activation fee, so buying two cards costs you $398.90 after the $15 instant discount, meaning you make a $1.10 profit. Paying with a 5x card earns you 1,995 Ultimate Rewards points too.
Some people have had issues with Mastercard gift cards in the past, although it’s been a year or two since I heard of any significant issues, so hopefully those problems have been resolved.
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Stephen, do we know that they don’t enforce the “one per customer” limit if you buy the 2 $200 cards?
The limit of one relates to the $15 discount rather than the number of cards themselves. That’s because the maximum denomination of Visa gift cards sold at Office Depot/OfficeMax is $200, so you have to buy two cards in order to spend $300+.
Some cashiers will let you do the deal more than once in separate transactions, but most won’t. You can go back later in the day, on a different day or to different stores to do the deal more than once.
[…] Hat tip to FM […]
Thank you for the heads up!
$1.10 profit……… really? Oh, I forgot the almost $2 in CSR points. The car operating costs to drive to Office Max would be several times that.
If you were paying with a CSR, you’d earn 399 points which are worth a minimum of $3.99, but $6 with Pay Yourself Back and potentially more if transferring to partners.
These deals are more notable for those who have cards that earn 5x at office supply stores though. As mentioned in the post, you’d then earn 1,995 Ultimate Rewards. Do the deal five times and you’ve got two free nights at a category 1 Hyatt property, plus $5.50 profit.
You should probably refrain from commenting about something you know nothing about.
With a CSR & ink cash the profit on 2x $200’s is around $31.02 (with pay yourself back & minus any liquidation cost), which is just a bit less than 7.8%.
What an idiot LOL. But then luckily most people are dense like Rob B, less competition for the GCs. Better to not explain how things work. Yes, please stay at home and save your gas money – good idea =)
You are right. Dont go. More for us dumb folks.
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