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Office Depot and OfficeMax stores are back with a profitable way to earn an easy 5x with their semi-regular sale on Visa Gift Cards. Note that there is currently a Chase Offer good for 10% back up to $8-$11 available on some cards.
The Deal
- Buy $300+ Visa gift cards at Office Depot/OfficeMax & get $15 off instantly.
Key Terms
- Valid November 13th to November 19th, 2022.
- Limit 1 per household/business (YMMV)
Quick Thoughts
The best option points-wise is to buy two $200 Visa gift cards. Although you’ll pay an additional $1 in purchase fees (compared to buying a $100 and a $200 card), you’ll also generate $101 worth of spend which can be worth far more than $1 if paying with a card that earns more at office supply stores such as the Chase Ink Cash or Ink Plus cards.
With two $6.95 fees (note that some Metabank Visa’s are now $7.95), you’ll make $1.10 profit in addition to 1,995 Ultimate Rewards points for every two $200 Visa gift cards that you buy.
In addition, there are two versions of an Office Depot/OfficeMax Chase Offer giving 10% back on up to $80 or $110 of spend. You’ll come out even further ahead by linking your payment card in the Dosh app. Dosh offers 2% cashback at Office Depot/OfficeMax with a limit of $10 cashback per day. Gift card purchases are officially excluded, but enforcement has varied. Adding a small purchases like a pen seems to help it go through, although some have had cash back clawed back abd others haven’t. YMMV.
See the full list of Visa and Mastercard gift card deals here
Past Office Max/Office Depot $15 off $300 deals
October 9th to October 15th, 2022.August 28th to September 3rd, 2022.July 4th to August 6th 2022.May 21st to May 28th 2022.
The limit this time is 2 offers. Confirmed that buying 4 x 200 in one transaction triggers $30 off.
OD/OM just charged $7.95 per Grocery Everywhere card (even with the expiration in 2031. Fees is still reflecting the $5.95 activation fee).
A pair of $200 Grocery Everywhere Visa cards now rings up as $400.90.
Not in my world. They are still ringing up 2 for $394.90. If you liquidating at WM for MO’s Style Everywhere still works there. Try finding those with a lower activation fee of $4.95.
Did you buy the Grocery Everywhere card at OM/OD? If so, I am curious why one store would raise the fee and not another store.
Have you ever purchased wallpaper for your house? If you do, you need to make sure each roll is from the same dye lot. If not, the color won’t match exactly and it will be very noticeable when it’s on the wall. I believe that the fee on newer batches of these cards has increased. Until the older cards work their way out of the system, there will be overlap of higher and lower fees in cards that are otherwise identical. The many ODOM stores I frequent have yet to receive any of the higher priced cards. However, armed with the information you have provided here, it’s time to remerchandise as many of the older inactivated cards as possible to an undisclosed location for future use. I have noticed, during this recent run, that the Grocery Everywhere variety is non existent on the many racks in my area. However, Style Everywhere, with the lower fee are still plentiful, which is fine for me because they work at WM for MO’s here. Just to be clear, the fee is not increased at the store level. The fee amount printed on the card package is the amount which must be changed at the cash register. To do otherwise would be illegal false advertising.
The packaging shows $5.95 and I was charged $7.95. I questioned the young clerk and he had no idea why the fee was charged differently than the packaging.
That is very strange. If you still have the card and the receipt, I’d contact ODOM corporate about it. Not because of a couple of dollars, but to find out if that particular store is fleecing people.
It’s not the individual store fleecing people. it happened a month ago on the everywhere cards, dining and grocery for me. a month later and the majority of the $4.95 cards have been purchased and replaced by the $5.95 cards. I am sure you have experienced that by now.
Had same issue with the new grocery everywhere cards…register scanning $7.95 fee despite pack stating $5.95. Seems more of a programming issue at corp level as that is the new fee for the regular visas. Old ones still ring $4.95
[…] Update 8/28/22: Deal is back for 8/28 – 9/3 (ht FM) […]
What is the OD offer? I don’t understand, sorry if someone could explain I would truly appreciate.
Will chase shut you down or claw back subs if I purchase this on my ink business cash card while working on the sub?
Likely no. It’s always hard to predict shut down risk because there are far too many factors, but Chase is not generally sensitive about this. Like if you got the card yesterday and you’ve never charged more than $100 at a time on a Chase card and today you go out and buy $7500 in gift cards then sure — that might raise a red flag. If you’re talking about popping in three or four times this week to buy $400 at a pop, then likely no problem at all.
The general rule of thumb with bonus categories is not to go too wildly above whatever the monthly limit in that category would work out to be. For instance, Chase caps you at up to $25K in purchases on the 5x office supply category. Therefore, the “speed limit” is around $2K per month, so the conventional wisdom is to stay within reason of that. Buying $3K or $4K in a single month is probably still fine, but buying $20K in the first month you’ve had the card is risky.
Thanks nick. I’ve never done any MS but trying juggle 2 cards Min spend for the SUB (Amex biz platinum and Chase biz ink cash). I dare not try with the Amex as I know they’re very sensitive to GC purchases (especially during the Soend to qualify for your SUB, plus only 1x) But I’ll give it a try on the chase since I do have the OD offer and of course get 5x
I’d actually not characterize Amex as “very sensitive”. Amex clawed back welcome bonuses on a bunch of people a few years ago and they stopped awarding points and progress toward spend-based bonuses on Simon purchases (and perhaps GiftCards dot com). Personally, I err on the side of caution in not using obvious gift card purchases to hit Amex spending bonuses simply because it’s not worth the risk of missing out on a “once in a lifetime” bonus when I can find other ways to meet the spend. But that’s not to say that I’ve never bought a gift card during the minimum spend period — I just don’t make it obvious repeated gift card purchases. I don’t tend to worry about it at all with other issuers (except for the fact that I generally don’t try to hit the minimum spending requirement all at once with a single big gift card purchase).
Thanks Nick. It was all for not anyways because I went to my local Office Depot and could not find those Visa gift cards with a $6.95 activation fee and up to $200 all I could find were 25, 50, and $100 visa gift cards with activation fees That range from $4.95 to $5.95. But none that were $6.95. I asked the employee and they didn’t seem to know anything about the promotion. Can you please specify which specific visa gift card qualifies for this offer? Or is it any visa gift card ?
I went yesterday and asked for the $200 denominations. They looked in the back and all they had were variable load cards, marked as $20-$200 for a $6.95 fee. I wasn’t sure if they would work… but they did. Triggered Office Depot’s discount just fine.
Not to step on Nick’s answer at all, because he gave you prudent advice, especially if you’re new to the game. However, I’ve been manufacturing spend for many years in large volume. Of course, I’m confident that your personal track record with Chase plays an important role, but that said, I purchase $10K of VGC’s each time they are on sale at OfficeMax/Office Depot. This is more of a data point rather than a suggestion or encouragement to anyone considering MS. I also cycle my Ink card to do this, which means that my limit is only half of my spend, so I prepay the card during the sales in order to achieve my desired goal. In other words, in my experience, Chase is very MS friendly in this particular environment.
Thanks Brant. I wanted to dip my toes into the MS process but couldn’t even find the specific Visa cards that would work for this promo at OD. Do you know which ones work? The employees knew nothing and i could not find it online except on blogs which don’t reference which specific Visa cards work. Thanks
You need to Google these terms. “Grocery Everywhere Visa” and “Style Everywhere Visa”. These cards continue to work for purchases of money orders at Walmart. I would ignore all other cards because they are more difficult to liquidate.
A couple of thoughts:
While Brant isn’t alone in the volume he’s doing, note that I definitely wouldn’t recommend cycling your limit and wouldn’t recommend going out for $10K at a time if you haven’t scaled up to that. Those things are known shut down triggers when they seem to be far outside of your normal spending pattern.
I’d also excercise some caution on Style Everywhere as I thought they didn’t universally work at all Wally Worlds (maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve avoided Style for lack of backup uses if they don’t work at my Wally World and/or stop working – I don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of cards that have a limited scope of use). Personally, I ignore WM as I’ve found them to be much more of a hassle than local grocery chains. Obviously, things are different in Brant’s neighborhood. I would also characterize the “ignore all other cards” as painting with far too broad a stroke. I have no issue at all using 5Backs or other Meta cards at the chains in my area. That’s not to say that his advice might not be right for your situation (maybe they are more difficult to liquidate where you are) but they aren’t any more difficult where I live, so YMMV. The reason I prefer Grocery Everywhere is just because the activation fee is less, so I come out a little farther ahead on deals like this one. Otherwise, I’d personally rather have cards that aren’t limited to grocery store use on the day when the party ends. I’d hate to be stuck with $10K in cards that can only be used in grocery stores. I know you could use them to buy other GCs in that situations, but I’d rather just have general-use VGCs in that scenario. Of course, I say that and admittedly buy many Grocery Everywheres, so I’m not saying I don’t buy them, just that I don’t limit my purchases to only them.
All great points!! See what I did there?
I wasn’t even thinking about MS to that degree but just doing the $400 on the OD offer since I had it on my chase card. But I couldn’t even find which visa gc worked at OD. (Still trying to find the answer to that one )
Literally any of the Visa Gift Cards they sell. It doesn’t specify. Most people buy the Variable load ($20-$200 ones) because you’ll have the best ratio of points to activation fees. Doesn’t matter if you buy the 5 Back Visas, the plain-looking “Visa Gift Cards” ones, the Grocery Everywhere / Style Everywhere / Movies Everywhere (don’t know why you’d want to buy the movies one though). You could even buy $50 and $100 cards, but it wouldn’t make sense to do that over the $200 cards. Like you could buy a $200 card and a $100 card and save like $1 in activation fees, but you’re better off getting 5x on another $100 in spend (500 points, worth at least $5 if cashed straight out or $7.50 toward travel with the CSR, etc). Buy two of whichever cards that can be loaded with $200.
At first, they’ll ring up with the activation fees, but once the cashier hits the “total” button, the $15 will come off.
Thanks for clarifying! I guess I was confused because in your post you referenced $6.95 fees per card, but every Visa card I saw at my local OD had $4.95 or $5.95 activation fees so I thought maybe there was a specific one. Of course since the $15 off was not advertised on OD’s website, they could not look anything up and none of them employees seemed to know anything about any promotion. I’ll give it a try again since I have until 9/3. Thank you
Man, I just received my Ink Cash card last week and was excited to go for my first gift cards when I saw this offer – then realized that OfficeMax/Depot apparently closed EVERY store on Long Island at some point. And I’ve got those 10% off offers on some other cards too – Bummer. 🙁
It didn’t ring up on sale today for me. Might want to wait a day for more data points.
Worked for me about two hours ago
Didn’t ring up for me either at about noon today. I used the variable VISA cards (you choose the amount, $25-$200); tried to purchase 2x$200 and no discount. Maybe I tried to buy the wrong thing? They didn’t have the $200 VISA cards.
I tried variable visa metabank cards for $200 each at 5pm. They have worked in the past.
2x$200 variable visas worked for me just fine.
I bought 2 of the variable VISA gift cards @200 each, it worked for me. Discount was automatically applied at check out. Total paid was $398.90
Wow this community is obsessed with gift cards.I don’t have any business cards, so I never get the 5x earn rate at office stores.
How do you keep track of them all? What do you do when the balance drops below $1.00 and stores refuse to accept them for such a small purchase?
Good question, but it really varies by person. Some people use them right away to pay or pre-pay recurring bills like utilities, insurance, etc.Others use them for daily spend — in many cases supermarkets will auto-drain the remaining balance on a partially-used card (varies by chain and type of card). This post might also help explain why fee-free gift cards are of high interest to many: https://frequentmiler.com/manufactured-spending-complete-guide/#Buy_liquidate_gift_cards_for_manufactured_spending
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One can buy Amazon digital gift cards in any denomination. This what I do when I have less than $20 left on any VGC or MCGC.
Thanks Nick and Deb! The Amazon hack might make me a believer…
Hi Big Jeff. If you shop at Costco, they’ll auto drain your VGCs. I frequently drain 3 or 4 in one trip.
Yes, Costco works great. Just scan one card after another until you’re all paid up or out of cards (and pay the balance with a 2x Visa).
Unable to buy money orders using these cards at my local Albertsons/Safeway any longer. Never had problems until the last 2 weeks.
Anyone have similar or know what’s going on?
Have you noticed OD is no longer available at Dosh? I can’t find it this morning.
I saw that, too, but then I later got an email saying it tracked anyway!
I bought VGC this morning and I haven’t received anything from Dosh yet. I could not locate OD on my Dosh app either.
Just struck out. The cashier saw my credit card and told me gift cards had to be purchased with cash. I said, “Oh?” And she said ‘Yeah, it’s like that at ALL stores.” Oh well, just like my local Staples. A wild goose chase.
That’s too bad. I bought with a CC at my local Office Max yesterday. Depending on where you live, it might be worth trying at another type of day. It certainly could be a local store policy, but it could also be an overzealous cashier.
No problems with me using a credit card, either, but now the stores say “Corporate” is requiring Manager approval for all purchases at every store? Had been only over $500. Hassle waiting on a manager.
No manager approval necessary at the store I just visited. My wife asked to split tender over two cards (got the Chase Offers to use) and the cashier said he couldn’t do that (made-up rule I think, but he wasn’t going to budge), so she asked if she could do another separate transaction and he said no problem, so she did two separate $400 transactions (and then I bought $400 behind her). No issue.
ODs seem to make up rules as they go along. One OD came up with the cash only rule; another would not let me buy another gift card on the same day with a separate txn (two offers)
seems publix stop money order using VGC
Chase offer for10% off says no gift cards.
Never been enforced.
Sad Im on the Big Island and unlike last time.
The promo was only $2.50 per card.
Bought $1000 worth cards still cost $41.70
At least its 5X points
Anyone know if “anywhere” visas are still working? Think the fee is 4.95/200 on those.
That’s what I always buy until they run out. Still worked as of the last Visa gift card deal.
Sweet, looks like it’s still working this go around too 🙂
Yes, the “anywhere” cards will load to Go2Bank. I have not attempted to purchase a MO with a “anywhere” Visa GC.
I tried loading to go2bank card and it didn’t work, what do I need to do? Do I click “debit card transfer?”
Have you set a pin to the “anywhere” Visa GC? You will be asked to enter a Pin#-4 digit Pin at the terminal. I go to the Money Center or where you return merchandise at Walmart to load to the Go2Bank card.
Setting a pin worked thank you so much I really appreciate you!
Great to hear. You can use the website address on the back of the card or call into the toll free number on the back of the card. the website address route is usually faster.
Is this at a person or is there like an automated kiosk to load the go2card.
you load at the Walmart money center with a person.
Can you buy a variable GC with this promo? The ad doesn’t specify. Thanks
Yup!
How to know if any Office Depot store has this promo for VGC? On Wednesday day, I went to a Office Depot store in 98133, they say they don’t run such promotion for MCGC
Never ever heard of a store not participating. That was more likely and uninformed employee.Did you try ringing up the gift cards? Discount should come up automatically
Yeah. I asked the cashier but didn’t really try to check out. I will
Try check out this time
Is this instore only?
Always. I don’t think they sell VGCs online at all.
Office Depot does sell VGCs online but it’s not an official Office Depot purchase (sends you to Gift Card Mall) thus no 5X points on Chase and the $15 off promo does not apply.
[…] Update 5/21/22: Deal is back from 5/22 – 5/28. Hat tip to FM […]
Awesome tip about the offer showing up on the Chase Ink Cash card! A while back, when the offer showed up on personal cards, I checked my ink, but it was not there. Happy even though mine maxes out at $8.
Tim, wouldn’t you say that it is a disservice to the community if you don’t caution individuals about the liquidation issues associated with VGCs? I see the questions on this and other posts. And, I see newbies running into trouble.
Tim I have only done these deals in-store. Remind me, can you get this deal online?
Unfortunately, no. In-store only.
Any ideas on where to cash out (ie Money order) in SE Michigan (we are in Bloomfield Hills)? Trying to help my Mom meet a min spend. Thank you.
Could you explain how it’s $101 of spend after buying 2x $200 VGC?
Sure, I just added a note to make that clearer in the post. If you buy a $100 card and a $200 (to be right at $300 spend), you’ll pay activation fees of $6.95 for the $200 card and $5.95 for the $100 card. So, swap that $100 out for another $200 card, you pay an additonal $1 in activation fees ($6.95 instead of $5.95) + $100 in additional gift card for a total of $101 more.