Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Starting today and scheduled to end on Saturday, June 10th, 2017, Office Max and Office Depot will be offering a $10 instant rebate on Visa Gift Card purchases of $300 or more. That’s not as good as past promotions and will not completely eliminate the activation fees, but you can still come out ahead of using a card that earns a good category bonus.
The Offer
- $10 instant rebate on $300 or more in Visa Gift Cards
Key Details
- One instant rebate per transaction
- One transaction limit
- Valid in-store only
- Expires Saturday, June 10th, 2017
The Math
This deal is best maximized by paying with a card that earns 5x/5% at office supply stores (which remember includes the BBVA NBA card as the NBA Finals are on). To maximize rewards and minimize activation fees as a percentage of cost, you would want to buy two $200 Visa Gift cards. Alternatively, you could buy one $100 gift card and one $200 gift card (or any other combination to reach $300 in gift cards), but activation fees will cumulatively make up a higher percentage of your purchase price. In other words, your “cost” will be the same, so you might as well earn some more rewards at 5X/5%.
$413.90 (2x $200 Visa Gift Card + activation)
-$10.00
$403.90 + 2019.5 Ultimate Rewards OR $20.20 cash back
These Visa gift cards should be PIN-enabled, with the PIN being the last four digits of the card. For more information on these cards, see our Beginner’s Guide to Buying & Liquidating Visa and Mastercard Gift Cards.
The lower instant rebate (past instant rebates have been $15 or $20) is disappointing. However, I’m hopeful that this is a move to avoid pulling the promotion early. I’d rather see negative-cost gift cards, but this is better than paying the full fees and remains a useful sale for some. The official terms state that the limit is one rebate per customer, but YMMV on a cashier allowing more than one.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
FYI I was able to buy Style Everywhere cards with only the $4.95 fee and basically break even after buying MO at Wally World.
Thanks for pointing this out, because I was able to do this, too! 🙂
[…] even a Visa, Mastercard, or American Express gift card. In fact, you could take advantage of this deal at Office Max / Office Depot to get the $200 gift card nearly fee-free (if you buy a total of $300 […]
Valid in-store only, according to Doctor of Credit. Also worth noting that some Office Depots don’t allow gift card purchases using credit cards.
True about it being valid in-store only. That’s the case for all of the Visa/Mastercard rebates (instant or mail-in) at Office Max/Office Depot/Staples/Grocery stores these days. Updated to include that.
Also true that I’ve read about some Office Depots not allowing gift card purchases using credit cards — but from what I’ve read, that seems pretty isolated at this point (mostly in high-fraud areas).