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A week ago I revealed an exciting new way to maximize point earnings. By signing up for an American Express Prepaid card and using a Chase Ink credit card to buy reload cards at Office Depot, you can essentially earn 5 points per dollar for all purchases, and without needing to juggle multiple gift cards. To learn the basics of how this works, please see the original post for more information: “One card to rule them all”. If you have further questions, please see the American Express FAQ.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been almost giddy when making purchases. Buying groceries: 5X! Buying gas: 5X! Buying dinner: 5X! Buying Daily Getaways: 10% off and 5X!
So, now that we’ve had a bit of experience using the cards, what have we learned?
Availability
In the FAQ mentioned above, Amex states that the temporary cards are not available in Arkansas, New Jersey, or Vermont; and that the permanent cards are not available in Arkansas or Vermont. That implies, to me, that NJ residents can order the permanent card online. However, I believe that you will have to go out of state to find reload cards to buy at Office Depot.
In addition to the stated availability limitations, a few readers have reported being unable to find these cards at their local Office Depot stores. While most stores do sell them, it seems that some do not.
Buy with credit card
This scheme opportunity relies on being able to buy reload cards at Office Depot using your Ink credit card. A few people have reported that their local Office Depot did not allow them to use their credit card for these purchases. In at least one of those cases, the Office Depot manager claimed that you couldn’t use credit cards to buy any gift cards. Let me assure you that if that is a rule, it is specific to certain stores and not at all what most people have found to be true. In fact, most readers have reported success in using their credit card to buy reload cards.
Criminal Feelings
A few people have reported that while they were allowed to use their credit cards, the Office Depot personnel made them feel like criminals when purchasing the cards. I think this comes from the fact that some criminals do buy gift cards and prepaid cards as a way to launder money or to cash out stolen credit cards. Just remember that there is nothing illegal with what we are trying to do. And, if you can, try shopping at a different Office Depot. My local store has been very pleasant to me for all of my purchases.
Link, Like, Love: Not!
A reader who goes by Kadence reported that you cannot link these Amex Prepaid cards to Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare for additional Amex savings. Rats! The Terms & Conditions for all three promotions state: “certain cards are not deemed Eligible Cards, including Prepaid Cards”. You can see the full T&C here: https://sync.americanexpress.com/facebook/Terms.aspx
International Use
I called Amex and they confirmed that there are no foreign transaction fees with these cards! Further, you can use these cards at international ATMs. I asked about Paris, specifically, and was given a large list of banks where the card would work for ATM withdrawals. I’m not organized enough to actually carry around a list like that (plus I didn’t write them down), but when I’m in France I’ll give it a shot at an ATM or two. As always, you may be charged a fee by the owner of the ATM, and Amex will charge you $2 per withdrawal after the first withdrawal each month.
Tracking Balance and Expenditures
A reader asked if tools like Mint.com would work for tracking expenditures on these cards. I was sure that the answer would be no, but I gave it a try anyway. Amazingly, it worked! Just add a card of type “American Express Gift Card” and then you can use Mint.com to track your expenses and your balance. Very nice!
Unfortunately, I tried the same thing without luck with two other apps: Neither GoWallet nor Expensify knew how to handle these cards.
Read My Lips: No Taxes
A few people have been charged sales tax when buying prepaid cards and reload cards. You should not have to pay sales tax. If you are charged tax, I’d recommend against completing the purchase. Sales tax will essentially wipe out the 5X gains.
Debit Cards: Not
People keep asking if these cards can be used as debit cards. The answer is simple: No. When using these cards you need to identify them as credit cards. If you want to earn miles with debit purchases, take a look at the SunTrust debit card recently described by the Frugal Travel Guy.
Other Vendors
I received a number of questions about whether the reload cards could be purchased at Staples or OfficeMax. Currently, the answer is “no”. Hopefully they’ll appear in more locations soon. It’s also my understanding that we are likely to see more reloadable prepaid cards on the market soon to compete with the Amex cards. Please let me know the second you see one!
Other Options
If you don’t mind using non-reloadable cards, there are plenty of great alternatives: Buy $500 Visa cards at Office Depot (5X); Buy $200 Visa cards at Staples or OfficeMax (5X); Buy $100 Visa cards at Staples.com after clicking through the Ultimate Rewards Mall (10X). With all of these options, the card fees reduce the true “X” a bit. To see more about these options, including the “true X”, see: “What’s my X?”
Let me know
Whether you’ve been successful or unsuccessful in buying reload cards, please let me know. Also, if you’ve found any creative ways to use these cards, I definitely want to hear that!
Related Posts:
- One card to rule them all
- What’s my X?
- Almost too good to be true
- How to sign up for the Ink Bold
- Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself)
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Office Depot will only do cash reloads here in Central Mass for any AE prepaid.
looks like mint.com is no longer updating Amex Prepaid balance/transactions. Can anyone confirm? Any ideas/fixes etc?
Matt: The extra points should be on your next monthly statement
Purchased the AE Reload from an Office Depot (with Ink Bold) here in Houston with no problems. Points immediately reflected the purchase but not the bonus. How long should I wait to see the bonus?
Many thanks!
Same problem here with OD in Hawaii. So, how is OM treating those VISA prepaid card purchases, can you buy it with CC or you have to use cash? Could that be possible alternative?
So I finally jumped in on this one last weekend after receiving my card from Amex via mail. My first stop to Office Depot (Eisenhower in A2) was interesting enough – I found the vanilla reload rack almost completely empty, although luckily there was another small batch of them sitting adjacent to the cash register. I picked one up and passed it to the cashier and ask to load $500 onto the card, simultaneously pulling out my Ink card and setting it down in front of her. She gives me a very long look and then asks for my ID. Not thinking much of it, I give her my license. She walks away and gets a manager and brings him to the cash register. She points out my credit card to him and said she had another guy that came in last night and bought 14 of the reload cards, and was using the exact same credit card. He quietly spoke a few words to the cashier and she proceeding to ring up the sale. It seems that some managers and employees have noticed the correlation between the reload cards and the Ink or perhaps a company memo has been issued to management. My guess is that this item will become a cash-only purchase in the very near future.
Erik: That’s scary. I’ve heard similar stories from others. I think they have a rule to call in these purchases to help prevent fraud.
can someone tell me how people living outside the us can work this(will be visiting so can pick up in shops),but are there issues with loading from overseas credit card>
can it be loaded via paypal??
Adamu: i think you will n need a US address to do this. I don’t think there’s a PayPal option
Just wanted to mention that there is a limit on the re-load amount at $2,500 per month so be careful. I just bought and tried to reload $500 on my prepaid permanent amex card but it would not accept the transaction although I had just 300 left in the card. After several back and forth calls with Vanilla reload cust svc and amex they figured out that i was over the $2,500 monthly limit so have to wait until mid June to start adding funds to the prepaid card…what a bummer…Plus when I was at my local Office Depot they dad to call in the transaction to marstracrd 800 nr as their corporate had instructed them to do so with the prepaid reloadable cards (my transaction/purchase had already been completed and authorized by Chase when they made the call to MC?!?!?!). Strange, don’t understand the reason but hopefully just a security precaution on their side that won’t affect the points earned with the transaction.
Can you use the AX Prepaid Card at the gas station without going inside the station…by paying at the pump?
David: Yes. Gas stations put a temporary hold of $75 or so on the card before allowing you to pump gas. As long as you have a large enough balance on your prepaid amex it should work fine (I’ve done it).
I just loaded up an American Express Prepaid card with Vanilla reloads from Office Depot and made two purchases I had been planning. When I went to the American Express page to see the transaction history, I noticed it included two charges in ADDITION to my purchases for $1 labeled: Purchase (AXP) w/ Bal Return & AVS
Anyone else seeing this?
chuck & moro: Thanks for the tips!
Ian: Glad it helps
Jack: I’m not aware of other stores, sorry
Michael: Those $1 fees are temporary holds to check the validity of your card, they will be reversed out after a few days.
#44 post: I confirmed that OfficeMax still selling Visa gift card. But All the Office Depot store in Hawaii don’t sell Vallina reload anymore. When I asked for OD manger to explain the reason he referred me to a person in store who in charge of Gift Cards and she just simply saying that OD don’t carry it anymore. Is there any other store allow buying Vanilla reload cards with CC? Even I don’t get 5x but still a great deal to earn 1x and get cash instead of using regular bank ATM when you need cash.
thanks for the tip on mint.com, that is fantastic!
@chuck: Get the executive membership at Costco and get an additional 2% back — Yield of 6.25 if you pay with your AMEX PP/Vanilla reload/Office Depot/Chase Ink card(s).
remember: Chase Ink cards (at least the Classic and Bold) give you 5X points on Mobile phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services as well. That makes them great cards in the first place. The OD/AMEX PP loophole makes them fantastic.
Here is an interesting thought. Costco only takes AX cards. Their co-branded AX card gives 1% cash back on all Costco purchases. As far I have seen all other Ax cards will receive only .25% cast back per Costco’s website. If Costco will accept the AX Prepaid card, I will be getting 4.25% back!