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?
| Sorry, this deal is no longer available. Do you want to be alerted about new deals as they’re published? Click here to subscribe to Frequent Miler's Instant Posts by email. |
Staples is currently selling three of the Happy gift card brands at a 10-15% discount on their website. That’s an OK deal, but the fact that Happy Teen gift cards are included could be of interest if you’re in the market for Gift of College gift cards. That’s because the Happy Teen gift cards could parlay into buying Gift of College cards at a small profit.
The Deal
- Buy $50 Happy Teen gift card for $42.50.
- Buy $50 Happy Dining gift card for $45.
- Buy $50 Happy Lady gift card for $45.
Key Terms
- Limit 3 of each card.
- Expires November 3, 2018 or until sold out.
Quick Thoughts
The discounted Happy Dining gift card isn’t particularly exciting seeing as you can buy restaurant gift cards at a discount easily elsewhere.
The Happy Lady and Happy Teen gift cards have a couple of interesting angles though. Happy Lady gift cards can be used to buy third party gift cards (such as eBay, Amazon, etc.) at Bed Bath & Beyond. Their system accepted the cards without an issue when I tried using them, but the cashier wasn’t keen on allowing Happy Lady cards to be used. She checked with a supervisor who said that it was fine so long as they could be processed as credit (they can). I might have got lucky with that supervisor, so it’d be worth doing a better job than I did with not letting them see what card you’re paying with. (n.b. I’ve also been able to buy 3rd party gift cards at Home Depot using a Happy Guy gift card, but that brand isn’t discounted right now.)
The Happy Teen cards might be of particular interest to anyone wanting to buy Gift of College gift cards. That’s because one of the retailers you can use the card at is Barnes & Noble. A number of Barnes & Noble stores recently started selling Gift of College gift cards, although this doesn’t normally represent a good deal due to the fees.
If B&N stores let you buy Gift of College gift cards with Happy Teen cards – and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t seeing as they process as credit rather gift cards – you can make a small profit. This is an even better deal if you have the Chase Ink Plus or Ink Cash that earn 5x / 5% at Staples, or if you haven’t already maxed out the 10% Staples Amex Offer.
Just to be clear, I haven’t tested this out for myself as I haven’t been near one of their flagship stores that sells Gift of College cards. This is how the deal should work though:
Step 1 – Buy 3x $50 Happy Teen gift card from Staples for $127.50.
Step 2 – Buy 3x $46.05 Gift of College gift card at Barnes & Noble (each card has a $3.95 fee).
You’d make a profit of $10.65 and earn 638 Ultimate Rewards if paying with an Ink card. If paying with an Amex business card that’s enrolled in the Staples Amex Offer, you’d instead make a profit of $23.40 thanks to the $12.75 statement credit.
I’ve no idea if Barnes & Noble allows you to split tender transactions. If they do allow that, you could buy a $144.05 Gift of College card (that higher amount incurs a $5.95 activation fee) and pay with the three cards. That would increase your profit by $5.90.
Like I said, I haven’t tested using Happy Teen cards at Barnes & Noble, but based on my success using Happy Guy and Happy Lady gift cards to buy 3rd party gift cards at Home Depot and Bed Bath & Beyond respectively, it should hopefully work.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Hello, I can confirm the happy teen gift cards will work for purchases of gift of college gift cards at barnes and noble. There is a $5.95 fee with these cards.
That’s awesome, thanks for confirming that!
I bought 3x Happy Teen cards with value $205.95 today at Lowe’s with 3 different Chase cards in 3 different transactions (10% Chase offer on each, up to $12 back). Then I went to B&N and bought 3x GoC cards at the max $200 in 3 different transactions. Despite the odd amount at Lowe’s and the multiple transactions, neither cashier blinked an eye. The B&N card reader asked for a Pin, I just pressed “Enter”, then it asked if it was Credit and I pressed “Enter” again. That was all there was to it. This was at the Cedar Rapids B&N and Lowe’s. Too bad my local B&N in Brookfield, WI, does not carry GoC yet.
Can you stack this with the RMN offer with staples as well?
If you’re going to mention the Amex Offer you should remind people that Amex has been clawing back the credits on this offer in waves, including a planned pass sometime in December. If you use it on multiple cards you MAY see the credits clawed back. Many others (including me) have.
Will all BN stores get GOC cards or only those flagship stores? I checked some BN stores. They don’t carry any giftcards other than BN
At the moment it’s only these flagship stores, so B&N are presumably trialing these GCs in those stores to see if they’re worth rolling out to all their stores.
My wife has used the Happy Lady cards at BB&B to purchase Disney gift cards without any problem. We don’t go out of our way to show the cashier how we’re paying. We just say we’re paying with credit. The receipt shows the transaction as a Visa purchase.
I’ve personally used the Happy Guy cards at Home Depot to buy BP gas gift cards. I was even able to do it at the self checkout so I didn’t have to worry about showing my form of payment to a cashier.
Going to try this with a Happy card that I’ve had for a while.