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. |
Update [11/11]: We have confirmed that multiple cards in a single transaction all ring up without activation fee. Terms state one per customer, but YMMV on enforcement.
Staples will be offering fee-free $200 Visa Gift Cards from Sunday, 11/11 through Saturday, 11/17. That’s a nice deal for an easy 5x for those with a card that earns one of the best category bonuses at office supply stores.
The Deal
- Staples will offer fee-free $200 Visa GIft Cards from Sunday, 11/11/18 through Saturday, 11/17/18
- Direct link to the weekly ad (see page 7)
Key Terms
- In-store only
- Limit 1 per customer. [YMMV on enforcement]
Quick Thoughts
This is a great deal for generating some easy Ultimate Rewards points. Staples Visa Gift Cards come PIN-enabled (typically the last 4 digits of the card) and are pretty easy to liquidate if you live in an area with easy liquidation. Even if not, it’s a great way to get 5x on future purchases if you’ll use the VGC for regular purchases.
You’ll earn 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points with each card assuming you use a card like the Chase Ink Cash card, which earns 5x at office supply stores on the first $25,000 in purchases per year. If you were to move those points to a Chase Sapphire Reserve account and use them to book travel through the Chase portal, they would be worth $15. Transferred to partners, they can be worth much more.
On the most recent round of this promotion, I had no problem buying more than one at all of the stores where I purchased, but YMMV as the promo terms state one per customer. If you are able to buy more than one and/or you have more than one customer playing along in your household, it could be pretty easy to rack up some nice rewards on this 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.
[…] may be available or just head to your store on Sunday (or head there today to take advantage of the fee-free Visa Gift Card promo and scope out what you can buy next […]
I just got the ink cash. Would it be okay to use it for the minimum spend?
does it have to be a Ink card to get the 5x? when purchasing the Visa cards at Staples?
It has to be a card that earns 5x at office supply stores in order to earn 5X. That would be an ink cash card or an Ink Plus card, though the Ink Plus hasn’t been available for applications for quite some time now.
The Amex simplycash card also earns 5% back at office supply stores.
Thank you, Nick. Hopefully my Staples won’t run out of these within 2 hours again. I always have better success with the Office Depot deals.
Hopefully your Staples isn’t my Staples :-). I’ll try to remember to leave a few for you :-D.
Much obliged.I did get two of the last three.
Last time they ran this (around August I think) my local Staples did not enforce the limit, and it wasn’t coded into the register. YMMV
Can you still these liquidate on Plastiq? The terms state you still can use VISA gift cards, but I tried a couple of weeks ago when Office Depot had the VISA sale and the payments were rejected by the issuer. Was making payments to Toyota Financial and have done it plenty of times before with these VISA gift cards, just wondering what success other people have had.
Love this! 🙂 Thx Nick!
Do you see any complication in buying this gift card for meeting minimum spending? Would this be “coded” as gift cards and thus not count toward minimum spending? Thanks.
Don’t do it on AMEX!
Why do you say that???
Staples gives level 3 data on credit card transactions. Credit card companies can see exactly what you’re buying. AmEx has denied bonuses for VGC purchases when trying to meet minimum spend.