Update 12/26/20: Staples fee-free Visa Gift Cards return again 12/27/20-1/2/21. Limit of 5 per customer per day again. H/T: GC Galore
Update 12/3/20: Fee-free Visa Gift Cards are back at Staples again next week from December 6-12, 2020. Limit of 5 per customer per day once again.
Update 11/5/20: This deal will run once again from November 8-14, 2020 with the limit of 5 per customer per day holding strong. (H/T: GC Galore). As a reminder, the deal is currently going on this week also as seen below.
Update: Staples will once again be offering fee-free $200 Visa Gift Cards starting Sunday, November 1, 2020 through Saturday, November 7, 2020. The ad states five per customer per day, which seems to be the new limit.
The Deal
- Staples will waive the $6.95 activation fee when you buy a $200 Visa Gift Card from 1/17/21 to 1/23/21
- Direct link to ad (see page 8)
Key Terms
- Limit 5 per customer per day (YMMV on whether your cashier / store follows the ad)
- In-store only
Quick Thoughts
This can be an easy point-generator for Ink Cash or Ink Plus cardholders (note that the Ink Plus is no longer available to new applicants).
In my case, my wife is an AU on my Ink Plus card, so if we were going to a store, we could each pick up 5 fee-free $200 gift cards per store, earning 10K Ultimate Rewards in the process ($2000 in gift cards x 5 = 10,000 points). That would certainly make this an attractive enough deal if we were to pass a store during this promotion.
Overall, this is an easy way to generate some points without cost on this end of the deal if you’re going to Staples. Remember that this does not start until Sunday and it is in-store only.
We have added this deal to our list of current Visa and Mastercard gift card deals.
Other times this deal has run recently at Staples:
Fee-free Visa Gift Cards
- 12/26/20-1/2/21
- 12/6/20-12/12/20
- 11/8/20-11/14/20
- 10/18/20-10/24/20
- 10/11/20-10/17/20
- 8/30/20-9/5/20
- 8/2/20-8/8/20
- 7/5/20 – 7/11/20
- 6/7/20 – 6/13/20
- 2/23/20 – 2/29/20
- 1/12/20-1/19/20
- 12/15/19-12/21/19
- 11/3/19 – 11/16/19
- 9/28/19-10/5/19
- 9/1/19 = 9/7/19
- 8/4/19 – 8/10/19
- 6/30/19-7/6/19
- 5/5/19-5/11/19
- 1/13/19 – 1/19/19
- 11/11/18-11/17/18
Fee-free Mastercard Gift Cards
- 10/25/20-10/31/20
- 7/19/20 – 7/25/20
- 3/22/20 – 3/28/20
- 1/22/20 (online-only $100 cards)
- 12/1/19-12/7/19
- 10/20/19-10/26/19
- 7/21/19-7/27/19
- 4/21/19-4/27/19
- 3/24/19-3/30/19
H/T: Doctor of Credit