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Staples.com is currently offering a fee-free $200 virtual Visa Gift Cards. While fee-free Visa Gift Card deals are ordinarily available in-store only, this is a rare opportunity to buy them from Staples without leaving the house. For those with a Staples store nearby, it is worth noting that there is also a separate in-store deal available this week.
The Deal
- Staples.com is offering Visa Virtual $200 Gift Cards for $200 (no activation fee)
- Direct link to this deal
Key Terms
- The landing page indicates that Staples is unable to process orders for gift cards exceeding $1,000, but that seems to apply before the waived activation fee, so the effective limit here is 4 cards
Quick Thoughts
Staples processes their own gift card purchases online rather than sending them through a third party. As noted in the key terms, reports indicate that the system will not allow an order for five cards, but I was able to place an order for four cards without issue. I wouldn’t expect any shopping portals to track the purchase, but I clicked through one nonetheless just in case.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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I got a second order in yesterday, 8/21, but got an email today that delivery would be delayed until 8/25.
Did the order get charged to your card already? Or do you suspect that they’ll charge it to your card without the waived activation fee on 8/25 since they aren’t processing the order until after the sale ends?
I tried a third order right after the above, on 8/22, and the cards came through in a couple of hours.
i have bought $800 wurth 4 days in a row.
Have they all been delivered and charged correctly?
yes
I ordered $800 on 8/17 and received them by email on 8/18 and got 5x on my Ink Cash. Any data points on whether Staples will allow a second order of $800?
I have a newly issued Ink Cash card. Should I be concerned that Chase will think I’m trying to do MS by buying the VGCs to hit the MSR? Should I hold off on getting VGCs until after I’ve met my MSR? What about buying closed loop gift cards? I just want to make sure not to draw any unwanted attention. I’ve been seeing indications that Chase might actually be seeing the line item details of receipts (or will be in the near future), particularly on the Visa network.
Thank you for posting this as an OD guy. Virtual is nice. Very curious to see if they let folks do this per day. Obviously likely to get deal shut down by about day 2/3 if so as that scenario is just too easy.
edit: i now see “effective limit”
is the limit of 4 cards a daily limit or for the whole week?
I think it is per day (or per order) since they refer to some federal regulation as the reason for the $1,000 limitation.
Just in time for World Cup tix sales in September which requires a Visa card. Are these Visa gift cards reloadable? FIFA notes that as a requirement. Visa credit, debit, or reloadable card.
No. They probably run as debit in most cases, but most visa and MasterCard gift cards cannot be used for any sort of foreign purchases, so if FIFA ticketing site shows up as a foreign purchase, they wouldn’t work. I know the World Cup is in the United States, but I don’t know how they handle ticketing.
Ordered last night, still havent received them, anyone in the same boat? Or have success on recent orders?
I ordered this morning and received the cards almost exactly 1 hour later.
As an additional data point for you, I did an order midday yesterday but didn’t receive them until this morning 20 hours later.
Thank you both. Just got them, so took around 14 hours.
Reading the Terms, it seems like if you dont use it after the 13th month, a monthly 4.95 fee is charged. But lets say you have pennies left and dont use it, will they charge the fee and your account be in negative balance, hence going to collections?
Can I use a Staples egift card to pay for these cards?
I have to imagine these are harder to liquidate? Do any grocers accept
wallet for MOs?
I don’t think so. This is more so if you have a use for virtual Visas. For instance, I could see using these for an insurance bill. Or maybe you could buy a Costco shop card with them. Virtual is more limiting than physical in terms of the breadth of use. The advantage here is not needing to leave the house (which is especially helpful for those of us who don’t live near a Staples). This week I am about 100 miles from the closest Staples, so I’m not driving 200 miles round trip for physical cards — the timing for this worked out!
It’s extremely fortuitous for me as well as I’m not even in the country this week.
do these online purchases earn 5x miles with chase ink?
Yes!
Not exactly BREAKING NEWS
it was for me. I don’t have any Staples nearby where I live, so buying online without a fee is an extra chance for me to score more 5x points.
What are your thoughts on doing multiple orders of 4 cards each?
I ordered once yesterday and once today, 4 each both times, no issues. Not sure if it is limited by day or not. I need to pay my sons $6K+ tuition bill soon, so this more than offsets the ~3% fee.
I think it might work or your orders might get cancelled. I guess if you wait until after order #1 gets fulfilled, maybe that would be safest. I don’t know if you face any risk of being shut down from future Staples orders though. I went with one order.
Or you could set up a separate Staples account if you have a P2 (P3, P4, etc.).
Do we know what bin these are?
451129