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?
Last night I passed along a report from the blog Travel with Grant saying that $500 gift cards are back at Office Depot. He found $500 Visa gift cards at a local Office Depot and was able to buy one with a credit card. Since then, blogger Travel-Summary found the same thing, but readers have had mixed success. Most people have found empty gift card racks. Some people who found cards were supposedly told “cash only”. And, a FlyerTalk thread was started in which someone reported being told that Office Depot would soon only accept cash for gift cards. Based on past experiences, I expect that this will be a store by store decision.
For reference, here are the blog posts that I mentioned above:
- Travel with Grant’s post: $500 Visa Gift Cards are Back at Office Depot!
- Travel Summary’s post: I Can Confirm that $500 Visa GCs Have Returned to Office Depot
- My post: $500 Visa gift cards return to Office Depot!
PINs
The cards found by Grant and Travel Summary can be used in places that require debit cards with PINs (see “Gift card PINs“). With Vanilla Visa gift cards, you don’t even have to set the PIN ahead of time. The first time you are asked for a PIN, simply give four numbers (any four numbers) and that will be the PIN.
Coming Monday?
Today, I visited two local Office Depot stores, but neither had the $500 cards on display. At the second store, I asked the manager. He told me that they were expecting a new display to be setup on Monday, July 8th. He specifically said that he thought there would be “those cards that can be loaded between $25 and $500”. That sounded like good news to me. It’s possible that the few people who have had luck were at stores that put out the new displays too early.
If you were planning to rush out to your local Office Depot stores, I’d now recommend waiting until Monday. Instead, enjoy the July 4th holiday weekend.
As to the reports about Office Depot going cash-only – we’ll just have to wait and see. I will be very surprised if that is a new nation-wide policy.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
bf: I’m sure you’re right, but I really hope you’re wrong!
I was at OD today and saw the actual corporate email to stores, which said that all variable load Visa GCs, prepaid GCs, and Vanilla Reload cards will go on sale on Monday, July 8, and will be programmed on the cash register screens as “cash only.” With step by step instructions so cashiers know how to ring up sales. Too bad, it’s now basically useless.
PDX
same here, bought $2000 visa gift card from OD
What towns have people had success in?
Anon: That’s great news!
Bought $2000 worth of $500 prepaid visa and prepaid amex at OD today. No problem with credit card, though their systems finally got back online but the cashier has to swipe.
I’m pretty sure these are gonna be cash only…which will will make them a useless product for them to stock.
@mileshunter – From what I’ve been told OM does not make/lose money by carrying the Visa GCs in their stores. It’s a 3rd party that comes and stocks them, and they pay OM for the privilege to sell them in their stores.
Confirmed $500 visa, vanilla visa reload starter cards as well as the classic vanilla reloads at OD. However both locations I went to said you could only pay with cash.
At my local DFW area OD they also had just put out Vanilla One Visas and Vanilla Reloads — unfortunately neither of them went through when trying to purchase at the register on 7/3 and again today, 7/5. Maybe they return on Monday too?
Which gift card can I buy that I would be able to get a pin on it, to use as a debit card to go to walmart and reload my bluebird? Is Vanilla Visa the one with a pin? What do I look for when purchasing them?
@Grant… ha ha ain’t that the truth. We’re all just some squirrels trying to get a nut.
I keep holding out hope that this is really just a rumor and until we see something “official” from OD I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Maybe we can at least get lucky and it will be a CVS situation where it is store to store on who actually applies the rules.
OD in Manhattan Bch was just stocking them this afternoon, July 3. No issue buying with Ink. I hadn’t heard about the ‘cash only Monday’ rumor yet, or I would have asked. I can’t understand why they would apply such a rule to one gift card product and not others…and I can’t imagine they would apply this to all cards. Hope it remains at discretion of each store….like CVS.
@Gary, this sums up the current situation: http://travelwithgrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Tom-Jerry-OD.png
@Grant, no offense but I sure hope you’re wrong 🙂
@DJ, that’s what the store manager told me. Cash only starting Monday.