Staples: No Purchase Fee When You Buy a $200 Visa Gift Card
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Staples regularly offers sales on Visa gift cards, where the activation fee is waived and has a current live offer now. For a $200 Visa gift card, the activation is typically $6.95. Paying this activation fee wipes out some of the 5X points/miles or cashback benefits earned, but if the activation fee is waived, then that is not a concern.
You can use Visa gift cards for a wide variety of purchases, making it possible to earn 5X points or 5% cashback on nearly anything if your credit card gives you that bonus for purchases at office supply stores (read more below about how to get 5% cash back below if using a credit card for this offer). Personally, I like to use these when shopping at small businesses or boutique stores that do not often fall into special bonus categories where I can earn more points.
Staples is running a fee-free sale on the $200 Visa gift cards from September 25, 2022, through October 1, 2022. There is a limit of eight gift cards per customer per day, and the deal is only valid in-store; online gift cards are excluded from this deal.
Maximize Gift Cards by Earning Cashback
If your local Staples does not run out of gift cards throughout the week, it is even possible to earn 56K points throughout the week ($200 x 8 cards per day x 7 days x 5 points per dollar).
If you are only earning one point per dollar on your credit card rewards and looking to earn more points to apply towards cashback or travel, it’s worth looking into more lucrative credit card options.
Applying for a new credit card often allows you to earn 10-20X points or more through the sign-up bonus, where you can earn tens of thousands of bonus points for putting a few thousand dollars on the card in the first few months after opening the card. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® currently offers 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months after opening the card; that equates to 15X points per dollar!
Learn More >>> Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Review: 60,000 Points, $50 Hotel Credit and More
Sometimes, it is even possible to earn 5X points/miles or 5% cashback without a sign-up bonus. For example, the Chase Ink Business Cash® offers 5% cashback on internet, cable, and phone services, and at office supply stores.
While the Chase Ink Business Cash card’s special earnings categories appear to only cover a small number of potential purchases, the key is the 5% cashback on office supply store purchases. These purchases include gift card purchases at stores like Staples and Office Depot.
If you need to make purchases through other brands or retailers that have cards sold through Staples, you can stop by a Staples or Office Depot in person to purchase these gift cards using your Chase Ink Business Cash card, and have then effectively earned 5% cashback on the purchases you make with the gift cards.
Chase Ink Business Cash cashback is tracked as points ($1 = 100 points). If you choose to take the points over getting cashback from the Chase Ink Business Cash and combine them with a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Chase Ink Business Preferred® card’s points, then all of the combined points can be used for travel redemptions through Chase Ultimate Rewards® or transferred to different airline and hotel partners. many points experts value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.25 to 1.5 cents per point, depending on the credit card you have. That means that 56K points would be valued at least at $700.
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