The best kind of free money Mad Lib at OfficeMax! Through December 24th

As long as some of the office supply stores keep giving away free money, I will share the news here! And until someone gives me a better one, I will continue to use the Mad Lib construct to announce them.

Solve the Mad Lib

Save _____ (amount) when you buy _______ (purchase amount) in _______ (type) Gift Cards at _______. Refund will be given in ___________

This time, the Mad Lib answers are:

1) $15

2) $300

3) Visa

4) Office Max and Office Depot.  While previous deals were only at Office Max, the reports that I’m seeing are that now that the 2 are one company with one POS

5) Instant Rebate

To follow along, if you buy $300 in Visa gift cards this week at Office Depot / Office Max, you’ll get $15 off instantly at the rebate.  It was not in the weekly ad, but was first reported by Miles to Memories

Maximizing the Office Max free money deal

This is the best kind of these deals since the money comes off as an instant rebate, so in theory, you can scale it infinitely.  In practice, the stores quickly run out of $200 gift cards (if they ever have them).

Definitely I would recommend using a Chase Ink or other card that gives 5x points on office supply stores. I love the Chase Inks for exactly this reason.

I never know what to do when I show up at the store and they are (inevitably) out of the $200 Visa gift cards. Do I just buy the $100 cards, even though the deal isn’t as lucrative, or do I try stopping back later at another store. I even wrote a poll about this (how much your time is worth) awhile back, and the consensus seemed to be to just buy the $100 cards in the store that you’re in, and not go back.

Doing the math

According to the comments in this Doctor of Credit post, there’s a limit of 1 per customer which seems to be enforced. So if you buy 2 $200 Visa cards (if you can FIND them!), you’ll spend $398.90 (after an $15 instant rebates), but then receive:

• $400 back on the actual cards
• 1994 Chase Ultimate Rewards

If you still have the Amex Offer for Office Depot / Office Max on any of your American Express cards, you should be able to split tender.  For recent deals at Office Depot, the stores have been actually CALLING in my credit card authorizations which makes things take forever (which is irritating)

Definitely worth a stop to Office Max this week!!  Good luck finding any of the $200 cards left!

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