As long as 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. I first learned on Miles to Memories that we have another deal going on this week, through 12/26 (Saturday)
Solve the Mad Lib
Save _____ (amount) when you buy _______ (purchase amount) in _______ (type) Gift Cards at _______. Refund will be given as ___________
This time, the Mad Lib answers are:
1) $20
2) $300
3) Visa
4) Office Max (note, even though Office Max and Office Depot have merged and are now one company, this is NOT working at Office Depot – just Office Max stores)
5) instant rebate
In case you didn’t follow along, if you buy $300 in Visa gift cards this week at Office Max, you’ll get $20 off your order. I did not see it in the weekly ad, but there is signage in-store
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). Note that this appears to ONLY be at Office Max (not Office Depot), which is annoying, since the 2 stores that are closest to me are both Office Depots, and the Office Maxes in Cincinnati are further away.
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
There’s a limit of 2 per customer, and my experience has been if you buy 3 $200 Visa cards (if you can FIND them!), you’ll spend $580.85 (after 2 $20 instant rebates), but then receive:
- $600 back on the actual card
- 2904 Chase Ultimate Rewards
Definitely worth a stop to Office Max this week!! Â Good luck finding any of the $200 cards left!
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Problem is finding an Office Max that actually has any of these cards. There’s a half dozen OM location in Richmond, VA metro area (hour from me), and they never seem to have any in stock. I’d make the trip (and do other stuff while there), but what a hassle to find out which location has any.
My Office Max has plenty of these cards but they won’t allow me to purchase these with a credit card. Only cash. Yours will?
I’ve heard that there are problems buying variable load cards with a CC but I’ve never had a problem buying $100 or $200 cards with cards. Have you tried other OM stores?
I tried buying 2 $300 cards. The offer was for two transactions so I got two of the $5-$500 cards and made them for $300 each. They made it pretty clear that none of the visa or amex cards could be purchased on credit but that mastercards could.
The manager at my OM told me that the variable price gift cards can only be purchased w/ cash. The fixed price gift cards can be purchased w/ credit. If out, ask them to look in their hold area. The manager opened it up and there were lots of $200 cards there.
I went back today and was able to get $300 by using a $100 and $200 gift card with no problem using my credit card. I guess you know more than the emloyees.