Visa gift cards are a great way to meet minimum spend and load Bluebird cards (among many other uses). The biggest problem with them is the fee that comes with the card – a $5.95 – $6.95 fee on each card you purchase. The cards themselves come in many denomination amounts up to $200 (at office supply stores).
$20 Visa Card With Purchase of $300 Visa Cards
The reason it is important to buy these cards at office supply stores is that you can earn 5x Ultimate Reward points per dollar spent when you use your Chase Ink Bold or Chase Ink Plus card. So, for every $100 in purchases, you will earn 500 Ultimate Reward points.
Going on now through this coming Saturday (the 21st), Staples has an offer where you will receive a $20 Visa gift card for purchasing $300 (or more) in Visa gift cards. This purchase must take place in store and can be made up of a variety of denomination cards to reach the minimum of $300. In my case, the Staples I purchased from only had one $200 Visa gift card on the shelf (a growing problem at Staples) so I picked up one $200 and one $100 for a total of $312.90 (after the fees).
The receipt printed out with the rebate offer and receipt for the $20 gift card offer. I logged on to Staples Easy Rebate website and entered the rebate offer and receipt number and I was all set! The validation process is ongoing and I will receive the Visa gift card in a few weeks.
While it is great to get “free” money, this offer was not really about making money but about wiping out the fees paid for the gift cards. In this instance, I earned 1,564 Ultimate Reward points and will net $7 in profit from the extra gift card. Not bad!
Notes:
This offer is not available on-line. Some people have mentioned that they cannot find $200 gift cards. It is okay to use the $100 gift cards but your profit margin will be less (only $3). You will still be able to essentially wipe out the fees through this offer.
If the offer does not print right away, ask the cashier about it. One of my offers did not print out right away and she had to wait a moment for it to come. It does run through the end of this week, so as long as you have a minimum of $300 in Visa prepaid cards, you will receive the offer.
HT: Dans Deals
Your staples allows Visa Gift Cards to be purchased via CC? These are only the set limit ones?
Yes, all the Staples I have bought from allow cc purchases. These are the fixed amount cards.
Yeah I stopped by last night but my Staples was out of $200 cards 🙁
I’m going to try one more Staples tonight and then decide if I want to wait for $200 ones or just buy 3 $100 ones.
I’ve learned to go to Staples on the first or second day of the deal and ask for the $200 cards if none are on the rack – they’ve had them every time I’ve asked. I tend to buy 3 x $200 for this type of deal and ultimately “pay” 85 cents for about 3100 points/miles.
Can you get more than 1 rebate or does that site restrict it to one address?
“I picked up one $200 and one $300 for a total of $312.90”
1 $200 & 1 $100?
Thanks for catching it 😉
How do you know it’s in store only? Maybe you are right, just asking. You can go on-line and see the deal advertised in their weekly deals. Just put “Visa” in search box. The deal is spelled out there. I don’t see anywhere in writing that it’s restricted to in store only. I bought $400 on line so we’ll just wait and see but maybe you know something more specific. Are their terms I missed?
That is what the terms said on the rebate form. I know, terms do not always apply :), but I did want to put that there so people would buy online and be confused if they did not get it. I think the difference may be that you might not receive a rebate ticket.