[Expired] Office Depot/Max: $15 off $300 in Visa Gift Cards

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• Is this promo close again? I need some spend on one of the Amex cards I haven't spent on in awhile. Thanks!

  • Be careful with spend for GCs at OD on Amex cards. Amex receives level 3 data from OD and may claw back or close accounts, etc.......

• Just finished up our run today for this promo. Finally got my wife in the game to help with purchasing and MOs...all 3 of our kids, all under 6, in tow everywhere we went. Finished up with 80 $200 VGC purchases, half of which were Grocery Anywhere, when available. I've never gone "full ham" during a promo before with a partner in crime, so this one was very satisfying.

• I think the best deal for me was $200 Visa Grocery/Dining Everywhere & $100 Visa Movies/Fuel Everywhere. Profit = $6.10 per transaction.

  But then I was able to do 3 transactions today.

  • Better to do 2 $200's. $1 extra fee, yes, but $100 in extra credit card spend and you're getting much better than 1% back in points if you're doing it right.

    • You're right because multiple $100 swipes at WM arouse suspicion.

    • Thanks! My primary cards are Amex & Citi. Not sure how much MS can Citi tolerate.

    • Picked up $1600 Grocery Everywhere today. These will be drained at costco in a month. Contemplating buying another $1600 tomorrow.

      • 2 of the 3 Walmarts near me are anti-MS now. They aren't allowing BlueBird reloads or MOs with GCs that don't have a person's name on them. Cashiers at the third WM are nice.

      • Draining organically at Costco?

• Does anyone know if you can for instance buy a discounted barnes and noble gift card and then go into their store and buy one you want using their own gift card?

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  • Yes there seems to be a slow rollout for selling third party gift cards. I luckily have one store near me that does and also sells the GoC gift cards. I've had to slow down bc the workers are starting to recognize me and ask for ID for anything over $150.

  • I called 3 stores near me, the manager of one store said they don't but some are trying it as a pilot program.

  • I don't think you can. However, if you purchase a happy teen gift card which has barnes and noble as one of the stores listed then you can buy a third party gift card.

    • Met someone at an OD today who was looking for Happy gift cards for something similar. Told him about DoC.

• Is Citi okay with MS via Gift Cards bought from OD?
  I read on Reddit that Citi's okay with online GC purchases, but read DPs on shutdown after GC purchases at stores.

  • Amex rejected my transaction on an HH card, but it went through on another HH card. No fraud alert. Strange!

• Once i get the MO, how to use it other than rent and utilities. Can we deposit the MO in bank account? Someone told me that depositing in bank would be flagged as additional income to IRS? Is that to true ?

  • Please read up on structuring. It's a very serious federal anti-money laundering charge related to money order purchases and deposits. I haven't heard about any manufactured spending folks getting in trouble for this but it's important to be aware of its existence and what the store employees and banks are looking for and reporting on with their SAR's (suspicious activity reports that go to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network).

    • Uh Oh

  • I've not heard that. But even if it were true, MS is not illegal and the worst case scenario is that it does raise suspicion and you get audited, which is only a problem if you are trying to hide something else.

    The main concern I've seen with depositing money orders is that the bank itself might not like it and shut you down. So don't do it at your main bank. I opened a local key bank account for the $200 sign up bonus and left it open for this exact purpose.

• Heres what ive observed regarding buying multiples and what CSRs will/will not let you do it:

  I went to the office depot closest to me and they were only one per customer. This store was very busy and filled with people.

  Then i went to another office depot a few miles from my house and thry let me do multiple. This story had probably one person in it and barely anyone was there

  Conclusion: you will be more likely to buy multiples in emptier stores while busier stores will restrict you.

  • You are reaching a conclusion based on two points of data?

    Was one store facing east, and the other west?

    Did one store have an odd street number, and the other even?

    • Don’t be so snarky. Regardless of whether it fits your criteria of logical the reader was sharing an experience. You’re under no obligation to accept their conclusion, but others might consider it relevant and certainly have the right both to read about the experience and use their own judgment. And whether a store is busy could reasonably affect a cashier’s actions whereas which direction a store faces is irrelevant.

    • Is Steve a Prick?

    • This is something I have also observed at staples stores.

      Immediately dismissing datapoints as wrong is what encourages people to not contribute.

      This is simply what I have observed based on a few stores I have gone to. Everything in this hobby is YMMV.

    • Counter DP -

      The busiest store in my area allows usually up to 4-5 transactions, while less busy stores are typically restricted to 1 per day.

      • YMMV can apply regarding location and policy, and that seems to be the case here. Very common to see differences like this. My nearest Walgreens, for example, will not accept credit cards for ANY gift card purchases. Others have no problems purchasing >$1K/day. That’s why all data points are appreciated - no one is wrong, just relaying what happened to them in their own geographic location.

• No sign in store. Did $200 variable load - worked just fine. Did just 1 set (I use for real spend only) but nice easy way to get some UR points.

• i just did $14K at Simon in the last week. so i'm gonna have to spread out my MO deposits a little. But still: easy enough!

  • did you deposit to your bank?

  • Simon asks me to fill a form with my name license etc for purchases over 500. BS

    • Weird...mine said up to 2.5k no license.

      • it is not weird at all. It all depends on the store's management on how much required a form.
        Mine needs a form for anything over $1K but they happily take phone-in order up to 9.5K from us and have forms in file all filled in for us.

        It amazes me that to this day people can still think every place involved in the process would act the same all over the country.

        For that matter, reporting how the stores behave in one's locale without revealing where it is, is absolutely meaningless because it does not help anyone.

        This thing is extremely localized, even within same city different stores may be less than 2 miles apart would still behave differently, just sayin.

      • Mine was 2k. Need to fill paper work for 2.5k and up to 9.5k a day.

• wow. looks like i was right...

  • Saw your staples comment, you are a prophet, bought 2 set mcgc last week at OD, was going to hit staples, now I only want do OD. Lol