Update 2/2/19: Available again, hat tip to Frequent Miler.
The Offer
Direct link to offer (our affiliate link)
- Staples is selling $100 Mastercard gift cards with no activation fee (normal $6.95)
The Fine Print
- Valid until 1/26/19
Our Verdict
Doesn’t seem to be any limit There is a limit of 10, anything above this won’t receive the $6.95 per card discount. Not as good as the in store deals for the $200 cards, but those have a limit of 1 and usually go out of stock quickly. We have also seen this deal before. Make sure to use a card that earns at a high rate at office supply stores, there is also an amex offer and a chase offer. Also remember that people have reported activation/fraud issues in the past as well.
Hat tip to reader Yev B
All right. Just checking my reading comprehension here. Even though my cards arrived with instructions saying “activate your gift card today!” with activation codes and corresponding last 4 digits of cards ON THE SAME piece of paper the cards are glued to, does that mean I should still wait for activation letters to arrive in the mail?
I did try activating all cards in an order at once by calling 877-426-2551 and providing the Staples order number. But that didn’t work.
And if I want to use them online I need to register 3 per IP?
Apparently you can only register three cards at a time with a name and zip code before it blocks your IP and forces you to release and renew your router. You can register as many cards on giftcardkey.com as you want but this seriously hurts my unloading on Plastiq because I have to tether to my phone to get it to work.
Thanks for the tip, that was exactly it. I was able to activate 4 from my home connection and another 6 from my work connection. Not sure why home connection cut me off at 4 cards. Seems pretty inconsistent. Good to know what the issue is though. The site blocks your IP. I guess the “smart” programmers that they had think “no, there is no way someone is going to buy 10 of these, right? Like never going to happen. Must be a hacker trying to steal card numbers”.
So far I have pretty positive experience with these. I ordered and got 10 cards (during the first deal, January 2019). It did take a while for them to process and ship the order. It did take another week or so to get a separate sheet with activation codes. I went to the activation web site on the sheet and successfully activated and registered 3 of the cards and used them to pay my utility bills (which was the plan, as those bills don’t earn extra points via Chase Ink Plus). No issues so far.
The registration/check your balance site is a bit flaky. The “balance check” menu disappears sometimes and you have to login all over again to see that. Also on the Register page you have to click the “Edit” button to enter your info (that’s bad design, it should’ve been in the Edit mode by default until you enter your registration info for the first time). Aside from that it worked fine.
I’m planning to use these to pay some more bills that don’t normally earn extra points (e.g. medical bills, etc.).
@William Charles – thanks for posting, got 5x via Chase Ink Plus, and so far no issues for me. Hope my good luck continues.
So to amend this… Yes, you can only register so many cards from the same IP address before the registration site kicks you out. The exact number seems variable. I was able to register 4 cards from my home PC and had to register 6 more cards from my work PC. Not sure why 4 on one and 6 on the other. I also have a VPN and mine and my wife’s phone, so I guess I could’ve registered more cards if needed. A bit of a PITA, but still worked OK overall. Thanks to calwatch for the tip about IP addresses.
Bought 4X100 on Feb.3, posted today with Feb. 7 as the transaction date. Missed the deadline of my chase staple offer Feb.6. Damn.
Waited too long, but hoping for the $200s to come back!
Jesus, anyone able to register them after activating? I activate 2 by phone and 3 online but got declined trying to purchase something online. I then tried to register by it just loops saying “try again”
I’ve had problems activating them online. It seems like it activates but it won’t let you register the card for online purchases. Guess I’ll have to call.
Figured out that apparently my IP address was blocked after releasing and renewing my router.
I also appear to have an IP block at the moment. I was able to register 7, but then when I got to about the 8th one, I got the error message. Registering via another internet connection was fine. Even now, days later, it seems as if the IP block is still in place. So definitely don’t attempt to register all ten in one sitting. I don’t know what the threshold is, but like I said, I was able to get through about 7 of them.
Now, does anyone know how to get a new IP with Verizon FiOS. Is it enough to release / renew on my router or will I just be provided the same IP on a renew?
You can try that, and if you get the same IP, then try turning off / disconnecting your router overnight. DHCP assigned IP addresses have “lease time” or whatever it is, often less than 24 hours.
so glad I passed on this deal
I activated and registered three last night without any issues. I was actually going to be more today, but unfortunately the deal is over.
Correction to my statement – as someone else figured out, you can only register so many cards on the same IP address. I had to split up my registration between work and home.
Yes it’s dead. The fine print in the Special Buy from yesterday said expired 2/2 or when supplies run out.
Dead again?
When I clicked the link last night around 11:30 pm EST it was showing $106.95. I just tried again this morning and still seeing $106.95. I cleared my cookies as well so it looks like this deal is now dead.
Showing $106.95 for me
Same for me just now.