The Offer
- Receive $15 off when you purchase $300 or more of Visa gift cards from 11/20/2016 until 11/26/2016 from Office Depot or OfficeMax in store only.
The Fine Print
- Offer valid in store only 11/20/16 – 11/26/16.
- Limit one (1) offer per customer.
- Discount applied at register.
- The Visa® Gift Card is issued by MetaBank®, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. MetaBank; Member FDIC.
- Offer valid in store only.
Our Verdict
Not as good as previous deals that were a limit of two instead of just one, but still a profitable way to generate spend on your cards. They usually carry both $100 and $200 Visa gift cards. Make sure you use a credit card that earns at a high rate on office supply purchases.
Hat tip to readers @telewatcr, @admlvy, @Particlemn
Datapoint. Limit one is enforced
Is someone gonna be the guinea pig and try to buy 1200$ and see if they get $60 back?
Lol, I’d be shocked if that worked, since that didn’t even work the last time they ran this deal when the limit was advertised as 2. But who knows, maybe a glitch in the system as they switch over to the new limit?
How is the limit enforced?
The system simply doesn’t ring out with more than 2 or 1 credits attached in a single transaction.
You’re right that there isn’t much stopping you from doing another transaction, but then you’re paying purchase fees from scratch from the beginning, and you can’t use the “wasted” spend from the last transaction.
Also bear in mind that in some branches, the cashiers enforce the limit and only let you so one VGC transaction per day.
But you’re right that if you are able to keep doing new transactions, that is still free UR even if the $ profit isn’t there like last time. Still a good deal however many times you can do it.
As long as I have travel charges waiting for redemption on my BOA TR, this is worth considering. Would probably take my authorized user with me to maximize.
I like that it’s taken right off the top. No rebate to wait for.
Funny, though.
Staples, this past week.
OD, next week starting 20Nov.
BB&B close behind.
Thanks for the info!
Look for the 5back VGCc cards at OD next week so you you can use them to pay for hte BBB GCs the following week and earn an additional 5 back on the BBB purchase when done with the 5back cards.
Wow, that’s a genius idea! I was going to cash out the FiveBack cards at CVS by buying OVs but this is a far greater idea since I was going to do the BBB deal anyways and no credit card offers a bonus category at BBB.
The only question is- will VGCs of this sort work with eBates In-Store Cashback? Or do you need to use an actual CC in order for eBates In-Store Cashback to work?
Oh man, the difference between limit 1 and limit 2 is so much greater than it seems- it’s way worse than just half as good. The reason is that $300 is not a multiple of $200, whereas $600 is. This means that you have to “waste” spend, i.e. spend $400 when you only need to spend $300. Another way of putting it is- this new way, you have to fork out two purchase fees to get one credit; the old way, you could spend 3 purchase fees and get 2 credits. MASSIVE difference.
In numerical terms- the old way, you would spend $591 to get $600 in VCG. So you’re making $9 AND 3000 UR. The new way- you’re spending $399 for $400, so you’re only getting $1 and 2000 UR. I would even say that the recent no purchase fee on the $100 MCs was a better deal- I’d give up the $1 to be able to get as much as I want.
I hope this isn’t the new normal for these deals! If it is, it would be the end of a long and prosperous era at OM.
$600 + fees with $30 off vs $400 + fees with $15 off.
current deal is few $ less profit and more driving/gas but still worth it.
Fees too high; $200 VGC costs $6.95 each at my OD/OM.not worth the trip.
I agree. If I had a OD/OM closer to me than I do I would likely still take this offer up, but it’s not worth the twenty minute drive for me with that profit margin. I’ll hold out and hope the “2 limit” deal pops up again.
No close OD/OM B&M stores around NYC.
Most Office Depots in my area (Fort Worth) have been accepting Cash Only for these VGC offers so no 5X on Ink. Has anyone else run in to this problem?
I have only run into the cash-only issue when purchasing variable load gift cards at OD/OM.
I have 8 OD/OM in a 40 minute radius. 5 let you do credit cards, 3 cash only. Of the 3 cash only it also depends on the cashier as I have had a couple of cashiers let me do credit cards. So, it’s seems not to be the registers, but the store policy around here.
Limit one? Boo. Was always able to do multiple in a trip but this is going to make it more annoying
Agreed, limit 2 is so much better.
I was hoping to put the new FNBO 5X business card to more organic use before seeing this. Earlier this week, the $100.00 MCGC one per customer was not enforced.
First National Bank Absolute Rewards: 5% Cash Back On Huge Range Of Categories
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/first-national-bank-absolute-rewards-5-cash-back-huge-range-categories/#comment-314209