Deal has ended, view more Staples deals by clicking here.
Update 10/31/24: Deal is coming back for 11/3 through 11/9 (ht kawnipi)
The Offer
- Staples stores will be selling $200 Mastercard gift cards with the $6.95 activation fee waived.
The Fine Print
- Limit 9 per customer per day; check with your local store to see their rules
- In-store only
Our Verdict
As always remember to use a card that earns at a high rate on office supply store purchases. Or stack with a Chase Offer or use your Amex Business Gold for the $20 office supply credit.
Update History:
- Update 10/3/24: Deal is back from 10/6 – 10/12. Hat tip to FM
- Update 9/5/24: Deal is coming back for 9/8 through 9/14. The new limit now is 9 per customer per day. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 8/8/24: Deal is coming back for 8/11 through 8/17. Limit 8. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 7/11/24: Deal is back from 7/14 – 7/20
- Update 6/14/24: Deal is back from 6/16 – 6/22.
- Update 5/16/24: Deal is coming back for 5/19-5/25. Limit 5 this time. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 4/18/24: Deal is coming back for 4/21 – 4/27 (ht GC Galore)
- Update 3/21/24: Deal is back from 3/24 – 3/30 (ht GC Galore)
- Update 2/22/24: Deal is back from 2/25 – 3/2
- Update 1/25/24: Deal is coming back for 1/28 – 2/3 (ht GCGalore)
- Update 12/28/23: Deal is coming back soon for 12/31 – 1/6. Limit 8. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 12/3/23: Deal is back this week 12/3 – 12/9. Limit 8. (ht Emi S)
- Update 11/2/23: Deal is coming back for the week of 11/5 – 11/11. Limit 8. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 10/5/23: Deal is back 10/8 – 10/14
- Update 9/7/23: Deal is back for 9/10 – 9/16. Limit 8 this time. (ht captduk)
- Update 8/10/23: Deal is coming back soon for 8/13 – 8/19. Back down to a maximum of 5 cards this time. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 7/13/23: Deal is back from 7/16 – 7/22
- Update 6/18/21: Deal is back and valid 6/18 – 6/24 (ht GCG). Stack with Chase Offer for 10% back.
- Update 5/18/21: Deal is back and valid 5/21 – 5/27
- Update 4/20/23: Deal is back and valid 4/23 – 4/29.
- Update 3/23/23: Deal is back and valid until 3/26 – 4/1.
- Update 2/23/23: Back until 2/26 – 3/4.
- Update 1/26/23: Deal will be back and valid until 1/29 – 2/4 with a max of 8 this time. (ht kawnipi)
- Update 7/14/22: Deal is back, valid from 7/17 until 7/23
- Update 12/1/22: Deal is back and valid until 12/4 – 12/10. Hat tip to GC Galore
Do these have a PIN number the same way the Visa cards do?
Yes they do. Default PIN is last 4 digits of the card. Both the Visa and MCs are Pathward based.
I thought these cards are issued through blackhawk?
A Staples employee just told me that $1000 per transaction in the new limit in a store where $2000 was the limit before. When they try to ring up more than five cards, the POS allows all the cards to be scanned and your payment looks as if it is accepted, but none of the cards are activated and the entire transaction is voided.
Go outside, wait for 5 minutes, come back. This is what a friendly employee told me
There were plenty of variable $200’s but unlike Office Depot, this deal does not work on those. Must be the black $200s, of which I stopped by Staples an hour after opening and found none at both stores I went to.
I got to staples 5 minutes after opening this morning and they had none left. The guy in front of me just bought the last of them. It was fun while it lasted!
Staples: No Activation Fee on $200 Mastercard Gift Cards
10/6/24-10/12/24 Limit 9 per day
It appears that Staples stores in NY/NJ no longer handle Master Gift Cards. I called several stores, but all of them said they either don’t carry them or are sold out. Is this happening only in the NY/NJ area?
I saw them at the one nearest me when it was no-fee for $200 VISA ones.
I think they are sold out and don’t replenish.
They get stocked on Sunday morning before store opens and people stand in line like its Black Friday and rush in to wipe them off the shelves by 10 AM. Ok, I’m exaggerating here, but you get the picture….
Has anyone else experienced problems with the Costco Shop Card cancelations using these cards?
On 8/14, I placed 3 separate orders for 2 x $100 Costco Shop Cards, for a total of $600.
On 9/7, I placed 1 order for 2 x $100 Costco Shop Cards, for a total of $200.
I tried to place another separate order on 9/7, and I rec’d a Costco email cancelation shortly after receiving a Costco email confirmation.
When I view the transaction history on the $200 Mastercard prepaid gift cards, I see the following transactions:
1) Value Load — Activation with Amount = $200.00 and Balance = $200.00
2) Purchase Original Sale — Pending with Amount = ($200.00) and Balance = $0.00
I’m assuming the balance will (eventually) reload after a number of days. Can anyone confirm?
I’m hesitant to place any additional Costco Shop Card purchases based on this experience. Does ‘registering’ the card with my name, address, etc. help get around this issue, or is this more about Costco’s fraud prevention?
It’s pending, if the transaction did not go through, the pending will fall off.. sadly it takes like 2 weeks.. so those funds are pretty much locked up.
Yeah, some people ran into this last year…me as well but I was using digital shop cards to buy plastic ones….haven’t tried since then.
I have encountered this, sadly it takes about 2 weeks to get the funds back. I think I was trying to buy Costco egift cards. But physical gift cards were fine. After buying a few physical gift cards over a month, I was able to buy egift cards. Since then, I can buy as many egift cards as needed, no problem. So I believe it is Costco’s fraud prevention. Also not sure, but you should always register the gift card in your name. If you call the number, it is much easier if you have registered because they ask for address. I have received replacements of locked gift cards (Paypal-ified) easily many times (>10).
Thanks! Yes, I learned to start registering the card with my name and address, and since then, no issues buying the egift cards (only a few though).
I did eventually get the $200 balance returned, and I believe it was a couple of weeks.
You can’t buy the shop cards online You have to do it in store. The cards also take a few days for the money to go back. And you have to register it to use it.
I have purchased all cards (around 12 in the past 30-45 days) online in $200 increments. I read somewhere that $100 order increments may be better, so I started doing that.
I can buy Costco shop cards, both physical (for gas) and electronic (for regular purchase) online with these Visa and MC cards.
My local Staples has always has a plethora of $200 cards available during this sale until this past Sunday when I went in and only one left which I purchased and immediately MS’d due to my paranoia that it was fraudulent. I’ve never seen the entire rack cleared out in the first day before… new local skin in the game? Traveling churner? Who knows
How do you ms these?
My local staples, where I know the manager on a first name basis and have been frequenting for gift cards for over a decade, just implemented a $1000 gift card limit (per transaction). They were happy to let me buy as many gift cards as I wanted, but limited each transaction to $1000.
Almost seems a little fishy to me considering similar limits at Office Depot flags the employee to enter customer ID information.
Some companies implement those types of policies for fraud reduction purposes. Albertson’s did that for awhile, requiring ID for gift card purchases. Some companies don’t care.
My Staples in Alabama has a limit of $1000 in gift cards that can be bought per day so I’ve been buying 5 a day recently. The activation fee is waived but it’s actually $7.95 normally.