This promotion expired…
Buy $300+ in AMEX Gift Cards, Get $20 Staples Gift Card via Easy Rebate
Staples is back with another prepaid gift card Easy Rebate promotion, this time it is the turn of American Express to do the 20/300 dance. You buy $300+ in American Express gift cards at Staples stores until the close of business on Saturday 12/10/16 (in a single transaction) and you will receive a $20 Staples gift card via Easy Rebate (which can be submitted online, no need to mail anything in).
As with before, the trick is to get to $300 with one or two gift cards, so the activation fees won’t eat into your $20 Easy Rebate. If you pay with a credit card that has a higher percentage on office supplies (eg Chase Ink has 5%) then you can make a small profit there, and then use the gift cards to pay for items that would otherwise only get you 1% or 2% back in credit card rewards.
Nov 20-26: Buy $25 Google Play Gift Card, Get 500 Plenti points back
The Google Play gift cards are not discounted as often as iTunes, so it’s a sale-a-bration when they do! And they do indeed for the week of November 20-26 (in 2016) at Rite Aid brick and mortar stores. You buy a $25 Google Play plastic gift card, and receive 500 Plenti points, which have the $5 equivalent buying power in future purchases. The points will be ready to use in your account the morning after the purchase. Limit two per customer during this week. You get confirmation all is well at the cash register receipt. So this is a virtual 20% off discount ~ assuming you’ll have no issue spending the 500 Plenti points 🙂
Nov 6-12: buy $20 Netflix Gift Card, get 400 Plenti Points (limit 2)
Good news Netflix users! In addition to the Black Friday Plenti offer, Rite Aid is offering another Netflix gift card offer for the week of November 6-12 in 2016 at their brick and mortar stores. The amounts are different for this offer, buy a $20 Netflix gift card and get 400 Plenti points to use in the future. That’s a 20% virtual discount. The promotion is limit two per customer for the week. Typically they carry the $15-to-$100 Netflix gift cards, so you have to tell the cashier that you want $20 loaded on your gift card.
PS: 400 Plenti points have the buying power of $4 at Rite Aid, Macy’s, Exxon-Mobil and other participating places. I’ve been doing these gift card Plenti offers for a few months now, and they do work as expected. Just make sure you get the right amounts and during the correct week 🙂
November 6-12: the Staples VISA Easy Rebate $300+/$20 via EzR returns
The VISA Easy Rebate promotion returns at Staples stores for the Brick and Mortar shopping week of November 6-12 in 2016. The terms are as before, buy $300+ in prepaid VISA gift cards, and receive a $20 prepaid VISA gift card via Easy Rebate. As usual, the trick is to get to $300+ with two cards, so your activate fees ($7 for $200 and $6 for $100 gift card) are less than the $20 Easy Rebate. So with two gift cards, you are making a $7 profit on a $213 investment. That’s a 3.3% return on investment with a 4-6 week vesting period. Your Savings account can’t beat that 🙂
PS: this offer is even better if your credit card has higher cashback rewards on office supplies purchases. For example, Chase Ink gets you 5% cashback on office supplies. You buy these gift cards with the 5% cashback, and then spend them on places that normally yield a lower cashback percentage. A 3% boost from a $200 purchase is $6, so add that to your “return” 🙂
Nov 6-12: 20% off GAP family of gift cards at Staples
If you are a fan of shopping at the GAP family of companies or if you want to buy some gift cards for the upcoming holidays for friends and family who love them, Staples stores will be having an in-store 20% off sale on the GAP family of gift cards between Sunday November 6 and the close of business on Saturday November 12 in 2016. This will happen automatically at the cash register, no coupon, no rebate, the register will mark them down to the discounted price.
The gift cards cover the GAP stores, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and a few more brands and variations of their group.
Cordcutter Alert: Netflix Gift Cards at Rite Aid during Black Friday (effective 20% off discount)
Netflix prices have gone up, but Black Friday comes to the rescue! If you participate in the Plenti Rewards program (or do not object to joining, it’s free – [see introduction], and have Rite Aid B&M stores near you, you can get a nice deal on prepaid Netflix gift cards. You buy a $50 Netflix Gift Card, and receive 800 Plenti points which are the spending equivalent of $8 towards a future purchase. Assuming you can spend the Plenti points (Rite Aid, Macy’s, Exxon-Mobil, etc), you are getting a virtual 20% off discount on the Netflix prices that are paid with the gift card.
Better yet, this promotion is limit 2 for the promotional period (Thursday to Saturday during Black Friday 2016 week). Rite Aid stores typically are out of the way of major shopping areas, so you are not going to fight mall traffic for these 🙂 $100 in Netflix gift cards is, assuming you are on the $10/month plan, ten months of Netflix!
PS: YES, you can add this to your own account, you don’t have to “gift it” to another person!
Staples Mastercard offer returns 10/30 to 11/5 in 2016
The Mastercard offer returns to the Staples brick and mortar stores during the week of Sunday October 30 until the close of business on Saturday November 5 in 2016. It is a thin profit margin, unless you have a credit card that gets you more than 1% in office supplies purchases, in which case, with a card like “Chase Ink”, you would be getting 5% back in credit card rewards, and then you can use the Mastercards to pay for items that typically only get you 1% credit card rewards.
The offer is the usual thing, you buy $300+ in Mastercard gift cards, submit an Easy Rebate, and a few weeks later you receive a $15 Staples Gift Card by mail. Typically the cheapest way to get to $300 with Mastercard gift cards is a $200 and a $100 which have activation fees of $7 and $6 respectively. So you pay $313 at checkout and receive the $15 gift card a few weeks later. It’s a $2 return on a $313 investment with 4-6 weeks of “vesting period”. Still beats savings accounts 🙂
Google Play Gift Card Offer Returns to Rite Aid October 9-15 in 2016
If you are participating in the Plenti Rewards program and you want to stock up on Google Play gift cards, we have good news for you! For the week of Sunday October 9 until the close of business on Saturday the 15th in 2016, at Rite Aid brick and mortar stores, we have the return of the Google Play Gift Card promotion!
The terms are the same as the previous times. You buy a $25 plastic Google Play Gift Card and receive 500 Plenti points. You can verify this by looking at your cash register receipt. It shows the 500 pending points there. You can spend your new points the next day, so you don’t even have to wait that long. 500 Plenti points have the buying power of $5 at Rite Aid, Macy’s, Exxon-Mobil gas stations and the like, so it’s essentially a 20% off discount on the Google Play gift cards that rarely get discounted. The usual limit of two per customer during this promotional week applies.
DID YOU KNOW that you can now use your Google Play gift card balance to automatically play for the Google Music subscription service? You just have to select it from your Google account settings and it will keep using the balance every month until it runs out. With the discount inherent in this offer, you are essentially getting the $10/month music service for $8 per month. This subscription also includes the “YouTube RED” subscription automatically (you have to be logged on to YouTube with the same google account obviously). And you can load thousands of your own songs into the cloud, so both the subscription and your personal collection are blended together, you don’t have to remember what’s where (there are still some artists that are not available in streaming service, plus there is music that is offered directly by the artists, or by new and upcoming artists that is not available in streaming services yet).
October 2-8 (2016): $15 back on $300+ Mastercard Gift Cards at Staples
The offer is back at Staples for the week of October 2-8 in 2016 at their brick and mortar stores. Buy $300+ of Mastercard gift cards, and receive a $15 Staples Gift Card via Easy Rebate (in about 4-6 weeks). You can submit the rebate online, you don’t have to mail anything in. All you need is your cash register receipt (online or printed, as long as it has the offer ID and the transaction ID which are needed to process the online rebate).
The strategy is the same whether they offer a $20 or $15 gift card back. You need to get to the $300 amount with two or one gift cards. Since $300+ gift cards are unicorns (for the most part), you’d have to get there with two of them, eg $200 and $100. The activation fees make it very close, $7 for the $200 and $6 for the $100, so you are squeezing a $2 profit on a $300 investment. It’s a 0.64% return on investment with a one-month vesting period, so it beats checking and savings accounts 🙂
This becomes a better deal if you have a credit card that gives you cashback rewards on office supplies that are higher than your everyday purchases. So for example if you have the Chase Ink that gets you 5% on office supplies, you can buy the Mastercards with these offer, and then use them to purchase items that get you 1% cashback rewards. So just like that, you earned $12 in cashback rewards with this offer (4% of $300), in addition to the $2 “profit” 🙂
Rite Aid with Plenti: 500 points back on $25 Google Play Gift Cards
The Google Play offer is back at Rite Aid using the Plenti rewards program and this is probably the best way to get a discount for Google Play store credit at the moment. The offer is the same as before, you buy a $25 Google Play gift card at Rite Aid stores, and you receive 500 Plenti points ($5 equivalent on future purchases). The points are ready to use in your Plenti account the next day. As usual, the offer is limit two per customer for the week of September 18-24 in 2016.
PS: if you are not familiar with Plenti rewards, check our explainer post.
Get 500 Plenti Points with $25 iTunes Gift Card
If you are part of the iTunes ecosystem and you are participating in the Plenti Rewards program, running until Saturday night (9/17/16) at Rite Aid stores is a promotion as follows (screenshot below; then text):
Buy a $25 iTunes plastic gift card, and get 500 Plenti points added to your account. The points show up on your purchase receipt and you can use/spend them the next morning. So before you leave the store you know that all is well with the transaction. This offer is limit two for this particular week.
Assuming you can spend the 500 points (which are $5 equivalent) in the future, this makes it a virtual 20% discount on the iTunes gift card. There are simple ways to spend Plenti points: future purchases at Rite Aid (just not ones that get you Plenti rewards like this one), and Exxon-Mobil gas stations.
Buy $10+ Starbucks eGift Card with VISA Checkout, Get $5 Bonus
A new VISA Checkout promotion is running at the Starbucks website. If you purchase a $10+ Starbucks electronic gift card AND pay for it with VISA Checkout, you will receive a $5 bonus on the gift card. The promotional period runs between August 4-29 in 2016, so if you haven’t done this already, it’s a great deal!
If you previously did this offer (before August 2016), you can do it again. I just did it and it worked fine. You MUST pay with VISA Checkout, not using the default credit card on your account.
The $5 bonus won’t show up when you pay, but when you receive the order confirmation email (it arrives within seconds), you will see that $5 has been added to the total. You can then proceed to load up this balance on your Starbucks account or immediately transfer it to one of your existing (eg default) Starbucks gift cards. Screenshot from the email below:
If you do the minimum, eg you buy a $10 egift card, that’s a 50% bonus! You can email it to yourself, you don’t have to send it to other people/email addresses and jump through hoops. VISA Checkout is funding many promotions like this across the internets as they are trying to generate brand recognition and fend off competition from mobile competitors like Apple Pay and Android Pay and Samsung Pay and PayPal and such.
The AMEX Gift Card Offer returns at Staples stores on August 28
If you are a fan of doing the Staples Easy Rebate Gift Card Easy Rebate promotions, set your alarm clock to wake you up on Sunday August 28 in 2016 because the weekly promotion is back for American Express Gift Cards.
Lucky Rewards: Buy $50+ iTunes Gift Card, Get $10 off Future Purchase and 200 Rewards Points
The weekly freebies parade is currently over for Lucky Rewards members, but they have a new tentpole promotion for week running August 17-23 in 2016 (the usual Wednesday AM through Tuesday PM grocery weekly-ad cycle).
If you buy $50 or more in iTunes Gift Cards, their cash register will spit out a coupon that gets you $10 off your NEXT purchase at Lucky’s. As long as you can find $10 or more to buy there in the future, then it’s like you are getting a 20% off on the iTunes gift card. On top of that, you earn 200 Lucky Rewards points, which can be used to redeem “Dollars Off” coupons ($2 purchasing power) or towards actual rewards items.
I don’t need any iTunes gift cards at the moment, so I am not going to do this offer, so I can’t tell you any more than what the email says. This appears to be an automatic offer, you don’t need to add it to your account manually.
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