Staples 300/20 VISA offer returns March 12-18 in 2017

The VISA gift card promotion is making a comeback at Staples brick and mortar stores during the shopping week of March 12-18 in 2017. The terms are the same as before. You have to buy $300+ in VISA gift cards. Then you file an Easy Rebate (can be submitted online; nothing to mail in physically) and a few weeks later you will receive a $20 Staples gift card by mail. The rebate using data from your cash register receipt, so it’s easy to do (and works well for them too, since they can verify the purchase directly from the cash register data).

The strategy is the same as before, you have to get to the $300 amount using two or one gift cards. $300 gift cards are unicorns (hard to find), so the most realistic way is using one $200 and $100 VISA gift card. This will get you about $7 of profit, which is not bad for a $213 investment and a one month vesting period.

Plus, if you pay with a Chase INK credit card, you will receive 5% cashback on your credit card. Then you can use the VISA gift cards on items that would otherwise only get 1% credit card rewards.

TIP: sometimes they have gift cards throughout the store, hanging from the shelves – in addition to the gift card section. If you can’t find them in the gift card section, you may want to take a mini walk around the store for a little bit of a treasure hunt. Or ask the employees 🙂

20% off GAP gift cards (Staples 1/29 to 2/4/17)

For the shopping week of Sunday January 29, until the close of business on Saturday February 4 in 2017, you can get 20% off on GAP gift cards at Staples brick and mortar stores. GAP gift cards can be used at their family of companies (including Banana Republic and Old Navy). The sale is automatic at the register, you don’t need a coupon, you don’t need a rebate!

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.

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 🙂

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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.

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The gift cards cover the GAP stores, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and a few more brands and variations of their group.

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.

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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 🙂

Buy $300+ VISA Gift Cards, Get $20 Staples Gift Card via Easy Rebate

If you are fond of the VISA Rebate offers at Staples, you are in good luck! The promotion returns at their stores for the week of Sunday October 23 until the close of business on Saturday October 29 in 2016. The terms are the same, you buy $300+ in prepaid VISA gift cards, and you receive a $20 prepaid VISA gift card via EasyRebate. So for this to be profitable, you need to get to $300 with two (or one) VISA prepaid gift cards. The activation fees for the gift cards are $6 for the $100 and $7 for the $200, so with two cards, you pay $213, and receive a $200 gift card and $20 gift card (via Easy Rebate), making it a $7 profit on a $213 investment with about a 1 to 1.5 month “vesting period”.

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$5 Staples Anniversary Rewards (when you joined)

The general trend in office supply store rewards has been going down and down since the Office Depot – Max merger, but sometimes there are some rays of light. I believe this was launched last year, Staples began sending Rewards customer a $5 Anniversary Reward on their anniversary month of joining the SPLS rewards program. It is delivered as a long coupon code and can be used in-store or online or by phone. It is good until the end of the month it is issued on.

Look for something like this in your emails (this is a search that only shows these emails):

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PS: I do not know if this depends on what rewards level you are in order to get these coupons. Staples currently has a 3-tier rewards structure, the more you spend, the higher you climb.

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).

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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” 🙂

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.

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Adult Coloring Emergency? 97c Crayola 12pk Color Pencils or 10pk Markers at Staples

The continuing popularity of Adult Coloring Books (I finally gave in last week and joined this peer-pressure activity) has had a side-effect, the prices of color pencils, especially the above dollar-store level has been higher than usual, even with the start of the back to school season.

However, hope is not lost, if you ever have an adult coloring emergency during the next few weeks, the Staples brick and mortar come to the rescue thanks to the “Less List”.

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The last 3-4 years they instituted the “Less List”. A set number of items is sold at the same sale price throughout the back to school season. These are not penny doorbuster prices, but they are definitely better than the typical price you’d find at a store.

Of adult coloring interest, they have a trio of Crayola products for 97c each. A 12pk of color pencils, and 10pks of two different tip size markers. You can see them in the screenshot above. You don’t need a coupon, you don’t need a membership/card, you just buy them. And they have a generous limit, up to 30 of each item per customer per visit.

So if you run into an adult coloring emergency during the Back School Season (typically ends in September or so), run to your nearest Staples store 🙂

July 17-23 at Staples B&M: Buy $300+ Mastercard Gift Cards, Get $15 via Easy Rebate

If you are a fan of the Staples Gift Card offers, good news for you! Per the teaser of their Weekly Ad for the week of Sunday July 17 until the close of business on Saturday 23, 2016, at their brick and mortar stores, it is the return of the Mastercard Prepaid Gift Card offer. It’s similar style, buy $300+ in prepaid Mastercard gift cards, and receive a $15 Staples Gift Card via Easy Rebate. Easy Rebate means you can submit the offer online, you don’t have to mail or photocopy anything, you just need the numbers from your receipt.

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The usual strategy applies here, if you can get to $300 with two or one gift card, then this is a money maker deal worth doing. The activation fee of a $200 gift card is $7, while a $100 has a $6 activation fee. So with this combination, you make a $2 profit on a $300 investment. Not as sexy as back when the Easy Rebate was $20.

Now if you can find a single $300+ gift card, then that would be awesome, but those are about as rare as unicorns 🙁

June 5-11: Buy $300+ AMEX Gift Cards, Get $20 back via Easy Rebate

If you are a fan of the Staples gift card EasyRebate promotions, we have good news for you! For the shopping week of June 5-11 in 2016, at participating Staples brick and mortar stores, you can get a $20 Staples Gift Card via EasyRebate (can be submitted online, no need to mail anything in) when you purchase $300+ in American Express gift cards.

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These have activation fees, so generally they are best if you can get to $300 with either one or two (most likely) gift cards. These offers have a small but very loyal following so you may need to be there Sunday AM if you want to guarantee finding the gift cards in-stock for this promotion.

May 22-28: $20 VISA Gift Card via EzRebate with $300+ prepaid VISA Gift Card purchase

If you are a fan of doing the Staples gift card rebate promotions, we have good news for you! The VISA promotion is returning at Staples brick and mortar stores for the week of May 22-28 in 2016. The terms are as before, you buy $300+ in prepaid VISA gift cards, and you will receive a $20 prepaid VISA gift card by Easy Rebate (you can submit it online, no need to mail anything in).

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The gift cards you buy have an activation fee, so to make this a money-maker deal, you have to get to $300+ by buying two or one gift cards. Finding $300+ unicorn gift cards is near impossible, so most people do this with a $200 + $100. You then submit the Easy Rebate at the Staples rebates website, and wait for 4-6 weeks for the rebate to arrive in the mail. Assuming you spend your $20 prepaid VISA gift card bonus wisely, it’s about a 2% return on investment ($20 gift card minus $13 in activation fees = $7). Not a bad return considering today’s interest rates 🙂

PS: three gift cards (eg three $100) are technically also a money-maker, but a profit of $2 on a $318 investment might be too small for many people to consider it worth their time.

YMMV AMEX Offers: Spend $100+ at Staples.com, Get $25 Statement Credit

If you have an American Express credit card, among the latest wave of offers in the AMEX Offers section (after you login to your AMEX credit card account) is a nice promotion on Staples.com (website purchases, not in-store purchases). If you spend $100 or more, you will receive a $25 statement credit on your American Express credit card.

NOTE: this is a YMMV promotion since I have no way of knowing how AMEX customers are seeing this offer.

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Even though the promotion expires 6/19/16, you should activate it (clicking on the “Add to Card” over there) as soon as you can, because the activation period of the offers is often shorter and sometimes they have a limited time number of activations. But once you activate it, you have until 6/19/16 to use it.

There is a long paragraph with all the terms and conditions, so check those out before placing an order. Limit one per customer during this offer. If you have multiple cards on the same AMEX login, make sure you activate the offer on the card you intend to use.