May 4, 2014, 4:19 am
Last edit by: weezl
This thread is about prepaid debit cards from Staples. Please post questions on other topics in the appropriate threads elsewhere in this forum.
As of 5/12/2014, all known portals are dead.
*Note- max purchase at one time seems to be 9x $200 (stays under their $2000 limit)
Pluses to Online purchase:
1. Less time/effort/gasoline vs traveling to store to purchase
2. No mgr override or cashier call to Chase needed for large purchases
3. Can bulk activate by phone after receipt of VGCs
4. Email is a nice way to keep record of your purchases
5. Avoids stupid sticky gum (4x per card) that has to be peeled off of each VGC
6. Rare opportunity to liquidate rewards and/or rebate card (YMMV)
Pluses to in-store purchase:
1. No wait/immediate gratification- mail order can take weeks
2. No risk of someone getting to your mailbox to steal your VGCs before you get them out of there
3. Activated at time of purchase- no need to call in or wait for stupid letter containing one activation code/card that comes in the mail separately (the letter sometimes arrives AFTER the VGCs arrive; this can be mitigated, see Pluses to Online #3, above)
As of 5/12/2014, all known portals are dead.
- Get Chase Ink and BB/Serve
1% discount: Sign up Ink (must be Visa) at https://www.visasavingsedge.com/ to get 1% cash back at StaplesEnded 12/31/14- 5x points: Buy Visa gift cards at Staples or the website. $200 ones charge a hefty $6.95 activation fee (with 1% back it was effectively $4.88).
- Liquidate gift cards like any other
*Note- max purchase at one time seems to be 9x $200 (stays under their $2000 limit)
Pluses to Online purchase:
1. Less time/effort/gasoline vs traveling to store to purchase
2. No mgr override or cashier call to Chase needed for large purchases
3. Can bulk activate by phone after receipt of VGCs
4. Email is a nice way to keep record of your purchases
5. Avoids stupid sticky gum (4x per card) that has to be peeled off of each VGC
6. Rare opportunity to liquidate rewards and/or rebate card (YMMV)
Pluses to in-store purchase:
1. No wait/immediate gratification- mail order can take weeks
2. No risk of someone getting to your mailbox to steal your VGCs before you get them out of there
3. Activated at time of purchase- no need to call in or wait for stupid letter containing one activation code/card that comes in the mail separately (the letter sometimes arrives AFTER the VGCs arrive; this can be mitigated, see Pluses to Online #3, above)
Visa Gift cards at Staples(2014-2015)
May 12, 2014, 11:41 pm
#646
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: WAS
Programs: SPG Plat. Marriott Plat. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Diamond. IHG Plat.
Posts: 2,580
Like it's been said. Staples doesn't like this. GC > VGC. Good way to get out of Staples good graces. Not worth the risk.
May 13, 2014, 12:00 am
#647
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,503
For me this will be like a 1 time thing. Only reason why I am thinking of doing this is that I want to take advantage of the Lowes 5% quarterly bonus on my Chase Freedom and they only sell $50 Staples GCs. This would not be a regular thing since I don't have the Ink cards. I guess I could try the in-store right to dump the Staples GCs but I hear its YMMV based on the cashier.
May 13, 2014, 12:58 am
#648
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 34
For me this will be like a 1 time thing. Only reason why I am thinking of doing this is that I want to take advantage of the Lowes 5% quarterly bonus on my Chase Freedom and they only sell $50 Staples GCs. This would not be a regular thing since I don't have the Ink cards. I guess I could try the in-store right to dump the Staples GCs but I hear its YMMV based on the cashier.
May 13, 2014, 1:05 am
#649
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,503
Done that already. Bought like $300 in gas cards thus far. Not going to buy like $800 of gas cards atm. Trying to max out the $1500 if possible. Already doing restaurants to make up that $1500 but I know I am not going to eat out like $1000 between now and the end of June.
May 13, 2014, 1:37 am
#650
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Madison, WI, USA
Posts: 14,162
So many people trying to rationalize their greed and selfishness. It's truly sad.
May 13, 2014, 3:31 am
#651
Suspended
Join Date: May 2012
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, AS, DL, BA, F9, IHG Plat, HH Gold, CC Gold, SPG Gold, MR Silver
Posts: 1,786
Seriously, what do you think is going to happen when trying to push through a $10,000 order or $40,000 in under a week? Why shift all your MS to one method to see how much you can get through? The additional gains are marginal. Perhaps 1% extra - yet with longer wait times. Personally, I shifted a moderate amount of my MS (10% toward the Staples deal. If people had just added staples into their normal MS spending pattern, it may have survived.
...btw, would you like some cheese to go with your whine
May 13, 2014, 5:58 am
#652
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 85
For me this will be like a 1 time thing. Only reason why I am thinking of doing this is that I want to take advantage of the Lowes 5% quarterly bonus on my Chase Freedom and they only sell $50 Staples GCs. This would not be a regular thing since I don't have the Ink cards. I guess I could try the in-store right to dump the Staples GCs but I hear its YMMV based on the cashier.
May 13, 2014, 6:32 am
#653
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: PVD/BOS
Posts: 879
200-dollar Visa Gift cards at Staples.com
Data point-
Discover CB posted for me today. 4/26 and 4/28 orders paid. My 5/3 order went pending but never paid out with the rest of them today.
Discover CB posted for me today. 4/26 and 4/28 orders paid. My 5/3 order went pending but never paid out with the rest of them today.
May 13, 2014, 6:44 am
#654
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: NYC
Posts: 5,025
Really? There are a lot of people here I'd consider acquaintances that I've helped/currently help that share back/forth information. Just because not everything is public, doesn't mean there aren't avenues to exploit.
Just because UMAD in another thread doesn't mean you have to take your "oh no one shares information" to every single thread.
Just because UMAD in another thread doesn't mean you have to take your "oh no one shares information" to every single thread.
Now if people didn't bring there "I'm greedy and scared to lose my golden goose by it being shared after I found out" to every single thread I would then stop rebutting it.
May 13, 2014, 7:22 am
#655
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: Hyatt Globalist No More..., Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 4,375
What do you mean zeroed out? That they had success and was able to liquidate them all? Or that Staples caught wind of it and took all their GC money? LOL.
May 13, 2014, 7:51 am
#656
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 766
Just to add some data:
I ordered 6K worth from April 28-May 4 in 6 transactions. The first three in U promise are showing as pending, the last posting on 5/5. I am still hopeful the other 3 post as they we all ordered before the May 6 memo.
I ordered 6K worth from April 28-May 4 in 6 transactions. The first three in U promise are showing as pending, the last posting on 5/5. I am still hopeful the other 3 post as they we all ordered before the May 6 memo.
May 13, 2014, 8:09 am
#657
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 546
Very few people are MSing 100-400k per week.
May 13, 2014, 8:40 am
#658
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 33
400kk in manufactured spend per week?
Anyone doing that much certainly doesn't have time to fly , and they are doing it to sell the miles or some other rebate they are getting.
Good luck while it lasts. I won't make a moral judgment on you, but then they won't let me be on the jury if the airline can make some sort of civil case or the government some sort of criminal case (highly unlikely on the latter). I'd have to state in Voire dire I don't think you are guilty and these companies have to live with the results of their offerings and can't go crying to courts for redress (as many airlines did with frequent flyer brokers--and won with the "tortious interference" theory of contract law).
Look , the closest I am coming to a rebate from staples is one $200 Visa card and a laptop that was supposed to be left on my front doorstep but somehow didn't get delivered (I go through 10 $250 laptops per year the way I treat them, so I always have 2 on hand). But, That's on UPS. I'll note as an aside the last thing that disappeared from my doorstep was a bidet ,and those aren't exactly light)
I'm off topic: Good luck with 400k per week. I wish you were 12 years old because that would be an hilarious cluster**** PR nightmare for a business.
OK, I wouldn't do any of this stuff because I am not going to cost a business money without talking to them first to make sure they realize the ramifications of what they are doing. AXP knows what they are doing and doesn't need to be talked to about their 3% rebate. Suntrust arguably doesn't know what they are doing but at least I talked to them. My argument to them was their only profitable Delta debit card client was not the type of client they want to attract. They should want high income customers, and those customer are going to have $1 million tax bills and are going to debit $35k per day for days on end as a friend of mine recently did.
Suntrust's thinking was people were overpaying taxes intentionally , but nobody does that for Delta miles, and churning money orders (they were definitely doing that).
May 13, 2014, 9:09 am
#659
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,417
That said, even without the cashback, these purchases are a satisfactory deal. Of course, given the hassle of getting rid of the $200 cards, I'm going to be less interested in this promo if cashback is dead.
And I also don't understand the complaining. It's not rocket science to conclude that a deal that pays YOU to buy cash -- and they gives you lots of Ultimate Rewards points -- isn't going to last very long. People are going to "abuse" that, and the businesses involved will have to respond. It's just the way of the world.
May 13, 2014, 9:49 am
#660
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,503
Are you talking about the Staples GCs getting zeroed out?