Update: Want to save money on gas while earning more points?
Several DDF users have confirmed that they paid the lower cash price for gas when using a gift card instead of the higher credit card price. Plus by buying those gas gift cards at office supply stores on Ink you earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar. Additionally some DDF users report that they even received a 10 cent discount off of the cash price at Shell for using a Shell gift card!
For more info:
-http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=18471.msg398873#msg398873
-http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=14434.msg195250#msg195250
-http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=18471.msg400779#msg400779
-http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=18471.msg399028#msg399028
-http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=14434.msg198470#msg198470
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Originally posted on 12/10/12:
Related posts:
-A Rundown Of The Chase Ultimate Rewards Program And Ultimate Rewards Cards
-Want To Boost Your Credit Score? Spend On Business Cards Instead Of Consumer Cards.
-Updated Chase Ink Offers
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I’ve mentioned numerous times that the Chase Ink cards can be used at Office Supply stores to buy gift cards and earn 5 points per dollar. As the points can be transferred to many valuable currencies (see the related articles above) that means a rebate of about 9.5%.
I personally have all 4 Ink flavors, the Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Cash, and Ink Classic cards. I just finished my collection with the last 2 flavors I could get and a United business card which earned me 50K miles and $50 cash back a few weeks ago in a 3BM. It took a call to Business Recon to get them approved, but with some shifting of personal credit lines that didn’t pose any problem and I even got the 2 Ink cards approved in one call.
The money you spend on business cards doesn’t show up your credit report so spending on them doesn’t hurt your credit utilization ratio like spending on a personal card does. The Ink Cash card comes with 6 months of 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers, which also won’t hurt your credit score like those would if carried on a personal card. Canceling a business card won’t hurt your score either as the credit line was never reported.
Getting a business card is quite simple. As a 12 year old I was buying beanie babies from Nordstrom to flip on eBay once they were “retired” when a $5 purchase could fetch $300 a week later. Once I hit 18 I was able to get a business card by just calling the business my name with Sole Proprietorship at the end. I just used my social security number in the Tax Identification Number field as well as in the social security number field. I never had a problem getting approved after a quick chat with reconsideration. You can reach Chase business reconsideration at 800-453-9719.
Besides for the office supply store bonus you also earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent all year round on telecom (cell and landline), cable, internet, and TV. With the Bold/Plus cards that’s capped at $50,000 per year and with the Classic/Cash cards that’s capped at $25,000 per year. The cards also earn 2 points per dollar year round at gas stations and either hotels (Ink Bold/Plus/Classic) or dining (Ink Cash). The Bold/Plus cards have no foreign exchange fees and you need one of those cards or a Sapphire Preferred to transfer points to airline miles or hotel points.
Amazon Payments can cash out AMEX/MC/Visa gift cards with no fees. Of course if you do $5,000 like that on a new Ink Bold or Ink Plus card you’ll also have earned the 50,000 point signup bonus plus 25,000 points at 5 points per dollar, so you’ll have a total of 75,000 points, all transferable to United, British Airways, Korean, Southwest, Hyatt, and more.
Or pick up gift cards to stores you shop at anyway, like Amazon or Nordstrom, to earn 5 points per dollar there.
You should never pay tax on a gift card. If you are being charged tax by mistake be sure to ask for a manager or call their corporate customer service.
People have asked what gift cards they have in stores, so I went to compile a list. For the sake of being comprehensive I have included all of the gift cards I saw, including to non-kosher restaurants. For what it’s worth the kosher Subway in Cleveland for example does accept Subway gift cards even though they don’t participate in any other national Subway coupons or promotions.
Office Max:
-Prepaid AMEX (Fee applies)
-Prepaid Mastercard (Fee applies)
-Prepaid Visa (Fee applies)
-Amazon
-American Eagle
-AMC Theaters
-AT&T GoPhone
-Babies R Us/Toys R Us
-Baja Fresh
-Barnes & Noble
-Bass Pro Shop
-Bed Bath & Beyond/Buy Buy Baby
-Boost Mobile
-Build-A-Bear
-Cabela’s
-Catherine’s
-Cheesecake Factory
-Chili’s
-Claire’s
-Coldstone Creamery
-Cracker Barrel
-Disney
-Express
-Fandango
-Foot Locker
-Home Depot
-Ihop
-iTunes
-JCPenney
-Jo-Ann Fabric
-Justice
-Kindle
-Kohl’s
-Lowe’s
-Macy’s
-Michael’s
-Nike
-Nook
-Nordstrom
-Olive Garden
-Outback Steakhouse
-Outdoor Adventure Gift Card
-Panera
-PFChang’s
-Pizza Hut
-Prepaid phone cards
-Red Lobster
-Red Robin
-Regal Cinemas
-Ruby Tuesday
-Sephora
-Southwest
-SpaFinder
-Starbucks
-Subway
-TGIFriday
-TJMaxx
-T-Mobile Prepaid
-Verizon Prepaid
-Virgin Mobile
Staples:
-Prepaid AMEX (Fee applies)
-Prepaid Mastercard (Fee applies)
-Prepaid Visa (Fee applies)
-Aeropastle
-Amazon
-American Eagle
-AMC Theaters
-Applebees
-Babies R Us/Toys R Us
-Barnes & Noble
-Bath & Body Works
-Bass Pro Shop
-Bed Bath & Beyond/Buy Buy Baby
-Bloomingdale’s
-Cheesecake Factory
-Chili’s
-Coldstone Creamery
-CPK
-eBay
-Express
-Fandango
-Foot Locker
-Gap Inc (Gap, Banana, Old Navy, Athleta, Piperlime)
-Google Play
-Groupon
-Home Depot
-Hulu Plus
-iTunes
-JCPenney
-Jiffy Lube
-Kindle
-Kohl’s
-Lowe’s
-Macy’s
-Marriott
-Marshalls
-Michael’s
-Nintendo eShop
-Nook
-Nordstrom
-Olive Garden
-Outback Steakhouse
-Red Lobster
-Regal Cinemas
-Ruby Tuesday
-Panera
-Petco
-PFChang’s
-Pottery Barn
-Prepaid AMEX
-Sephora
-Shell
-Southwest
-SpaFinder
-Starbucks
-Subway
-TJMaxx
-Whole Foods
Office Depot:
-Prepaid AMEX (Fee applies)
-Prepaid Visa (Fee applies)
-Prepaid Vanilla Gift Card (Fee applies)
-Prepaid OneVanilla Gift Card (Fee applies)
-AMC Theaters
-American Eagle
-Applebees
-AT&T GoPhone
-Barnes & Noble
-Bass Pro Shop
-Bath & Body Works
-Bed Bath & Beyond/Buy Buy Baby
-Bloomingdale’s
-Burger King
-Burlington
-Chili’s
-Express
-Exxon/Mobil
-Fandango
-Foot Locker
-Game Stop
-Gap Inc (Gap, Banana, Old Navy, Athleta, Piperlime)
-Ihop
-iTunes
-Macy’s
-Marshalls
-McAfee
-Olive Garden
-Panera
-Pier 1 Imports
-Pizza Hut
-Red Lobster
-Sephora
-Shell
-Starbucks
-TJMaxx
-T-Mobile Prepaid
-Verizon Prepaid
-Virgin Mobile
-Wendy’s
-Whole Foods
-Xbox
Awesome list! Thanx!
Buy Buy Baby and Bed Bath & beyond are the same company? their gift cards’ can be used at each others’ stores’?
@hunch:
You’re welcome!
They are indeed the same company and can take each others returns and coupons and can place orders for each others items in store.
Are you sure about Amazon Payments for vanilla pre-paid cards? I’ve tried it and had issues.
Do any of the office supply stores sell Paypal cards or Green Dot cards that can be transferred to Paypal?
Just to let you know…
I went my local citi bank here in los angeles last week to cash out my ‘myvanila’ card using cash advance (thanks to dan)and I was told by the teller that he could do a cash advance with a regular gift card
@Dan
received a call from chase asking for more info regarding my business.
@Frequent Flyer University:
I wrote the workaround for gift cards in this post:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/25499
@entrada:
Not that I noticed.
@mosh:
So please try it and let us know how it goes 🙂
@A:
If you want to start an Amazon or eBay selling business (Buy bargains and flip them) just tell them that.
Are there any that are available online?
I opened 4 ink cards, 2 united cards, 2 AirTran cards 1 saphire card. I have so much spending to do!! Every time I go to Office Depot with my ink cards for the gift cards I usually perchase like $2500 they always have to call the credit card authorization to get the transaction approved. And that’s always followed by a chase fraud department call to me. It’s a pain in the but!!
Question; for the united cards I sent them a secure msg to match te 55k and $50 statement credit that my colleague told me he got. They said they transferred the request to a deferent department. Do you think they’ll give it to me?
how do i decide which ink card is best for me?
with chase do you use a different business name for each card?
@Dans the man: yes i got it.
Dan recently at office depot i have heard that they are maxing the amount you can add to the prepaid amex gift card (20-500) at $200. Have you heard this? Any suggestions?
@Dans the man: How did you explain why you opened so many cards at once?
Which Office Depot did you find that takes cc?
Any ideas near Lakewood?
@Chaim:
Most of them will not be, feel free to search. They may add a surcharge for buying them online.
@Dans the man:
Well done!
That is normal.
@robert:
They’re all good 🙂
Read the related post links at the top of this post for more comparions between them.
@boldguy:
No.
@Adam:
I did a $500 purchase at OD.
@tll:
To get the points, duh!
And cards opened the same day generally come without another pull.
Dan can i make a 2bm for Ink Bold and Ink Plus
and get rewarded 50,000 on each?
And if it comes up, I can tell them i need 1 for a charge card and one as a traditional credit card?
@mw:
Yes, yes, and that’s exactly what you can say.
It can also help if you offer Recon to shift lines from another consumer or business card.
I opened a ink card 2 months ago got the points. i want to get the united card but im not sure i can qualify… can i offer to shift the line from my ink plus which is a business credit card to the consumer united?
@Moshe:
Yes, though it may take a couple tries.
@tll:
I buy vanilla gift cards at OD and then go to any CVS and buy vanilla reload cards at cvs they let you use credit cards for them Walgreens doesnt let….. i also have two amazon payments accounts one for me, and one for the wife. yesterday i tried to cash out some cards and it didnt let me. it went through but it said the transaction failed… Any advice
@Dans the man:
I wrote the workaround for using gift cards on Amazon Payments in this post:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/25499
The problem is that it holds $1 on the card. At this point you’ll just have to wait a week or so until the hold ends.
GM Dan,
I’ve actually had cards that hold the $1 for 30 days!
Thanx for your tip (about the Exp. Date) it works like a charm.
@Hello:
Great!
@Dan – whenever I applied with a 3BM I did not get instantly approved and had to call recon and explain why I wanted the card to get it approved(even to transfer credit) He applied for so many cards to get them all approved I was wondering what he told recon.
Back to vanilla reloads- anyone know where you can pay with CC near Lakewood
Thanks so much. Super helpful.
@tll:
As long as you have the cards/credit to move around anything can be done.
dan,
can i use an amazon gift card to transfer money to omeone else on amazon payments?
thanks and happy chanuka, (this is your way of giving so many chanuka gelt) thanks again
Thanks for the list! Its also worth mentioning that gift cards at Kohls & Bestbuy also get 5% this quarter.
Dan,
Can you buy a Lowes or HomeDepot card at Staples and then use that card at Lowes or Home Depot to buy other gift cards there that are not availble at Staples.
@boruch:
No.
@thingywingy:
True.
@Mark:
Try it and let us know 🙂
@Mark
Lowes system will not let you purchase a gc with a gc.
I don’t know about home depot.
Hi Dan, I was wondering if you can buy amex gift cards online to meet a threshold, I got an email from amex about a promotion they have going now that you can buy the gift cards with all fees waived, and shipping is only $5.95. Would such a purchase count towards a threshold on any card, and if yes how about on an amex card?
does anyone know which office depot has vanilla cards in new york/new jersey area?
Is OneVanilla the same as MVD? I’ve never seen MVD anywhere near me. No CVS stores in my state 🙁
The T Mobile Prepaid Cards incur fees. Stay away from them.
@Ken: no, one vanilla Visa cards are not the same as MVD cards
Hi Dan I’m looking for a few thousand dollars of gift cards i wanna give to someone in need bderech kovod, if u want I’ll buy from u a whole bunch of cards so Pls contact me in email we can discuss it, tryingdandeals@Gmail. Com
Thanks for the HT first link!
Dan, you mentioned you got the United business card for 50k. I can get the personal card to give me the 50k offer, but I already had that card and I know it’s harder to churn with Chase. How did you get the 50k offer to come up or did you apply for the 30k offer and then SM them?
All of the Office Depot’s in Central New Jersey are not selling the $500 Amex prepaid card anymore (I don’t know if this means they are not selling them anymore or just are out of them.) With Office Depot merging with OfficeMax at the end of the year, it will be interesting to see which stores gift cards win over.
@Mileswhore:
You can send a secure message to get matched to 55K+$50 on the United consumer or to get matched to 50K+$50 on the United business.
I got matched to both after using dan’s link, http://www.dansdeals.com/go/unitedexplorer
I got a call from amex about my amazon payments and the gift cards I bought (I only bought 1 card 2 months ago!) It seems they are catching on hope chase does not but be careful on amex they said they can close your account for this
@Jason Smith:
AFAIK the max gift card in store was always $200, other than the variable amount Amex GC – is that what you’re referring to?
This is one of the all-time most important lists for anyone accumulating points, I print it up and keep it on my desk and a copy in my glove compartment as a handy reference guide. Thank you so much for updating.
I’m not sure if this is the right place just wanted to knnow if I want to do a 3bm with amex is it better to do them at the same time or on the same day not at the same time maybe to try to get some instant aprovals does three at the same time maybe triger a denial or at least not instant aproval thanks dan
@lye: whats wrong with using amex card to buy gift card and make amazon payment. i am not sure you did anything wrong
@lye: what wrong with what you did? why cant you use amex card to purchase gift card and for amazon
IF BUY AMAZON gift card, can it be used as amazon AP ?
1K monthly limit?
@Lamden:
@LAMDEN
you can do the match to sale request. By doing that you can exchange the $1k amazon gift cards for $500 visa or amex cards. and get 2 $15 staples gift cards.
You can ask manager to switch the Amazon $1k gift card for $1k in visa or amex gift cards = 2 $500 visa or amex gift cards.
@lye:
Me too an it cost me a financial review from Amex who was painful!!!!
picked up 5 $200 visa gc at safeway and got $ $75 extra visa gc. matched
Im a newcomer. I just got my ink card and found that office supply stores have no $500 cards. Whats the new plan? If i buy amazon cards, whats the max on that? Ad how do you cash out?
you@Choclk:
you can sell $50 giftcard for $40 and $100 amazon gc for $80.
many sites buy it.
lose 20% on every transaction? i dont get it
1. what is MVD card?
2. what is the advatage of 2x 500 of MC over an amazon card?
3. what type of card can be used as amazon AP?
4. What is a reasonable amount of GC to buy at staples in one visit without having Chase being unhappy with new card? would they have an issue? if they ask what I purchased, what do I say?
@Leibi:
buy $1000 amazon card and exchange for $1000 visa gift cards with no fee.
@choclk:
if you want to sell something, you need to give some discount, otherwise no one will buy it. you can buy $100 amazon gc and sell for $70 or $80. you still made $70 or $80 cash, it is not a bad loss
I’ve been trying to figure out how some of the people in this thread are managing to exchange Amazon giftcards for Visa giftcards (apparently with no fee!). It’s something to do with staples?
Any hints would be appreciated!
Does anyone know where to find DILLARDS gift cards in any of the office supply stores?
Thanks for the help!
any place to buy walmart or Costco?
hey dan, from what im understanding on the web you can take a visa giftcard into any bank and they will cash it out for you is this true?
I use Hess, they don’t charge the extra $0.10 for using a CC
Office Depot no longer lets you buy any of the vanilla or other gift cards with a credit card only cash. Staples will let you but the max is $200
@Noah:
I got that in Miami also…it sucks!
@Noah:
I got that in Miami also…it sucks!
what do you mean by “Amazon Payments can cash out AMEX/MC/Visa gift cards with no fees. Of course if you do $5,000 like that on a new Ink Bold or Ink Plus card you’ll also have earned the 50,000 point signup bonus plus 25,000 points at 5 points per dollar, so you’ll have a total of 75,000 points, all transferable to United, British Airways, Korean, Southwest, Hyatt, and more.”?
what does cash out amex/mc/visa gift cards?
thanks
want to buy prepaid gift cards but staples only has $200 max and office depot and office max both said they don’t have (only store gift cards) (couldnt find them online either). Do you know of any office supply store online or local that sell prepaid cards in larger increments ( so i don’t have to play around with 20 $200 ones and spend 20 times the fee) thanks need fast response if possible im running into deadline shortly with the chase inc
can i load amazon card on amazon and pay a service provider?
Dan, I just tried to buy cards at Office Depot (in CA). Any of the variable priced cards ($20-500) were CASH only. They had some set $200 cards for $6.95 that I could use a CC–no great bargain when I need $6000 in spending to get 30,000 points. Is that specific to that store or to Office Depot? Do others accept CC’s? Please advise.
Thanks
@e&nThankYouDan:
Go to Staples or Office Max.
thank you
staples and office max only sell the set $200 cards for $6.95. any ideas from other readers if this is all CA or only my orange county area would be helpful. thanks
Walmart only let me deposit 2 $500 cards into a bluebird account. Is that a daily limit? Monthly? thanks
@e&nThankYouDan:
$6.95 is a bargain for 5×206 miles.
@e&nThankYouDan:
$1,000/day.
LOVE your blog, one of the best out there.
LOVE this list – but one suggestion to add, Home Improvement Cards (I know Office Depot has, don’t know about Staples/Officemax).
Also Whole Foods I believe is now at Office Depot.
Staples seems to have stopped carrying Marriott gift cards. I checked Staples.com and they are no longer listed. I visited 2 different Staples stores on two different occasions and all 4 times they had the Marriott gift cards, but they could not be activated. I sure this is only temporary, but it’s not looking good.
Staples has spotify cards
I went to Staples today to check out their inventory of cards. I have to say their store here in Temecula, CA is getting very shabby these days.. It reminds me of the Best Buy stores when they were getting ready to go out of business before the company rebranded itself.. Although some BB stores are still a huge mess, the situation has gotten much better for BB.. Anyway, they were out of a LOT of the GCS and the ones they did have were kind of a joke. $200 Amex card with a $6.95 fee. Did not see any hotel cards there. No Vanilla cards. They did have plenty of HD and Lowes and Starbucks of course. I noticed on the back of the HD cards it says 24 hours for activation.. Is that really true? Bummer if so.. HD is right next door, so very easy whenever I need to go to HD to pop into Staples and get the GC before doing my HD shopping.. But now I will have to plan it better and get the cards and wait if the 24 hour rule is really true. It’s a shame the fees are so high on GC’s.. But still at less then 1 penny per point (.0069 rounded up) it’s a HUGE steal if you happen to have the 5X credit card. 🙂 Now I just need to sit down and figure out how much I spend everywhere each month to maximize my strategy for buying GCS.
Anyone know if any of these stores sell prepaid cards that can be used internationally?
Office supply stores in Israel don’t sell anything like this and I’d like to get in on the action 🙂
There’s a system of gift certificates for the different supermarket chains in Israel that are a very popular gift for employees here, but unfortunately, they’re only sold directly from the chains themselves.
Once could buy Vons gift cards at Office Max in Los Angeles area for 5 times pts. Then go to Vons and flip into almost any kind of retail card. No more OM. Any office supply store with VOns cards.
I saw a Vons gift card sold at Staples here
I’ve run into the weirdest problem in the world. I recently got the Ink Plus and tried to buy $100 Home depot cards at Staples. They limited me to 3 cards and would not allow me to add more. I called and some moron in some foreign country told me Home Depot is limiting them. Staples is the only one that sells Home Depot and other cards I need. Anyone encounter this lately and have a solution? Also if anyone knows of any office supply store that sells Amazon cards please let me know. Thank you.