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Feb
I’m fortunate to live one block from a CVS and two and a half blocks from a Staples. That’s wonderfully convenient for experimentation. Because both stores sell lots of gift cards, which means opportunities for earning points.
Office Depot is a bit farther afield, it’s a metro ride away for me, but often the most useful. My Staples only sells American Express gift cards up to $200, and word is that Office Depot is following suit at least for the next several months (Pizza in Motion says the $500 cards will be coming back at a slightly higher fee).
I’ll use those Amex gift cards, I’m willing to go through the hassle to earn 5 points per dollar. But they stock all sorts of store cards, too. Some of them make sense, but most of them are too much of a hassle and I don’t find them worthwhile.
The Three Best Store Gift Cards for Earning Points
I love Staples for Amazon gift cards, iTunes gift cards and Starbucks gift cards.
I buy them with my Ink Plus® Business Card.
You buy them at face value, there’s no extra charge. So a $50 Amazon gift card costs $50. And purchasing them at an office supply store, I earn 5 points per dollar with my Ink Plus. And thus I’m earning 5 points per dollar for my Amazon.com spending.
The same is true for my Starbucks spending, I buy $25 Starbucks gift cards in whatever quantity I wish, earn 5 points per dollar on my Starbucks spending.
When Gift Cards are Easy and When They’re Hard
These office supply stores stock lots of different kinds of gift cards, but Amazon, iTunes, and Starbucks are the store-specific cards that I find most useful because I can take the gift card and add it to my online account right away.
Gift cards can be really inconvenient.
- You have to carry them around and have them on hand when it’s time to use them.
- They may not cover your whole bill so you have to split a payment with a credit card, which is a hassle.
- It can be hard to spend every last dollar off the gift card, you could easily wind up with a stack of gift cards with low balances remaining. Unspent gift card dollars are a real cost.
But with Amazon, it’s really simple, you log into your account and add the gift card’s value. That way the next time you buy something at Amazon.com the credit balance is right there ready to be applied. There’s no gift card to track, no remaining balance to liquidate.
The same works for iTunes, and I use that because I stock my own inflight entertainment on my laptop, no need to rely on airlines to provide me something at my seatback.
Similarly, I log into my Starbucks account and register the Starbucks gift cards I’ve bought. Then I move the funds from the newly registered card to my main card. Boom, I now only have one Starbucks card to worry about. I even unregister the now-zero-balance gift card so as not to clutter my account.
And since I have the Starbucks app on my phone, I pay with that, I don’t even have to carry a gift card at all in order to be earning 5 points per dollar at Starbucks.
Which is much better of course than earning just 1 point per dollar for an online or automatic reload of the card, or 2 points per dollar reloading in-store with a Chase Sapphire PreferredSM card.
Leveraging Amazon
Every couple of years I look back on my old orders, I’ve been registered with them since 1997. My entire order history is online. It’s a virtual walk down memory lane. It also makes it pretty simple to figure out how much I spend with Amazon, to know how much it’s reasonable for me to buy in gift cards — so that I can be earning 5 points per dollar on things I will buy anyway.
And I do make significant purchases from Amazon. I buy clothing, computers and peripherals, and a variety of everyday items. It takes some shopping to find the best deals, the things that aren’t priced higher than they should be to compensate for free shipping. But Amazon is also the source of paper towels for my home, ordering them online and having them delivered sure beats battling the crowds at Target.
Since I have a .edu email address I was able to sign up for Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping for six months without cost.
When you have an Amazon Prime account you can extend your free shipping benefit to others. Not everyone needs to pay for it, friends and family who have it can give it to you for free as well. Or students or faculty that you know can get it free for six months, and extend their free subscription to you. Such folks can even take turns signing up for free six month subscriptions. Although I actually do think it’s worth the $39 annual fee.
Double Dipping for Free Drinks Faster
Folks who swipe their Starbucks card 30 times in a year earn Gold status with the coffee chain. Once Gold, then every 12 transactions earns a free drink or food item, and the key word there is transaction rather than item.
That’s the one tip I want to pass along about Starbucks cards: they don’t award a credit (or “Star” as they call it) based on the number of items you purchase. They award a credit — towards achieving status, retaining status, and getting your next free drink — for each swipe of the card.
So if you’re buying two drinks, pay for them ‘separately’ with the same Starbucks card. Three drinks? Pay with three separate swipes. You’ll earn free drinks faster.
Do note that the Ink Plus and Chase Sapphire PreferredSM cards, two of the primary cards I carry in my wallet, will offer referral credit to me if you’re approved when applying through one of my links. These links provide the best available offers for those cards, and I greatly appreciate it.
robert w said,
my staples also sells gas cards. those are also easy to use. when people get all excited about 2x points for gas I can get 5x points if i buy the cards at staples. my supermarket has a huge amount of car. if you have a cc with supermarket big binuses you can get a ton at supermarkets.
gomike said,
One thing to keep in mind when paying with gift card, you miss out on the free one year extended warranty from American Express.
The Miles Professor said,
I have actually been going to Office Depot and buying Sephora, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s gift cards and then using them through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. I usually end up buying a little more than the cost of the gift card (e.g. $50 gift card for $60 purchase) and a little bit gets charged to my Chase card.
I have had the points post every time, as far as I’ve been keeping track. This lets me get an *extra* 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on top of what the Ultimate Rewards Mall offers!
FlyingDoctorWu said,
I’ve been hit or miss in terms of getting points via the Ultimate Rewards mall and not using my Chase card. I found a $100 Amazon card the other day at Staples, which is much more convenient than the $50s… I put about $500 a spend a month at Amazon so that’s netting my an extra 2000 points a month… Don’t tell anyone, but I keep $50 Shell gift cards in the sunglasses holder of my car… unfortunately, these days $50 doesn’t fill up my car. but I fill up every other week so that’s an extra 300 points a month…
Jana said,
Does this only work with the ink card? I have the sapphire preferred.
Gary said,
@Jana – Sapphire Preferred you can earn 2 points per dollar reloading your Starbucks card at Starbucks (dining bonus) but only Ink Plus and Ink Bold earn 5x at office supply stores.
MileageUpdate said,
But who’s gonna spend 50k a year at Amazon and Starbucks
Alex said,
More on what gomike said, you do sacrifice all of your great buyer protections that many CCs offer when you use this technique on amazon purchases. Sure, for paper towel doesn’t matter, but when you’re buying electronics and even clothing, accidental damage, return protection, loss/theft, extended warranty, etc. are all sacrificed.
Gary said,
You do give up credit card coverage, something I’ve used once in my life (my current phone) but Amazon coverage itself is reasonably good.
Alex said,
When I buy generic gift cards, I’ve been sacrificing another $3 by loading $1K at a time onto the American Express for Target. You can either then use it to buy the Vanilla Reloads or you get the purchase protection.
The Miles Professor said,
@Alex – I’ve been buying Vanilla reloads directly with the Amex/Visa gift cards I buy from Office Depot. YMMV, but I haven’t needed to load them onto the Amex for Target card first.
I suppose the gift card doesn’t have your name on it when they check ID and it may look odd why you’re using one gift card to buy another. It’s been ok for me, though.
JohnnieD said,
Every time I go to home depot I stop at officemax and buy hd gift cards. OM is right on the way to hd. You can use multiple cards on your purchase even one with $1.05 on it.
Jeff said,
Why not use Citi Forward which provides 5% back at Starbucks and Amazon with no gift card hassles?
The Miles Professor said,
@Jeff – Very good point. However, I actually value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.8 cents each so using the Chase Ink Bold comes in at 9% back, almost twice as much as the Citi Forward! Some people value these points at upwards of 2-3 cents each.
You can always redeem the Ultimate Rewards points at 1 cent each directly or 1.25 cents each when paying for travel. So even if you don’t want to convert to miles, your get 5% back in the absolute worst case scenario. But if you do want to convert to miles, there is potential for much better value.
maximizer said,
I have several Amazon subscriptions (e.g., paper towels). Is it possible to use Amazon gift cards for subscriptions, automatically if you have any in your account?
nikdro said,
Amazon prime is only $39 for .edu accounts after the 6 month free subscription is up, it is actually $79/year for everyone else
Mike said,
I’ve paid my rent the last 2 months through WilliamPaid using Amex GCs bought through BigCrumbs (1.4%+) to reach min spend. That means for each dollar spent on rent I’m earning one point and paying 1.35 cents overall in fees. I’m absolutely okay with that loss because some of the other means are sketchy or too time-consuming for me. But it looks like I could buy those same GCs from Staples on my Ink and for each dollar I’d earn 5 points and pay 2.75 cents in fees. If I value UR at 1.8 cents each my old method earns me 0.045 cents/dollar while the new way would be worth 6.25 cents/dollar.
Is it trouble or odd to buy a big stack of $200 Amex GCs? I try to avoid any sort of confrontation…
Ryan said,
Yeah, Amazon Prime for students is $79/year normally.
Originally, it was free for a year, then half-price for 3 more
Then it was free for 6 months, then half-price for 3 more.
Now it’s free for 6 months, half-price for 3 more, but you have to prove active student status with dated transcripts or other documentation.
My .edu address is still live although I graduated years ago, but I can’t get half-price prime any more because I don’t have paperwork to back it.
Jeff said,
It isn’t really true that anyone with an .edu e-mail address is eligible for Amazon Student. You have to be a be “a college student actively enrolled in at least one course at a college geographically located in one of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico.” And you do have to affirm that you meet this requirement when signing up. Faculty members, alumni, etc. do not qualify.
Gary said,
@Mike there’s no trouble though the value of $200 amex gift cards at same fee as the $500s is a bit less lucrative
Gary said,
@maximizer – great question will have to see if they pull from gift cert balances first (which is what I would guess but do not know for sure)
Mike said,
Ah, I hadn’t taken card fees into consideration. I like that I can get $3,000 in Amex GCs fee free even with overnight delivery. A recurring fee at $200 each would add up significantly.
I think I’ll stick with the non-optimal setup I have to just buy Amex GCs through BigCrumbs for variable cashback (current and min I’ve seen is 1.4%) and pay rent with them through WilliamPaid for 2.75% fee until I meet spend thresholds (rent adds up quickly). It’s low stress and low sketch.
Glenn said,
As I’ve got a current 3X AA Miles offer from Citi going (up to 2500 miles, gas/drug/groceries, emailed shortly after calling to cancel), I just bought some Amazon Gift Cards at Safeway. I’ve actually had a little trouble finding these at Staples and Office Depot, perhaps because they compete with each other while Safeway not so much? Anyway, found both $100 and $500 Amazon Gift Cards. Unfortunately the $500 card hit the fraud detection and I had to toss it to get the transaction to clear. Too bad as the scratch strips on the back of those Amazon Gift Cards are a giant pain…
Also useful for those with Amex Hilton Surpass Cards looking for the 6X hit at drug or grocery stores.
Gary said,
Don’t mind the smaller denomination Amazon cards becasue they are sold at face value — one wants the bigger Amex cards because the fee to purchase them is the same regardless of denomination
Xurando said,
My Amazon prime account costs $70 a year. Am I doing something wrong?
CubsGirl said,
A reminder to those with a stack of gift cards with small balances: balances of $0.15 and higher can be used to buy an Amazon gift card on-line (and Amazon pools the amounts). This was a life saver for me. Since learning about that, I’ve also had success at coffee shops (when they are not crowded) having them apply a single small amount card to “kill the pesky” gift card.
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