A Bit Of Old News: Office Depot Bad, Staples Good For Gift Card Purchases With Ink Bold Card
There’s been a lot written by travel bloggers about buying gift cards at office supply stores to earn lots of points. I’ve been involved with it for a while myself, though not to the extreme of some. I know I’m supposed to get a Bluebird card and pump it up with Vanilla Reloads. Heck, View From The Wing pretty much demands it of me, daring me to prove him wrong. And, he’s right. But, I’m lucky enough to earn a ton of points through my work expenses and I’m just lazy enough not to want to track down Vanilla Reloads. I started to pay attention a bit too late to the Bluebird saga and by the time I did I couldn’t find a reliable source for Vanilla Reloads nearby my house.
But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of ways to earn points buying gift cards at your local office supply store. There’s the basic cards, like Home Depot, Amazon, Starbucks and a hundred more names of common places you shop. And, you can still buy regular Visa and American Express gift cards using your Ink Bold or Ink Plus cards. I wrote about a month ago that Office Depot had made it official they wouldn’t accept credit cards as a form of payment for gift cards.
However, Staples still has Visa and AMEX cards available. The value proposition is definitely thinner, since the maximum value of the new cards is $200 and they now charge fees between $5 and $7 for the cards. Just something to think about if you’re in the market for these types of gift cards. You can still earn 5X points for buying them.
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