Random News: 3 New AMEX Offers, Staples Gift Card and Paper Deals, and Office Depot AMEX Gift Card Deal
Good evening from Washington, DC. I had a great time at FTU Advanced this weekend at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City hotel. I appreciate meeting readers and other miles and points addicts over the past few days. I will be at TravelCon on February 28 (maybe speaking) and attending FTU Advanced in San Diego on March 6-8. I’m not sure tickets are still for sale, but if you bought one, I look forward to seeing you there.
Anyway, there are 3 new AMEX Offers that showed up in my account.
I talked about this offer on Thursday (link), but now the offer is live. Purchase $100 or more in Visa, MasterCard, or American Express gift cards at a Staples store and get a $15 Staples gift card as a rebate.
If your rebate doesn’t print out, you can still submit your rebate online by using rebate number 14-14468. Here are the offer terms below.
If you are low on paper (impossible, thanks to Staples), here are some cheap paper deals.
Last but not least, Office Depot has their own gift card deal. Purchase $300 or more in AMEX gift cards and get $15 off your purchase (hat tip to Frequent Miler).
There is also a targeted Office Depot offer from Bank of America’s BankAmeriDeals.
There are 2 other BankAmeriDeals in my account.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I have to get to bed early so I can get up early and go on a tour of the US Capitol. Have a great evening everyone!
did you look closely at the OD amex $300 buy for $15 rebate. its for the variable amex card, of which they dont take CC for that type of purchase, also if its for the $200 Amex GC, then we are talking about roughly $14 in fees with CC purchase and come out ahead of $1 after rebate and 2k plus points
I agree that it is definitely not as good a deal as it originally seems. Thanks for pointing out the net results.
The deal is for the fixed value Amex.
That is what I thought. Thanks for clarifying Chris.
With the Staples $15.00 gift card after at least $100 of purchase, is the staples gift card only valid at staples, of is a visa gift card that is valid anywhere?
The Staples GC can be used at Staples or Staples.com. The Visa, MC, or AMEX GCs can be used anywhere.
Why is it that I do not see these Amex offers on my Amex Offers tab in the Bluebird app? I have never used them before, because I just learned that they are available to Bluebird, I thought it was only for Serve.
Only AMEX knows why. They are all targeted offers. If AMEX thinks they can convince you to shop at a particular store by offering a discount, they will show you the offer. This is why everyone has different offers linked to their accounts.
Watch for Get a one-time $40 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to make a single purchase of $175+ on all charges to your room, including your room rate, when you pay for your stay with DoubleTree by Hilton between 11/24/14 and 2/2/15.
Look also for Get a 1X $50 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to spend a total of $150+ on all room charges, including room rate, at Hyatt Place hotels between 11/28/14 & 2/28/15. Check out must occur on or before 2/28/15 to be eligible for the credit.
I’ve seen both of those offers, but have yet to participate in those offers. I believe I mentioned those offers a few weeks ago.
Grant, saw today, a one-time $20 statement credit by using your enrolled AMEX Card to spend a total of $100 or more in-store at Staples or online at Staples.com by 12/31/2014. Used it in conjunction with Staples 15$ Gift Card Offer. Used on 2 separate AMEX Cards. Got instant Message from AMEX for using those offers on the enrolled cards. Used EasyRebates site to submit my Staples Requests. Since Staples 15$ Gift Card Offer is limited to one per household, will see if i get lucky getting 2 $15 GIft Cards, though i doubt it.
Sounds like it should count. You might only get one $15 rebate Staples GC.
You need another address, with another name, to properly get that second rebate, Why not send extra rebate cards to friends / family you can trust, or owe a favor to?
tried to load 3 metabank visa GCs from Staples to BB today and all 3 failed. anyone know why? no where near my monthly limit.
That is strange, did you set a PIN on the GCs before you tried to unload them?
Hey Grant — a question for you about these never-ending Staples paper deals. I like them because I actually use the paper (but well under 100 sheets a week, so it’s still piling up!). I always clip the coupon and buy one ream at a time. But I see the Easy Rebate typically allows 4 reams a week. Could I buy all 4 reams at one time and get the rebate — or do I need 4 separate receipts?
BTW, the other reason I like the paper deals is because my Visa/MC gift card buying tends to amass more Staples gift cards than I really need for office supplies. The paper rebates let me monetize these cards.
You will have to check if you can purchase multiple reams of paper with the coupon and the rebate. If you can with both, then you should be good.
Like you, I redeem my Staples GCs on paper, nothing else :)
Often the coupon is limit 1. So, you would have to buy each of your 4 reams of paper separately. It depends upon how nice your cashier/store is as to whether they will let you do this.
Sometimes in your “coupon wallet” in the rewards center there will be a coupon that is the same, except it doesn’t have the limit 1 wording on it. Then, I print out 4 and use them all in 1 transaction. I haven’t seen these versions of the paper coupon in a while, though.
What a cluster the OD/OM $15 rebate can be … not sure If I will ever go back to Office Max.
My experience, which I sent to their complaint department, follows. It is rather long, because I was pissed at their incompetence.
“Dear Office Depot / Office Max:
I visited your OfficeMax store in Reading, PA, on Dec 12.
I noticed the promotional offer sign over the gift card display rack stating “$15 OFF – When you purchase $300 in American Express™ Gift Cards. Valid 12/7/14 through 12/13/14.
American Express Gift Card Offer: Purchase must be one transaction. Limit 1 offer per household/customer. Offer excludes the variable load $25 – $500 gift card. Purchase fees apply. Terms and conditions apply to Gift Cards. Some limitations apply.”
So, it was obvious to me there was a $300 minimum spend in your promotion offer, and I picked up two $200 face value AMEX gift cards and went to the register. Then, two employees and the POS made it impossible for me to buy them for these reasons:
1. I was initially told the promo had expired when they rang it up and no instant rebate appeared before card swipe. Then, I showed the manager the sign with the wording above… and the promo date was valid thru 12/13.
2. Then they stated that two $200 face value cards do not qualify, as the purchase amount must be EXACTLY $300. So, I swapped one $200 gift card for a $100 gift card, to make the value of both $300.
3. Then, the female “manager” told me they will not accept the $100 and $200 face value purchase of two AMEX cards at one time, thinking “limit 1″ means limit to one gift card at a time. According to your ad copy above, Limit 1 means limit 1 per household/person, right? I pointed out the sign had an image of a $100 AND a $200 face value gift card, strongly suggesting that was an allowable combination, but she would not budge.
Finally, I left the store, as too much time had been wasted trying to avail of an offer than was roadblocked so hard (in three ways) by uninformed, lazy (they could not be bothered to retrieve the ad or sign to verify the terms) and NON-customer focused staff.
In a related matter, many months ago, I visited Office Depot when there was a similar gift card rebate promotion, and the instant rebate posted automatically to the POS device before my card was charged. It is unfortunate that OFFICEMAX stores do not have their POS system synched with Office Depot, more than six months later.”
END of RANT … will let the group know of any feedback they give me.
Wow Jason, I’m sorry for that horrible experience. You did everything you could, but they were not willing to help. I much prefer Staples, even if the lines are longer and checkout is slower. At least their coupons, deals, and rebate work properly and the cashiers/managers know what they are doing. I hope you get some kind of response from OM/OD soon. Have a great weekend!
Thanks, Grant. Congrats on the new Bay area job; and hope to meet you sometime soon!