Office Depot/Office Max $15 instant discount wyb $300 or more Visa GC FiveBack 10-22 thru 10/28

I mentioned this on the MS thread but it is best to have a separate thread under Hot Deals since a lot of MSers are waiting for this instant $ off on VGCs at OD/OM.

Buy $300 or more Visa GC Five Back (check page 14 of the ad). This is IN-STORE only and limit of 1 per transaction. If you buy $600 worth in one transaction, you will only get $15 off so it’s best to do separate transactions if store will allow depending on their stocks.

This promo starts this Sunday, Oct 22 until Saturday Oct 28.

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Do you need a coupon for this, or it just works automatically? Do you need to enroll on OD/OM rewards program?

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No coupon needed, no scanning of any rewards card for this promo. As long as you meet the threshold amount of required items, you’ll see the instant discount taken off your total just before you pay.

The ONLY possible issue is there are some branches that will refuse to accept CCs and say cash only but MOST OD/OM has accepted CCs as payment for these GCs. I found out those areas with plenty of VGCs during these promo are those that accept only cash.

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I read on another site that you can load these Five Back gift cards onto a Serve account. Any info on how to do this? I never got a Serve, so I was never shut down and I can open one if I’d like. I thought I read that Serve requires a monthly fee and also can only be loaded with cash in recent months so I didn’t think much of it.

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The use of a card like Serve is only worth it if you can’t get MO, IMHO. Otherwise even if you load $10k a month onto multiple cards you’d be saving $7.00 in doing so.

What if I just don’t want to make a special trip to and wait in line at Wal Mart with a bunch of “low SES members of society” only to have my MO transaction messed up or refused by a minimum wage clerk? From my reading on MS threads, it seems like buying MOs at Wal Mart is an enormous hassle requiring skill, experience, and luck to pull off.

Can I load Serve cards online or at CVS or a non-Wal Mart store? And how do you get the money off Serve, can you get it from an ATM? I don’t mind dealing with cash. I’d rather have cash than MOs. I have a business checking account and if I show up depositing large chunks of cash, it’s less suspicious than MOs. I also use cash for several large purchases so if I wound up with as few thousand cash, I wouldn’t be mad at it.

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This is $200 VGC, so you have to pay $13.90 in fees before the $15 discount. For the stores in my area, CC is accepted for fixed GC, but not VGC. Not sure if this is categorized as VGC, since the maximum amount is only $200.

Last Q of 2015 was the last time I’ve seen VGC variables at my OM for which they only accepted cash for those, but took CC for the fixed amount VGCs.

For the last 3 offers of instant $ discount at my OD/OM, I have always paid CCs for them and my store allowed separate transactions since there are very few shoppers at their store. 5Bs were very profitable then before Lowes got out of the 5B program so now 5Bs are treated just like any VGC to be drained to reloadable prepaids or MOs.

With this promo, two 5Bs will have $13.90 fees so that leaves $1.10 small profit after the instant discount PLUS CC rewards earned on $398.90.

This promo is NOT for those:
a. whose stores have cash only policy for all VGCs;
b. who realize $1.10 profit is not worth a trip to the store;
c. who don’t have 2%, 3% or 5% reward card that’ll justify a trip to the store.

For others who have done this in the past and have seen how profitable it can be, I’m sure they’ll go for it.

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This is a valid point.

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That’s why MS at scale is conceptually simple, but far from easy.

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I went to my local Office Depot on Monday and bought a pair of cards. Used Chase Ink card for 5% off and the register automatically applied the discount and the total was $398 and some change.

I went again on Tuesday and they were sold out. I might try a few more Office Depot on other parts of town when I am in that area for other reasons later this week.

Sometimes they only put a few cards on the rack. Ask someone to check the inside of the rack.

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I stopped by one yesterday and also had none.