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This is just one of the reasons to have a Ink Plus or Bold card. They pay 5x points at office supply stores like OfficeMax. With a HT to reader George from Twitter you can buy each day all this week 3x$200 cards. Here is how the math breaks down:
- $580.85 cost with activation fee that yields you 2904 UR points worth $36.30 in travel rewards
- You also walk away with $19.15 profit on the cards since they are worth $600
- You then call the number on the back to set a pin – these are Debit cards
- You then load the funds onto you BlueBird and do what you want (there is NO credit pull for BlueBird and anyone can/should get one)!
- You could use your Delta AMEX to help meet $25k MQD exempt spend but less lucrative deal.
This is a great way to make a quick $55.45 per day! Over 6 days you are talking $332.70! It will then take you a few trips over a few days to Walmart to unload them or just spend them. Either way, it makes for a nice point haul! – René
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Just a caveat. I have had zero luck loading master cards to a bluebird. Visa. All day long. MasterCard. No dice. Not sure if anyone else has had the same issue.
@Jon – have you pre-set the pin via phone 1st before going in? But yes, you are not the only one. Even if you have to just spend then it is a killer deal!
Worst case is unloading with AP if you have to.
@Matt – yes Amazon Payments will work but takes a few months vs BlueBird up to 5k a month.
Great deal. Unfortunately there’s only one OM near me and it’s slow (many times I’ve been the only customer in the store) so all the cashiers recognize me by now. I don’t think I’ll get away with doing this 6 days in a row. Would be embarrassing if nothing else.
@Claire – no no reps TOLD ME 1x a day so please come back each day!
Will this deal with the Amex business simple cash be as lucrative as this since it’s 5% cash back at office supply stores?
@Mark – can not say but sound good. test small.
I’m totally confused about this one — the tweet just takes you back here.
Is this in store only? They’re actually selling Visa cards at a discount?
@Bill – MC gift cards in store only. Pay with the card you like best.
Umm, yes, Master Card, not Visa, sorry 🙂
Thanks for clarification. betcha they’re sold out within 30 min, but I’ll give it a shot.
Any clarification as to whether or not these can indeed be used @ Walmart to fund Bluebird? [I read comments #1 and 2] The nearest Walmart to me is in NJ.
@LarsErikNYC – been told my Frequent Miler should be all set with call-in pin.
Great deal! Fortunate to live in an area with numerous OM locations and, apparently, not too many people seeking points/miles. Worked on some SPG AMEX minimum spend yesterday, looking forward to the arrival of the new Ink early this week for another trip to my local stores.
For the sake of alternatives…successfully unloaded my first set as WM MOs. I wouldn’t expect any problems doing a reload on the Serve card (for those of us who hold that card rather than Bluebird) at the CVS register. $1000/day (max $5K/month) should show up as a cash load if CVS is more convenient than WM.
Hmmmm. rather sweet since office max is right next door to Walmart and on my way to work.
Is this a discount at register or rewards back offer?
@traderprofit – at my store up front but if not find the gift card rack and you will (should) see them.
Thanks as always Renee! I did my first “OM Run” today. Do you bother registering the cards online. And do you call in and set pins for many cards at once?
@noah – the Visa ones (not these) you just go online and set pin. These, the MC ones, you call and set the pin. It is all you need to do.
Why not just buy 2x$200? The third one doesn’t get $20 off. What did I miss?
Thanks.
@Joanne – it is $20 when you spend $300. So, to get the lowest in fee’s you buy 3x$200 and only pay 3x$6.95 fees and get $40 back (off).
can i use any credit card i like and still get the 5X points from the MC cards purchase ?? For example i purchase 3$200 MC cards for a total of $600 and charged with my Citi Visa card i will get 5×600 or 3000 points added to my Citi Visa card (which is for my AA mileage account) ??
thanks,
@wayne – No. Only certain cards pay 5x for some stores. INK pays out 5x at office supply stores so you are better off getting an INK card for things like this. As I posted, if you say want to help meet your Delta AMEX spend this would be a way to earn 1x plus some cash. Not much but it will knock off some nice spend of your MQD exemption ($25,000). As far as Citi cards you could earn some AA points but 1x is not all that great. But yes you can.
thanks… will use Ink Bold to max it …
Has anyone had success/difficulty applying “gift card” debit cards to BBird @ Walmart?
I just started buying Vanilla Reload cards at CVS using my reward credit card and loading them onto my Bluebird account. For these MC from OM, I just want to verify the steps (sorry – I’m a rookie at this): 1) buy 3x$200 cards from OM using my reward credit card, 2) set the pin for each card by calling the 800#, 3) load them onto my Bluebird account at a Walmart Customer Service desk.
Is this correct? Am I missing anything? Jon mentioned having issues loading MC onto his Bluebird account. Anyone else having issues? Thank you.
@Randy – correct. Some Walmarts can be buggy. Suggest just hand BB card to clerk and let them know you want to add funds from debit card. They don’t need to see card. Just swipe and put in pin. Ran $600 (ie 3×200) into my and my wifes BB accounts today at local Walmart!
Thanks for the tip! Hit two OM’s today.
There’s only one OM within 65 miles of me and they were out of the $200 cards, but it still sorta works with the $100s. Thanks for the tip.
No MCs in Lahaina, Hawaii. Guy said office max only has Visa cards 🙁
@Liz – hope they have some on Oahu as I will need my fix Friday & Saturday before deal ends! 😉 I hear the unlimited bus pass is cheap and goes everywhere!
@Jon. You can load $100 max. a day to your Bluebird with this MC debit card. If you try more it will not work. So a $200 card will take 2 days to upload.
You don’t have to call in for a pin. You can also register the card on line at mygiftcardsite.com
@Dennis – sorry but very bad advice. You 100% CAN load 1k per day. You can call and set pin. Will have a post on the way soon. Lisa has been loading 3×600 for past few days on both our BB cards 🙂
@Delta Points.
I am looking forward to your post. I can’t get past the $100 per day limit on the BB website account page.
To everyone asking about loading these onto BB: it’s worked 100% for the hubs and I on both the ATM and having a cashier do the transaction. We’ve gone pretty crazy with this deal and it’s worked golden.
I do have a question. My cc limit on my ink is only $8000. How bad is it to spend, pay off the card, and then repeat? We’ve been sooo lucky with this deal so far. We are literally the only people in our entire county that gets in on these deals, and the hubs and I have been going twice a day. We have done $7000 so far (35,000 UR points). Are we pushing our luck by cycling my ink card? Are we destined to get shut down? Thanks for the help!
@Toni – txs for feedback. As to getting shut down, things to think about:
1) are you ONLY running OM charges on card or buying other things also
2) if you need to, pre pay a month or two of cell bill (that is 5x too btw)
3) pay of little things and a tank of gas etc ie MIX IT UP
4) prepay should be fine. I try to never go over 50% of credit limit to avoid issues but others have had issues repeatedly prepaying and charging way over credit line. This is a one off thing but be warred.
5) this is a reason to have more that one ink card like plus and bold or cash to mix up days of spend.
Does this help?
Data Point, loading these at WM for BlueBird does indeed work. One callout I experienced, when you swipe the gift card the machine will try and process it as “credit” then immediately giving you an error “tender not accepted”. Its not new or anything, just be sure to press the “CHANGE PAYMENT” button, right in the middle of the screen after you swipe your gift card. You have about 1 second to hit it. This happened at two WM’s last night for me, before I remembered to hit that button. Just FYI, and maybe a reminder for some!
Also had problems loading BB at walmart – wouldn’t let me load anything prepaid. So I went to the BB site and they only mentioned loading VR cards. I’ll try the tricks here and anxiously await Rene’s post.