I like to take advantage of buying gift cards [1] for cash back when it’s convenient, but I rarely run out to a store just to purchase gift cards. However, when a store makes them available online, I like to seize the opportunity to make money!
Chasing the Points [2] discovered that Staples recently started selling their $200 Visa gift cards online! Here’s how I’m putting together my orders to buy them and earn 8.5% cash back!
How to Buy Visa Gift Cards Online
- Login to your Swagbucks [3] account to earn 6% – 6.6% cash back at Staples.
- Use Your American Express Simply Cash [4] card for 5% cash back at office supply stores.
- Search for the Visa $200 Gift Cards to purchase.
- Pay $6.95 activation fee per card.
Here’s the card you are looking for:
Other Options and Twists
Cash Back Accounts. If you don’t have a Swagbucks [3] account, you can also use your Upromise [5] account which currently pays 5% cash back.
Credit Cards. I figured many of you have the American Express Simply Cash [4] card from the bonus they offered this spring. If you don’t have this card, you can also use a Chase Ink [6] card which also pays 5% at office supply stores.
Visa cards. If you use an Ink card with a Visa logo, you can also add an additional 1% cash back from the Visa Savings Edge [7] program.
Amazon gift cards. If you redeem your Swagbucks [3] for Amazon gift cards, the cash back rate is 6.6%, not 6%.
Swagbucks Bonus. If you don’t have a Swagbucks account, you can use this SwagBucks Cashback Sign Up Bonus [8] which apparently still works.
Do The Math
Here’s how the math broke down for me. I purchased 10 x $200 gift cards worth $2000 in an order:
- Activation Fees of $6.95 x 10 = $69.50
- Swagbucks Cashback for Amazon gift cards: $136.59
- American Express Cashback: $103.47
Total Profit:
- Rewards: $136.59 + $103.47 = $240.06
- Fees: $69.50
- Profit: $170.56
Total Cash Back on Gift Cards $170.56 / 2,000 = 8.5%
Spending Your Gift Cards
I just finished paying our taxes [9] with gift cards, so this was the perfect time to replenish my stack of gift cards. At 8.5% cash back, it’s currently a better deal than any of the current quarterly rotating cash rewards [10].
While we can probably also add these gift cards to our Serve [11] or Bluebird [12] accounts, I’m also looking forward to testing out a new bill payment service: Evolve. Let me know if you have used Evolve for cashing out gift cards, I’d love to hear how well it worked! Stay tuned for more on that experiment! Update: How to Cash Out Gift Cards Online Using Evolve Money to Pay Your Bills [13]!