Earning Points and Miles with Visa and Mastercard Gift Cards
Unlike prepaid debit card products mentioned in the other pages, Visa gift cards aren't reloadable. Visa and Mastercard gift cards are sold at drugstores, truck stops, grocery stores, gas station convenience stores, and office supply stores. These stores oftentimes also sell One Vanilla cards, which function the same as Visa gift cards. In San Jose, some of these stores include CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Safeway, Save Mart, 7-11, and Office Depot. In Tuscaloosa, Visa gift cards are also sold at Winn-Dixie and Marathon/Kangaroo Express. They are incredibly lucrative because you don't have to worry about load limits. You can hypothetically manufacture spend an unlimited amount with Visa and Mastercard gift cards.
Cost of Buying Visa and Mastercard Gift Cards at Non-Office Supply Stores
They come in many different amounts, and you get the most value by buying the Visa gift cards with the highest amounts. Visa and Mastercard gift cards you would find at drugstores, truck stops, grocery stores, and gas stations tend to be loadable up to $500. Many of the Visa and Mastercard gift cards come with a $4.95 fee. However, some of them, especially at grocery stores and gas stations might have a $5.95 fee. When you want to buy some, just take the Visa gift card from the rack and bring it to the register. Tell the cashier how much money you want to load onto the Visa gift card. It's best to load the maximum amount if it's a variable load gift card, in order to maximize your use of the fee.
Again, the most common type of Visa and Mastercard gift card I've seen has been variable load gift cards, loadable up to $500 for a $4.95 fee. So, without taking bonus points into account, the cost of manufactured spending by buying Visa gift cards is about 1 cent per dollar. For some of the Visa gift cards at grocery stores and gas station convenience stores, the cost is about 1.2 cents per dollar of manufactured spending.
Like reload cards, you can get very good value when you buy Visa gift cards and earn bonus points. For example, let's say you buy a $500 Visa gift card at a gas station convenience store for a $4.95 fee, and you use a credit card such as the Chase Ink that offers double points at gas stations. This would be a cost of 0.5 cents per point. If you buy a $500 Visa gift card at a grocery store using a card that offers double points at grocery stores, and pay a $4.95 fee, your cost would also be 0.5 cents per point. Even if the fee is $5.95, your cost would still be only 0.6 cents per point. You can even get more points in some other cases. For example, if you were to buy a Visa gift card at a drug store using an old Amex Blue Cash card, you would earn $25 cash back and pay a 4.95 fee. This would be about $20 in profit for each Visa gift card you buy.
Again, the most common type of Visa and Mastercard gift card I've seen has been variable load gift cards, loadable up to $500 for a $4.95 fee. So, without taking bonus points into account, the cost of manufactured spending by buying Visa gift cards is about 1 cent per dollar. For some of the Visa gift cards at grocery stores and gas station convenience stores, the cost is about 1.2 cents per dollar of manufactured spending.
Like reload cards, you can get very good value when you buy Visa gift cards and earn bonus points. For example, let's say you buy a $500 Visa gift card at a gas station convenience store for a $4.95 fee, and you use a credit card such as the Chase Ink that offers double points at gas stations. This would be a cost of 0.5 cents per point. If you buy a $500 Visa gift card at a grocery store using a card that offers double points at grocery stores, and pay a $4.95 fee, your cost would also be 0.5 cents per point. Even if the fee is $5.95, your cost would still be only 0.6 cents per point. You can even get more points in some other cases. For example, if you were to buy a Visa gift card at a drug store using an old Amex Blue Cash card, you would earn $25 cash back and pay a 4.95 fee. This would be about $20 in profit for each Visa gift card you buy.
Visa Gift Cards at Simon Malls
I saw this on a Flyertalk thread, and it seems interesting. At an info kiosk at a Simon Mall, you can buy $500 Visa gift cards for a $2.95 fee. According to one of the posts on the thread, they do accept credit cards for these Visa gift cards. Apparently, you can call a phone number on the Visa gift card to set a PIN on it. This is a cost of about 0.6 cents per dollar of manufactured spending. This is a pretty good deal, especially if you're using a credit card that doesn't have any useful bonus categories. It's cheaper than Vanilla Reloads and PayPal My Cash cards.
For a list of Simon Mall locations, click here. The closest mall to my house is the Great Mall in Milpitas.
For a list of Simon Mall locations, click here. The closest mall to my house is the Great Mall in Milpitas.
Visa Gift Cards at Office Supply Stores
This is where it gets interesting. At physical office supply stores like Office Depot, Staples, and Office Max, the most valuable Visa and Mastercard gift cards tend to have a fixed value of $200, with a $6.95 fee. Normally, a 3.5% fee for manufactured spending isn't worth it. The fees you pay would be more than the value of the points you earn from credit card spending. However, in Frequent Miler's Best Category Bonuses page, you can see that you earn 5 points per dollar spent when using a Chase Ink card at office supply stores. So, with those $200 Visa gift cards at office supply stores, your cost is about 0.7 cents per point.
There sometimes also other deals you can take advantage of at office supply stores, that make buying Visa gift cards there even more lucrative.
Two particular cash back portals, Shop Discover and Upromise, currently offer 5% cash back on Staples.com. Staples sells $100 Visa gift cards on their website for a $6.95 fee. So, go through Shop Discover or Upromise to Staples.com, and use your Ink card to order Visa gift cards and have them shipped to you. For each Visa gift card you buy, you earn 535 Ultimate Rewards points and $5.35 in cash back. When taking the initial fee and cash back into account, you pay $1.60 in net fees, and have a cost of about 0.3 cents per point.
You can even take it a step further if you want. If you go through a cash back portal to Staples.com, and buy Staples gift cards, you earn cash back for that purchase. Also, you can use Staples gift cards on their website to buy Visa gift cards, and earn cash back for that. A $100 Staples gift card on Staples.com has a $1.99 fee. So, if you do this method, you pay a total of $8.94 in fees, earn $10.45 in cash back (5*101.99+5*106.95), and earn about 500 Ultimate Rewards points. This means you can earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points at a profit.
This is off-topic, but I saw in the Laboratory that you can go through a cash back portal and use a Staples gift card online to buy another Staples gift card. Doing this apparently earns cash back. So, if you keep doing this repeatedly, you potentially can get free money. I don't know if it's worth the effort to do this, though. You don't earn the 5X Ultimate Rewards points if you do this.
Let's say that your Ink card is registered with Visa Savings Edge, and you go to a physical Staples store to buy $200 Visa gift cards. You would earn 1,035 Ultimate Reward points and $2.07 cash back for each card you buy. The cash back partially offsets the initial purchase fee for the Visa gift card, so you pay a net fee of 4.88 and have a net cost of 0.47 cents per point.
What if you combine Visa Savings Edge with the cash back portal deal? Your Chase Ink Visa is registered with Visa Savings Edge, and you go through a cash back portal to Staples.com. You buy some $100 Visa gift cards. The fee would be $6.95. You would earn 5% cash back, or $5.35, from the cash back portal, and you would earn 1% cash back, or $1.07, from Visa Savings Edge. This would be a net fee of about 53 cents. This means you're earning Ultimate Rewards points for about a tenth of a cent per point. That's a tremendous value.
You can redeem your Plink points for gift cards such as Walmart and Amazon. So, Plink points are essentially redeemable for cash equivalents. When it comes to redeeming, each Plink point is worth about 1 cent.
Let's say your Ink card is registered with Plink, and you buy a $200 Visa gift card at Office Depot. You would earn $3 in Plink rewards, and this partially offsets the $6.95 fee for the Visa gift card. So, your net fee would be about $3.95. This reduces your cost per Ultimate Rewards point to about 0.38 cents.
There sometimes also other deals you can take advantage of at office supply stores, that make buying Visa gift cards there even more lucrative.
- Cash back portals
Two particular cash back portals, Shop Discover and Upromise, currently offer 5% cash back on Staples.com. Staples sells $100 Visa gift cards on their website for a $6.95 fee. So, go through Shop Discover or Upromise to Staples.com, and use your Ink card to order Visa gift cards and have them shipped to you. For each Visa gift card you buy, you earn 535 Ultimate Rewards points and $5.35 in cash back. When taking the initial fee and cash back into account, you pay $1.60 in net fees, and have a cost of about 0.3 cents per point.
You can even take it a step further if you want. If you go through a cash back portal to Staples.com, and buy Staples gift cards, you earn cash back for that purchase. Also, you can use Staples gift cards on their website to buy Visa gift cards, and earn cash back for that. A $100 Staples gift card on Staples.com has a $1.99 fee. So, if you do this method, you pay a total of $8.94 in fees, earn $10.45 in cash back (5*101.99+5*106.95), and earn about 500 Ultimate Rewards points. This means you can earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points at a profit.
This is off-topic, but I saw in the Laboratory that you can go through a cash back portal and use a Staples gift card online to buy another Staples gift card. Doing this apparently earns cash back. So, if you keep doing this repeatedly, you potentially can get free money. I don't know if it's worth the effort to do this, though. You don't earn the 5X Ultimate Rewards points if you do this.
- Visa Savings Edge
Let's say that your Ink card is registered with Visa Savings Edge, and you go to a physical Staples store to buy $200 Visa gift cards. You would earn 1,035 Ultimate Reward points and $2.07 cash back for each card you buy. The cash back partially offsets the initial purchase fee for the Visa gift card, so you pay a net fee of 4.88 and have a net cost of 0.47 cents per point.
What if you combine Visa Savings Edge with the cash back portal deal? Your Chase Ink Visa is registered with Visa Savings Edge, and you go through a cash back portal to Staples.com. You buy some $100 Visa gift cards. The fee would be $6.95. You would earn 5% cash back, or $5.35, from the cash back portal, and you would earn 1% cash back, or $1.07, from Visa Savings Edge. This would be a net fee of about 53 cents. This means you're earning Ultimate Rewards points for about a tenth of a cent per point. That's a tremendous value.
- Plink
You can redeem your Plink points for gift cards such as Walmart and Amazon. So, Plink points are essentially redeemable for cash equivalents. When it comes to redeeming, each Plink point is worth about 1 cent.
Let's say your Ink card is registered with Plink, and you buy a $200 Visa gift card at Office Depot. You would earn $3 in Plink rewards, and this partially offsets the $6.95 fee for the Visa gift card. So, your net fee would be about $3.95. This reduces your cost per Ultimate Rewards point to about 0.38 cents.
- Office Depot and Shopkick
You can redeem your kicks for gift cards such as Target, Starbucks, and Best Buy. So, just like Plink, kicks are essentially redeemable for cash equivalents. When it comes to redeeming, 250 kicks are worth about $1.
For example, let's say you buy a $200 Visa gift card at Office Depot. You would earn 206 kicks for your purchase, and 375 bonus kicks for a total of 581 kicks. These kicks have a value of $2.32. So, you would pay a net fee of $6.95-$2.32=$4.63, and your cost is therefore about 0.45 cents per Ultimate Rewards point earned.
Until April 10, 2014, you can combine this offer with Plink. Since Plink gives you $3 worth of rewards, and Shopkick gives you $2.32 worth of rewards, your net fee would be $1.63, and your net cost would be 0.16 cents per Ultimate Rewards point.
One possibility I'm wondering about is split transactions. If you can ask the cashier to split the transaction into two amounts of about $100 each, then you can earn 206 base kicks, and a total of 750 bonus kicks. This overall is worth $3.82, your net fee is $3.13, and your cost is about 0.3 cents per point. You might be able to take it a step further. Let's say you buy a $200 Visa gift card and ask the cashier to split the transaction three ways: have two splits for $75, and another for the remaining balance. You would earn 206 base Shop Kicks, and then earn 375+375+250=1,000 bonus kicks. 1,206 total kicks are worth $4.82, so you pay a net fee of $2.13 for the Visa gift card, and have a cost of about 0.21 cents per Ultimate Rewards point.
- OfficeMax promotions
Click here to read about how to liquidate Visa and Mastercard gift cards. I mentioned these liquidation methods in some of my other pages, so you might be familiar with it already.