For every $300+ in Visa gift cards that you buy in Office Max stores by 12/26 you’ll get $20 back instantly!

If you buy 3 $200 Visa gift cards in store you’ll pay $20.85 in card fees and get back $40 instantly.

If you buy 9 $200 Visa gift cards in store you’ll pay $62.55 in card fees and get back $120 instantly.

But the real reason to bother with these if that when you use your Chase Ink Plus or Chase Ink Cash card you get 5 points per dollar spent.

If you buy $1,800 in gift cards you’ll pay $1,742.55 and you’ll get 8,713 Ultimate Rewards points! If you value those points at 1.6 cents each that’s a profit of $57.45 off face value plus $139.40 worth of points=$196.85 total profit!

But I like scaling these things a bit more.

I have a new Ink Plus card, so this promotion is great timing.

I went out today to a local Office Max and picked up 60 of the $200 Visa gift cards in 7 transactions:

Those gift cards are worth $12,000. I paid $11,617 for them. That’s a $383 profit right there.

But I’ll also get 60K points for the signup bonus and another 60K points for spending $12K at an office supply store where you earn 5 points per dollar on an Ink card.

That’s 120K of Chase points. It only takes 57K for a private walled-in suite from JFK to Europe on Singapore.

Not bad for 20 minutes in the store.

OK, so it will also take some time to load them to Serve or cash them out via money orders, but that’s still an amazing value.

The $100 gift cards will also be profitable, though not as lucrative as the $200 gift cards.

You can use the gift cards for everyday purchases or you can cash them out.

You can use the last 4 digits of the card as the PIN number to cash them out via methods like:

-You can load up to $2,500 per day and $5,000 per month onto a One VIP Serve card or Bluebird card at a WalMart ATM, cashier, or customer service counter for free. Just say you want to use your debit card, no need to mention that it’s a gift card. Note that some WalMart employees and stores may not want to allow such loads.

-You can also load a Serve card at Rite Aid, Dollar General, or Family Dollar.

-You can buy a money order with the Visa card at stores that accepts debit cards as payment for money orders. I find that grocery stores work well for this.

-You can pay your credit card bill at WalMart with BillPay at Customer Service.

-You can gift a Visa gift card as a wedding gift instead of giving a check.

-You can give a Visa gift card to charity.

HT: doctorofcredit, via DDF