As I reported yesterday, it is now possible to get 10% cash back when buying OfficeMax gift cards. The trick is to use an American Express business credit card with OPEN Savings. The OPEN Savings program automatically gives 10% back for online OfficeMax purchases of more than $250.
I also reported yesterday that it is possible to upgrade OfficeMax gift cards in-store by using them to buy other gift cards. For example, I had no problem at all using a $25 OfficeMax gift card to buy a $25 Amazon gift card. Whether this works at your local OfficeMax may depend upon store policies and individual teller assumptions.
So, to get 10% off almost anything, the trick is to buy more than $250 worth of OfficeMax gift cards online, pay with your business Amex, and then use the OfficeMax gift cards to get what you really want.
What can I get for 10% off?
At my local OfficeMax, here are a few of the gift cards I found:
- Travel: Southwest Airlines
- Booksellers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
- Hardware: Home Depot, Lowes
- Department stores: Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Macy’s, JC Penney, …
- Food: Starbucks, PF Changs, Red Lobster, …
- Movies: AMC, Regal
- Miscellaneous: iTunes, ToysRUs, PetSmart, Various phone reload cards (unlike merchant gift cards, these will likely incur sales tax), …
To see the full selection, take a look at the photos below.
7% off everything else
My next OfficeMax experiment will be to try to buy a $200 Visa gift card with OfficeMax gift cards. The $200 Visa gift cards sell at OfficeMax for $206.96. If the gift card trick works, my final cost will be almost 7% less:
- Purchase price: $206.95
- 10% of $206.95 = $20.70
- Final cost: $206.95 – $20.70 = $186.25
- Discount: 6.875%
The discount when buying Visa gift cards this way is just shy of 7%. That’s a fantastic savings for a card that can be used almost anywhere! Let’s hope this experiment works!