Not everyone can always be working on a sign up bonus (SUB) so when you’re just trying to get the most out of your spend, absolutely nothing beats earning 5x on anything and everything with gift cards that you buy with your Chase Ink Business Cash (CIC) credit card. But like anything this good, it’s not always easy. There’s a lot you need to know so I’m going to walk you though all of the common questions people have with these as it does confuse a lot of people.
How does this whole thing work?
The Chase Ink Business Cash (CIC) credit card is one of the best credit cards you can have. Not only does it come with a huge SUB and no annual fee, it allows you to earn 5x on up to $25,000 worth of spending at office supply stores (Staples and Office Depot/Max) as well as internet, cable and phone services. So if you max out just one of these cards, you’ll earn 125,000 Ultimate Rewards points. That’s enough for a round trip flight to Europe as well as at least 3 or 4 nights in a decent hotel.
While it’s nice to earn 5x on internet, phone and cable, that’s not a ton of money for most people. So what happens is that people buy Visa or Mastercard gift cards at an office supply store and then use those gift cards in place of their usual credit cards. Instead of earning 1x, 1.5x, 3x, etc, they earn 5x regardless of what they buy or where they buy it! Technically they earn the 5x the moment the card is bought but since you’re replacing your credit card with something that earned you 5x, we consider the earning on what you actually bought. So if you bought a random item at Walmart for $50, you’d say that you earned 5x on that purchase instead of the 1.5x you would have earned with a Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Of course, you could buy just about anything at these stores and get the 5x including store specific gift cards. However, most people don’t need over $20,000 worth of office supplies and store specific gift cards are obviously not ideal for obvious reasons.
But what about the fees?
These Visa and Mastercard gift cards usually cost either $6.95 or $7.95. Kind of hard to believe that people pay all that money just to give someone a generic gift card but obviously plenty of people do. While you’d still come out ahead if you paid that fee for each $200 gift card you bought, it would significantly eat into your redemption rate. The last thing travel hackers want to do is to pay fees like this so they wait for sales. There are usually two types: 1) no fee gift cards with a max of usually 8 (so up to $1600) and 2) $15 off the fees of $300 worth of gift cards. Since there are no $300 gift cards, you actually get $15 off two $200 gift cards. If you buy the $6.95 versions, you’ll actually pay $398.10 for $400 worth of gift cards.
How to find the sales
There’s no real pattern here with these sales. One week they are one version, next week they are another. One week the sale is at Staples and the next is at Office Depot. The next week there’s nothing. They seem to be very frequent in 2023 though so hopefully that keeps up. If you’re in the Facebook group, you can always ask in there. Otherwise, there are a number of websites that keep track of these sales such as Doctor of Credit and Travel on Points. Since we have the Facebook group, you won’t find the sales listed on this page.
How to use the cards
For purchases of most things $200 or less, you use the card like you normally would use any Visa or Mastercard. The only issue is that you have to swipe since there is no chip. Since the gift card is actually a debit card, you should be able to use it if the store accepts debit but not credit cards. So pretty easy right? Well usually yes, but there are a handful of issues you need to be aware of:
-Restaurants. You can only charge up to 80% of the card’s value at a restaurant. So if you bought a $200 gift card, used up $100 and then tried to use it to buy a dinner worth $95 you’d be denied even thought there’d still be $5 left on the card. This is because most people use a credit/debit card to pay for the bill and tip. In the scenario, the most you’d be able to tip on that $95 dinner would be $5 even if you wrote down $5 million since nothing over $5 will go through. Thus, the wait staff would be out of the regular tip. So regardless of how much is in your card, make sure you know that you won’t be able to use the maximum amount.
-Sometimes it doesn’t work. Most of these gift cards can be used anywhere but you will eventually run into some store or cafe that has a funky card reader or doesn’t have a swipe. It won’t happen often but there’s always a few percent chance you’ll run into this.
-Buying something for more than $200. In this scenario, you can try to use two different methods of payment. Some places will allow this, some won’t. I’ve heard of people being on the phone with a cruise line for over a half hour as person gave them over a dozen gift cards. If you can’t use two or more methods of payment then you’ll have to use one of your credit cards.
-Gas stations. If you just go to fill up your tank, the gas station doesn’t know how much this is going to cost and they want to make sure you’ll be able to pay it. As a result, they check your card ahead of time to make sure that you can pay for a few hundred dollars of gas. The exact amount varies but it is often over $200. As a result, your gift card won’t work. Sometimes you can type in just the amount of gas you want right there in the pump but I usually don’t. Instead, you have to go to the cashier and give them the card there.
On rare occasions, you can get them to turn the pump on for you and then come back and pay. Some places will ask you to leave the card. Most places will say you have to give them a dollar amount instead. Now you have two options here. 1) charge an amount less than what you think it will take or 2) charge an amount that is higher than you think it would take. So let’s say you’re at a quarter tank. You know that $15 won’t fill it but if you say $25, you may only need $22.49. So in scenario 1, you have somewhere less than a full tank and in scenario 2, you have a full tank but you paid $25 for less than $25 worth of gas. What’s supposed to happen is that the store will see you got less than what you paid for and you’ll get re-charged for the right amount.
My issue there is that this could take a few days as it is not at all instant. You then have to hope it actually happens and you have to keep checking on it. This will leave your gift card with an artificial balance for a few days. So let’s say you are getting $5 back from the gas station. Right now you have $15 left on the card but in a few days, you’ll get $5 back so then you’ll have $20. This is just a hassle since now you can’t just use up the remaining balance on the gift card.
I personally just charge a certain dollar amount that will give me enough although it might not fill it up exactly. Makes it so much easier for me but do what works best for you.
Checking balances
It can be hard to keep track of all of your purchases to know what’s left on each card. There are two ways that you can check the balances. One is to call the number on the back of the card and use the automated system. This is very annoying as it takes several minutes. The other option is to go to the website on the back of the card. You can then click “check balance” and type in the information. It’ll show you the balance and all the transactions. These websites can be a little annoying as well. You’ll probably be “technical error” or something like that. You may have to try a few times to get it to work.
Small balances and Auto liquidation
So what happens when you have a small balance left like $4.63? Certain places will “auto liquidate” the card and then ask you for the balance. For example, if you buy something for $10 and you use that gift card, it’ll charge the $4.63 and then show you the balance that you owe. I once used 4 different gift cards to pay for something that was less than $20. Unfortunately, these places seem to be the exception and not the norm in my experience. If it can’t auto liquidate, it’ll just decline.
If you don’t have a place handy that does auto liquidation, you can just dump the balance into your Amazon account or something like that. Personally, I pay my health insurance with gift cards so I just add those small balances to that account.
Returns
If you get really serious about gift cards, then you’re going to run into a situation where you are buying something that you might have to return. You then have to decide if you want to bother with a gift card or not. While the returns work just the same way as it would work with a regular credit card, you have to hold on to that card and make sure you don’t lose it. I personally don’t put anything on a gift card that I think I might return.
Travel issues
One of the great things about the Chase Sapphire cards is the travel protections especially with the protection that comes with the CSR. So if you’re booking travel, using gift cards for everything might not be the best idea since you will lose the protection that these cards offer as gift cards offer nothing. There are a few ways around this. I fly United a lot so with them, you can use gift cards to buy travel bank credits. If might flight is $458, I’ll buy $400 worth of travel bank credits and then put the balance on my CSR. With a cruise, you can put down some portion on gift cards and then pay the balance on CSR. With rental cars, there’s usually no way to split up the payment so I just put everything on my CSR. Same with hotels.
Purchase issues
Every store seems to have their own different policies about these gift cards. Some are right out in the open while others are locked away in a safe. Some stores require ID while other stores can care less. Some stores never seem to have them while others don’t. For example, one Staples by me never has them while the Staples 10 minutes down the road always has them. One manager told me that a manager at a different store just throw them out since they are annoying and have no value until purchased. So just be prepared to run into weird things like that. If you don’t see them on the shelf, ask.
Fraud issues
A number of people have expressed concern about the numbers of the gift cards being compromised. I have yet to run into this issue and I’ve yet to actually talk to someone that had this issue. It seems to be more of a “I heard about this from someone” type of thing. I’m sure it happens but I doubt it’s a major issue. Of course, if the packaging looks like it’s been tampered with in any way, don’t buy it.
Conclusion
Getting 5x with these gift cards is the absolute best way to increase your points by spending. I highly recommend that everyone do this but since it’s a little annoying and a lot to keep track of, most people won’t. It’s up to you to decide if you want to really dedicate yourself to this hobby or not. If not, that’s cool. This isn’t for everyone but if you really want to take your game to the next level, this is how you do it when you’re not working on a SUB.