It is November, which means my favorite day of the year is coming up – yes, Black Friday (no joke)! For as long as I can remember, I would anxiously wait for this day. When I was young it typically meant my mom was out early buying me all sort of free gifts, but when I got older I was right next to her in line waiting outside of Best Buy with a hat and gloves on at 4am. I’ve never been one of those super crazy ones to camp out all night, but I do love the thrill of the day.
I have to confess though, the past few years haven’t been as good and I’ve skipped out a few times waking up early. I really didn’t need anything and many of the deals were available online with the opportunity to maximize points by going through the best shopping portal.
Since the beginning of the month, the Black Friday flyers have been popping up (you can check out this site for ones already posted) and I always enjoy seeing what is free after rebate at Staples. Currently, there are a items (paper, software programs, etc.) available for FREE after in-store and mail-in rebate. If you actually need these purchases that is even better, but many will get them for the 5x points by using a Chase Ink Business credit card. Note: IF you are getting them solely for the points I highly suggest and advocate donating the the items to a school, senior center, non-profit, nursing home, etc.
While these purchases are best when you can purchase them online through an online shopping portal to fully maximize your points, some of the FAR offers are available in-store only.
So if you happen to be near or in a Staples, you can purchase these following items for free. Since Staples is an office supply store you will get 5x points by using one of the four Chase Ink credit cards.
- Quickbooks Online Simple Start 2014: $99.99 – $9.99 instant savings – $90 mail in rebate = FREE –> if using a Chase Ink card this will give you 450 Ultimate Rewards points (limit 1 rebate per customer, in-store and online)
- Kaspersky Internet Security: $59.99 – $14.99 instant savings – $45 easy rebate = FREE –> if using a Chase Ink card this will give you 225 Ultimate Reward points (limit 1 rebate per customer, in-store and online)
- Pentel R.S.V.P assorted pens, 5/pack: $5.29 – $5.29 easy rebate = FREE –> if using a Chase Ink card this will give you 26 Ultimate Reward points (limit 1 rebate per household, in-store and online)
- Staples Photo Supreme 8.5″ x 11″ paper: $14.99 – $14.99 easy rebate = FREE –> if using a Chase Ink card this will give you 150 Ultimate Reward points for 2 (limit 2 rebates per household, in-store only)
- Staples 8.5″ x 11″ multipurpose paper, 500 sheets/ream: $6.99 – $6.99 easy rebate = FREE –> if using a Chase Ink card this will give you 70 Ultimate Reward points for 2 (limit 2 rebates per household, in-store only)
- Staples 8.5″ x 11″ multipurpose paper, 10 ream case: $54.99 and then 100% back in Staples Rewards = FREE -> You will receive Staples Rewards in the mail to use on a future Staples purchase (limit 1 rebate per customer, in-store only)
If you get all five items (not including the last since it is not FAR), this will give you a total of 921 Ultimate Reward points. You can also take advantage of these two other Staples promotions:
- Link your credit card to Plink. $15 purchase = 50 Plink Points (worth 50 cents), $30 purchase = 125 Plink Points (worth $1.25); $60 purchase = 300 Plink points (worth $3). Split your transactions up maximize on your Plink points. Having multiple $60 purchases is the best. This offer is limited to 10 transactions in a 30 day period.
- Sync your Amex card to Staples. While you will not receive the 5x Chase UR points, if you have not yet cashed out on the $25 statement credit for a $75+ purchase at Staples, I suggest doing this first, then making the rest of your purchases with your Chase Ink card (this works well with the Visa/MasterCard promotion I described below).
While not free after rebate, there is a Visa and Mastercard promotion where if you purchase $150 in Visa or $150 in MasterCard gift cards you will get a $15 Staples gift card by rebate. This is limited to one per household. Remember though, Visa/MasterCard gift cards have fees! A $200 gift card will cost $6.95.
If you are making purchases online the best shopping portal payout is: 1) ShopDiscover at 5% cash back, 2) TopCashBack.com at 3% cash back, 3) Ultimate Rewards at 2 points per dollar, 4) American Airlines at 2 points per dollar
Some things to note:
- Rebate is limited to one per house (per item)
- This is really only worth it if utilizing a Chase Ink Business credit card
- 921 Ultimate Reward points is worth about $18ish, so I do not suggest fully going out of your way for this, unless you need the items
- A mail in rebate (for the first item) means you actually need to send in the rebate form and receipts; an east rebate allows you to submit the rebate online through Staples rebate website and is extremely easy and preferable
You can check out all the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals here.
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you also have to pay taxes on item bought online and in store for most states, makes it not worth it for most.
@hdawg – Yes, you do need to take tax into consideration.
Online in SC, CA and others is tax free.
Going through the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal adds two more points per $$. Same is true of AAdvantage.
This would bump the total over 1,000 points/miles.
Link your credit card through upromise and get 5% back at Staples. That should cover a lot of sales tax.
Can you please provide a link for the $15 Staples gift card rebate? Thank you.
@JC – It is in the staples circular.