Ultimate Rewards Mall: Staples Down to 2X, Office Depot Again Best for 4.5X Points

Apply:  Ink Bold – 50,000 bonus points 

The June Ultimate Rewards Mall bonuses are up, and it doesn't look good–at least not for Staples, which dropped from 5x points to 2x points. The reason why this is significant is that while the bonus was 5x, in May, if you have an Ink Bold card you were able to click through from the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Staples.com for 5x points, then get another 5x points when purchasing Visa gift cards, for a total of 10x less the $5.95 fee per $100 gift card, for an effective 7.6x points on all spend using those gift cards (assuming you value Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents per point). See Get Over 7X Points Everywhere with the Ink Bold and Staples

Now, at only 2X points for Staples in the Ultimate Rewards Mall, it pencils out to 4.4X. You're slightly better off buying $500 Visa gift cards at Office Depot (may only be bought in person), even with the straight 5x bonus for office supply store spend, due to the lower $4.95 fee. Taking the fee into account, you'll get 4.5X points for all spend made with the gift card, plus its larger denomination is more convenient since you don't have to register as many cards and can put larger purchases on a single card.

Of course, you want to factor in your time and any expense in getting to an Office Depot; if there's not one near where you'll be anyway, it probably isn't worth it. But assuming you got at least a few gift cards at the 7.6x valuation in May, try to hold off until July to see if the Ultimate Rewards Mall bonus for Staples increases. Having just bought a bunch of cards, I'm well stocked for awhile 🙂

Don't forget to also pick up any gift cards for merchants you regularly spend on anyway, such as Amazon. Since merchant gift cards don't usually have any fee, you'll get the full 5X points. I especially love the Amazon gift cards (see 5x Points for All Amazon Spend) It's a shame how much I've bought on Amazon over the years with just regular credit card rewards, e.g. 1 Starpoint per dollar spent. 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent, whether from the Chase Freedom 5X bonus in Q1 or all year round using Amazon gift cards bought at an office supply store using the Ink Bold, is so much better!