Why I Buy Gift Card at Office Stores!

Earlier this month, I wrote that buying gift cards to a restaurants is one way to maximize Chase Sapphire's 1st Friday Promotion.  What I didn't write is that there is one caveat: national chain restaurants. At national chain restaurants like Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory, McDonald's etc. there is a more valuable way of earning points.

Many office supply stores and drug stores sell gift cards. Why is this important? There are credit cards like the Chase Ink Bold or Citi Thank You that give extra points for purchases at these type of stores. Buying your restaurant gift cards at drug or office supply stores can earn you extra points per dollar.

Let's use a real life example. I go to Panera at least twice a week for lunch. Here is how I could earn points:

 1) On any day, I could use my Chase Sapphire to pay for my meal and I will earn 2 points per dollar
     spent.

 2) On the first Friday, I could buy a Panera gift card at a Panera and earn 3 points per dollar.

 3) Buy my Panera gift card at an office supply store with my Chase Ink, I earn 5 points per dollar.

As you can see, buying the Panera gift card at Office Depot nets me the most points. The down side is I am prepaying for my lunches. However, it isn't just gift cards to restaurants that can be purchased at office supply & drug stores. How would like to earn 5 points per dollar on your gas, movie tickets and clothing purchases? Gift cards can be purchased to all these types of businesses. The places you can earn 5X per dollar just got larger.

The point of this post is a reminder that success in the points game is about maximizing the points earned on every dollar you spend. This is just one way to do it.

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