Monday, January 09, 2006

Office Depot's Advantage Rewards Program

I realize that this is nothing new but I thought I'd post it anyway. Office Depot's Advantage Rewards Program gives back a maximum of $50.00 per quarter (10% of total purchase in a quarter) in the form of a debit card that can be used for Office Depot purchases. Basically, similar to an office depot gift card. Some items, such as photo copies and printer ink cartridges, act as double multiplier for the dollar amount (if you spend $10.00 on these, it doubles into $20.00). The minimum dollar amount per quarter that needs to be spent in order to receive any reward is $200.00 (a $20.00 rewards card). This minimum shouldn't be hard to achieve per quarter for people who get reimbursed from their companies on office supply purchases or who have their own businesses. If you're going to have to spend money to buy such things, why not just get the 10% cash back while you're at it? I put the purchase on the Citibank Dividend Select card so, I'd get that extra 1% cash back as well.

When my last job was reimbursing all office supply purchases, including photo copies, I was getting a free $50.00 every quarter on the company's dime. I recently got my very last $50.00 rewards card (my last since I don't think I'll need as much office supplies as I used to, now that I have switched to a new job. I think I'm going to buy a money managing software (such as quicken or microsoft money) or a tax preparation software (such as Turbo Tax) wit this $50.00. I'm leaning toward the Turbo Tax, though.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:51 PM

    >>When my last job was reimbursing all office supply purchases, including photo copies, I was getting a free $50.00 every quarter on the company's dime.

    This sounds ethically nebulous - shouldn't that money have belonged to the company???

    Susan

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  2. Turbo Tax, it is!!

    Susan, no, that money does not belong to the company because then, it's the same thing as saying that having frequent flyer miles should not belong to you if you travel for work. I had to do the office supply purchases for my own home office because I telecommuted with my company, which is based across the country in Maryland.

    I should have explained abit better :D. I was not with the purchasing department at the last job. Those purchases were for my own home office, made necessary by the fact that I worked out of my house and traveled to various project sites across the country on behalf of the company I was working for. Company reimbursed the cost of supplies/copies/etc. that I initially paid for, while I get to keep money earned from the office depot rewards program.

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  3. Anonymous11:42 PM

    Excellent program! I started using it last year and it went great. It is quite a beneficial program and gives many extra advantages as well.

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