The 5x category is the asset — prepaid Visa and Mastercard are just the most liquid thing it buys. These are the other ways to spend inside the same bonus.
Both chains periodically discount third-party gift cards — restaurant, retail, airline and streaming brands — usually as "buy $X in gift cards, get $Y off" or a percentage back in rewards. These stack with the 5x, so a 15%-off Southwest card bought on an Ink Cash is effectively 20% off.
Unlike the Visa and Mastercard deals, these do show up in the weekly ad circular, which means they're findable in advance. They don't follow the 28-day cycle — they cluster around gifting season and back-to-school.
A merchant gift card can't be liquidated, which is exactly why nobody polices them. There are no purchase limits worth worrying about, no money orders, and no bank-shutdown exposure. If you were going to spend at the brand anyway, this is free money with none of the downside.
Office Depot's rewards program pays a percentage back in store credit on certain categories, and it stacks on top of the credit card earn. Staples runs a similar program. Neither is worth chasing on its own, but if you're standing in the store during a gift card week it's free to have the account.
Office Depot has historically run ink cartridge recycling rewards and periodic "$2 per cartridge" style promotions with a monthly cap. It's small money and requires qualifying purchases, but it's a known niche.
Worth knowing if you're reading this as an operator rather than a shopper: gift cards earn zero affiliate commission at both chains — it's written into both programs. Everything else in the store earns normally, 0.5% to 6% by category. Paper, ink, toner and furniture all pay. Gift cards never will.
The same 28-day pattern detection applies anywhere a retailer runs recurring gift card promotions. Grocery and drug chains are the obvious expansion — Kroger, Safeway and CVS all run fuel-point and gift-card multiplier events on schedules, and unlike office supply, those deals are published in the weekly circular. That makes them far easier to confirm in advance.
The Kroger monitor is the first step in that direction.