Office Depot/Amex/Vanilla gift cards are currently on sale with activation fees waived.
We covered the Office Depot deal before; see:
The link for this promotion is:
You can buy up to a $500 Visa gift card, with free shipping and no activation fee.
We also covered the AMEX deal before; see:
If you buy gift cards through the AMEX gift card website, you can use promo code HOLIDAY2020 to waive the $5.95 activation fee. The promo code is valid through December 20, 2020.
Vanilla gift cards are also on sale today with no activation fee. Purchase link:
You need to use promo code FLASH2020. It is valid today only (December 17, 2020).
Vanilla gift card orders are not always easy to get approved. If your order does not go through, try a different credit card. These gift cards will most likely code as online shopping, so you can use a credit card that earns the highest cashback on online shopping. For example, BofA Cash Rewards can earn 3% cashback. After receiving the gift card, you may be able to cash it out with no loss via PayPal QR code scanning. For details, see:
However, YMMV. Starting January 1 next year, QR code scanning will begin charging a fee, so enjoy it while it lasts.