Today Starbucks has announced a number of changes to the Starbucks Rewards program. The changes are as follows:
- Ability to earn stars when paying with cash, credit/debit cards and select mobile wallets without the need to load your Starbucks card.
- Ability to link a credit or debit card or PayPal account within the Starbucks app to pay directly
Currently when you preload a Starbucks card or use a Starbucks gift card you earn 2 Stars per $1 spent, the new payment methods will only earn 1 Stars per $1 spent. There will be cases where these new payment methods are useful, but most members should continue with the old payment methods due to the higher earning rates. Starbucks Summer Game is also now live.
So we are getting less point per $!
This was the pay model in China. Load up your Starbucks wallet for extra point rewards, or quickly pay using a credit card or 3rd party payment processor. About time.
So now I can buy a latte and not prepay them in advance for multiple orders when I just wanted one drink this one time? Who would have ever thought a guest wouldn’t want to be locked into buying multiple drinks at once…. While letting the company profit off accrued interest sitting on a gift card they didn’t wanna buy in the first place? This is revolutionary. Starbucks just changed the game. The competition doesn’t stand a chance
*Mic drop
… you still have that option. The difference is you’ll get 1 point (currently 0) instead of 2 points for doing so. But if your frequency of visits is low like mime, don’t even bother. The stars expire before we’d accumulate enough to redeem anyways. It’s a loyalty program. If you care about having a few bucks locked in, you aren’t going to get anything for joining anyways.
get the chase starbucks prepaid card and the stars won’t expire.
I love how I always learn something new here. Do they close the card if there is no activity for extended period of time?
wow, had no idea that having the prepaid allows you to keep your stars from expiring. thanks for this!
It’s not the rewards I wanted it was the ability to buy a one off latte on occasion. Most stores in NYC are only accepting app orders which means I had no way to make an order at all if I refused to buy a prepaid card from them.
Thanks for the info. I’ll stick with buying discounted Starbucks cards.
Its about time. I keep reloading my starbucks card just for the BOA offer. I end up stacking it with one of Starbucks’ buy one get one promotions they run periodically.