Starbucks Gold card - is it worth it?
The Starbucks gold card costs $25 for a year and gives you a 10% discount on almost all purchases, a free drink when you buy the card in a store, a free drink on your birthday and 2 hours of free WiFi access every day.
To get your money back you need to spend $250 a year at Starbucks, which is $4.80 a week. That equals three trips a week if you buy a small brewed coffee, and 1.5 visits a week if you buy a $3 latte or espresso.
The card is accepted at company-owned stores only, which is about 70 percent of the chain. Call your local store to see if they are participating.
You can load the gold card with cash like a gift card and leave your wallet behind when you make a coffee run.
Caveats: the 10% discount does not apply to Starbucks gift cards, publications, digital downloads, membership fees and online purchases.
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About The Bargain Hunter
Daily News staff writer Julia Scott loves to find bargains on everything from groceries to Gucci. Her tips will help keep your hard earned cash where it belongs - in your pocket.
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I visit Starbucks way too often, and even better than the 10% discount from the Gold Card is the 20% discount you can get by buying Starbucks cards at Costco. $100 worth of cards are sold for $80 at Costco, and I haven't seen any catch yet.
Already on my second batch of $100 - sad how often I go to SB....
-MC
You can get the free WiFi without the Gold Card. You need another kind of SBux card, and you have to jump through hoops, but otherwise this sounds like a way to free you of $25 and then make you go to SBux to justify that.
If you spread your coffee business around at all (i.e. to Coffee Bean ...), this sounds like a bad deal.
If you're a SBux addict, it might be OK.
I really don't like this kind of "pay to play" discount card - it irritates me every time I go to Barnes+Noble and am asked if I have their $25/year membership card. Because of that, I avoid going there. I think you might be able to get similar perks with Starbucks' Visa credit card...
I don't think you can combine the Starbucks Gold Card Benefits with Starbucks Reward Benefits (which you get by registering your Starbucks card). If you get syrup (not mocha or white mocha) or soy/breve, it probably isn't advantageous for you to get the Gold Card. Just register and use your Starbucks card and you get free sryup ($.30 savings) and free soy/breve ($.40 saving). If you get both, thats a $.70 savings, therefore unless you get a $7.00 drink, you should just register your stabucks gift card for FREE!
There is one other problem with the Starbucks Gold Card. If you use the card, but prefer to pay cash and not carry a balance on the gold card, you will NOT get 2 free hours of ATT Wifi access. When you call their customer service line, they tell you that it is "unclear" on the Starbucks Gold site.
In fact, on the site, in bold letters, it says:
Now, with your active registered Starbucks Card you will receive up to two hours of AT&T Wi-Fi service, every day. If you don’t have an AT&T account already, getting one is easy.
Available at all U.S. company-operated Starbucks locations equipped with a hotspot. Complimentary Wi-Fi is limited to one session of up to two hours per day. You must have a registered Starbucks Card that has been used (to load money or to make a purchase) within the 30 days prior to access, open a complimentary account with AT&T, and accept the AT&T User Agreement.
That is not a "misunderstanding" or "unclear." It's a scam.