Starbucks Rewards is Changing, Pay with Cash or Credit and Earn Stars
Starbucks is making some changes to its popular Starbucks Rewards program later this year. You will soon be able to purchase drinks on your app using a credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or even cash. And you will still be able to collect stars for rewards.
As of now, customers need to use the app to earn stars and they need to have a money balance available in order to complete a purchase. So if you don’t have enough in your account, you need to load money onto a Starbucks card first, in order to buy food and drinks through the app and collect rewards. You currently cannot use cash or plastic and earn rewards.
The improvement that is due later this fall comes with a catch though. Customers in the United States and Canada will be able to pay Starbucks for the amount of their order directly from whatever payment method they choose. They’ll also be able to order from the app and and then choose to pay with a physical credit card or cash. But they’ll receive only half the number of stars when doing so.
Currently, Starbucks customers get two stars for every dollar spent when purchasing items on the app using a Starbucks card or gift card. That will not change once Starbucks Rewards is updated. But paying with any of the new payment options such as credit cards or cash, will only earn you one stars for every dollar spent.
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I guess I can see why some may want to use this if they dont frequent Starbucks so they dont have to preload credit/gift cards leaving an unused balance. More important is forget about paying any money at all and log-in to play (without purchase) the Starbucks summer game which just started thru 31 AUG. Ensure you go to the bottom of the page and click on the link “enter without purchase” 2 x free plays. Last game they ran between my spouse & I we won 3,500 stars!! Since I only drink drip coffee it cost 50 stars for each free cup, earning us 70 free cups of coffee!! I still have 2,000 points in my account and a new game has started, good luck.
https://www.starbuckssummergame.com/#/game
You could also buy Starbucks gift cards at grocery stores, staples, etc. using a credit card with elevated point earnings then load onto your app. Not sure why anyone would want to exchange cash or credit card in person nowadays.
Very true I also dont understand why anyone would ever buy gift cards at full price unless as you said, extra points are involved. There are so many discounted gift card sites out there.
This doesn’t seem like a big change and not sure why anyone wouldn’t use the Starbucks app to pay (and get 2x points). Simply link it to a credit card (some w Starbucks bonuses from time to time) and reload $25 every time you go below $10 (for example but my settings). This let’s you use a credit card but get all the benefits of the app plus basically automated.