Received my new Starbucks Gold card (gold) a week and half prior to my old one expiring. The new one started on the 6th of January. Here I am finally 15 stars into my new Starbucks Gold card and can compare the two. You get a star for every visit you use your gold card, with money on it, to make a purchase. You read that right you have to have money on the card and use it to get a star towards your rewards. Here are the benefits of the new gold card by Starbucks:
- Free birthday drink
- 2 continuous hours of free Wi-Fi daily
- Free refills on brewed coffee, iced coffee and tea
- Free flavored syrups
- Free tall (12 fl oz) beverage with every pound of coffee purchased
- Exclusive offers & coupons
- FREE DRINK EVERY 15 STARS
My old Gold card (black) benefits were as follows:
- 10% off most purchases in participating U.S. Starbucks stores
- A free beverage on your birthday
- Exclusive offers & coupons
- 2 continuous hours of free Wi-Fi daily
I received the black gold card for free for all the purchases I made so no $25 fee. If I did pay the $25 for the year that equals to $1.05 for the 15 visits. I saved on average $0.68 a visit during these first 15 visits. That same 15 visits saving on average $0.68 means the free drink would have cost me $10.20. Wow, so far the new gold card does not save me anything and is costing me money.
Let’s break this down a little further. If I stay to drink my Iced Coffee with sugar-free caramel and light breve and then take advantage of the free refill then the loss shrinks. I order iced coffee and Frappuccino so there were no additional syrup charges. I used the Wi-Fi maybe three hours last year. That benefit did not help me and perhaps this year I will try to use it more so that I can see the benefit of the new gold card.
At least three of the benefits are the same but that 10% discount compared to needing 15 stars is a huge difference. A lot of times the discount is what gave the Starbucks partners there tip.
Early indications are the new Starbucks Gold card is NOT so Golden :(
What is your take on the new Starbucks Gold card?
No comments:
Post a Comment