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NOTES: Quick Links from Video: Raise Starbucks Gift Cards Here and Starbucks Reward Program Here
I love Starbucks. But I don’t love the premium pricing on their highly addicting and yummy treats. As a habitual deal chaser and frugal couponer, I’m always looking for ways to avoid paying full price for items, and Starbucks is no exception. Even if the savings is small, every little bit helps.
Here is my strategy for never paying full price at Starbucks. Yes, I have a strategy. And when my husband violates any part of this strategy… well let’s just say, it ain’t pretty. 🙂 (j/k)
Step #1
Sign up for the Starbucks Reward Program, either online or from your phone. Next, download the Starbucks app to your phone and then link your Starbucks Reward Program to your phone’s app.
Step #2
Go to Raise.com, which is a marketplace for buying and selling discounted gift cards, and buy a discounted Starbucks gift card. This is really very easy to do and the gift cards can either be physically mailed to you or sent electronically to your email. The discounts range from 5% to 20%, depending entirely on what’s available and how competitive the Raise.com marketplace is at that moment. The best price I’ve gotten for a Starbucks gift card was a 19% discount.
I always choose the electronic gift card and in just a few minutes, once I have received the gift card’s code in my email, I can then enter that code into my Starbucks’ Reward Program via my phone’s app (or from a computer) and I’m off and running.
Step #3
Always use your phone’s Starbucks app to pay while shopping at Starbucks. When you do this, you are using the money from your discounted gift card you bought from Raise.com (savings tip number 1) and you are also racking up reward points on your Starbucks Reward Program (savings tip number 2).
One additional tip I have, and this is the step that gets my husband in deep doo-doo because he’s too embarrassed to actually do this: If you are buying multiple items at Starbucks, buy them in separate transactions. So if you are buying two coffees and a food item, let the cashier know that you will be paying for them in 3 separate transactions. We do this, because a reward point (or “Star”) is given for every transaction. This way, you can rack up points quicker than if you (like my husband) pay for multiple items in one transaction.
How the Starbucks Reward Program Work
By paying with your Starbucks app you are tracking your transactions in your Starbucks Reward Program. Once you hit 5 stars within a 12 month period, you’ll be in the Green level status. Once you have racked up 30 stars within a 12 month period, you will have achieved Gold Status.
With Green level, you’ll get a Freebie (any drink or food item) on your birthday. And Free in-store refills on coffee or tea.
With Gold level, you’ll get the benefits of Green level, plus you get a FREE ITEM every time you hit your 12th star. The free item is good on any drink or food item in the store. You can get the largest drink with multiple shots. But from my experience, you’ll get the most value by getting their pre-packaged gourmet salads. They are the most expensive food or drink item carried at the store at $6.99. My favorite is the Chicken Quinoa Salad. Awesome lunch. FREE makes it the more delicious! 🙂
Using Raise.com to Sell Unused Gift Cards
Have you ever gotten a gift card to a store that you just don’t like shopping at? Or maybe the amount you were given isn’t enough to buy anything useful at that store without spending more money? Then consider selling the gift card for cash!
Raise.com is not only a great place to buy discounted gift cards but also a great place to sell your unused gift cards to other shoppers for cash. You can sell physical gift cards and cards with merchandise credit that have a minimum of $20. And you can sell eGift cards that have a minimum of $10 on them.
How To Sell Gift Cards
Let’s say you have a $20 gift card for Nordstrom and you don’t want to use it because you would most likely have to add more cash to the transaction.
- Head over to raise.com Sell Gift Card page
- Enter in the basics (card retailer, serial number, etc.) This info is kept private at all times.
- For each gift card sold, raise.com takes a 15% commission of the sale price. They provide you with prepaid shipping labels.
- Choose how much to sell the card for. Depending on brand cards sell faster with at least a 5% discount.
- Choose how to be paid, check out PayPal.
- Got a Coupon Question? Click Here to Ask Me. 🙂
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