There are two things that’ll earn you a boat load of Starbucks stars:
Wait for targeted offers like setting up an auto reload for 12 free stars (good for one free drink/food item)
Big Hat Tip to Poor Student Blog for this one.
It was mentioned in my post Maximize Starbucks Stars and Poor Student Blog left this comment about earning stars when you gift card churn at Starbucks. I am here to report that it is confirmed and you do earn a star buying gift cards with your registered gift card.
The opportunity to earn free stars for every gift card purchase is really amazing for free stars, but I won’t be purposefully manufacturing stars like that. It doesn’t seem right to me
Thanks for the confirmation! I am sorry I totally forgot to report back.
Personally, I won’t earn stars that way too but under some special circumstances, it is a very handy tool to have.
No worries, I went to pick up a GC for a coworker, and I remembered to check the stars this time
Ya know what, I will. Exactly 30. My status was downgraded to Green, I’ve had the Gold Card since it was introduced. I paid $25 for 10% off back then. If Green earned free drinks I wouldn’t care, but you don’t get a free drink until you earn 42 stars! Then you need 60 stars to stay Gold the next year.
Another Starbucks thing.
Start a new accout after you reearn Gold in your first account and use it for transactions where being Gold gives you nothing. Most, if not all, food purchases fall under that ‘no value for being gold’ heading.
The reason to do this is that the best offers seem to go to new accounts that get used. My daughter got a star dash, 20 stars for earning 7! My offer was for fewer extra stars and I had to earn 30 to get them. Just be sure to requalify for gold first! I broke my Starbucks habit and got down graded this year. Good thing my daughter has gold and is my Starbucks buddy.
You can add syrups to ice coffee for a few cents a shot and get free refills (you still pay to add the shots), you can customize this in tons of ways.
Thanks for the tip!
I tried to buy a starbucks gift card with a registered card. I don’t actually ever get anything there, but my wife does sometimes, so I thought I would try this out. Perhaps I did it wrong, or maybe I was in the wrong location. I tried to buy it at the safeway. I selected gift as the purchase method (maybe this meant safeway gift card), but it didn’t work. I haven’t bought anything from starbucks in a few years myself. Did I select the wrong payment type, and I was suppose to just hand my gift card to them, or can this only be done at stand alone locations? I plan on trying the albertsons starbucks next because it is a bit of a drive to get to a stand alone store. Thanks
I’m not sure how it works at Safeway, but this was at a freestanding Starbucks. It could be different when it’s within a Safeway.
I went to a free standing store, and then it worked, I don’t think it’ll work inside the stores, makes sense because the gift cards they sell belong to Safeway. If it worked, you could buy anything at the Starbucks register with a Starbucks gift card.
Thanks for the feedback, sounds like the “Starbucks” in Barnes And Nobles as well. Can’t do SBUX gift cards, but could do B&N gcs.