It is unclear to me that the advantages of the gold card over the plain old registered starbucks card (free) is worth the $25. I go quite often but tend to drink the brewed coffee as $5 for the other stuff adds up fast...even in a good economy. It is very unclear to me that you get some of the perks from the registered card...like free flavored syrups...with the gold card. Does anyone know? Once registered, do you get the whole thing?

Suppose I paid the $25 and got a free $5 venti whatever on the day of purchase. Then I would need to make sure I save at least $20 over the next year to make sure it is worth it. I would need to go at least 100 times over the next year assuming I would have my normal venti decaf drip. It would be close...but I am not sure I am willing to risk it and loosing money on the whole proposition...which of course is what they hope will happen.