Originally Posted by riant

Thanks for the info! I got the gold card (REALLY gold in color) in the mail today and I had no idea there are so many restrictions. I go to Starbucks 4 or 5 times a week and mostly using my corporate credit card since I expense my meals. With these new rules, I wonder what's the best bet for me to utilize the rewards program, or maybe it just doesn't even make sense for me at all. Not sure how I can justify random $5 charges to the Starbucks card from the corporate credit card.

Originally Posted by ma91pmh

I tried to use my old black card this morning and the barista said it had expired... I couldn't remember only that I took it out in jan last year. Anyway when I got to office I checked online and it does not expire until 1/22. So BE CAREFUL!

I almost gave up on Sbux last year as it was getting too expensive. My Amex statement showed $1700 of spend with them in 2008. The 10% off for $25 was literally a tipping point in stopping me defecting to cheaper wares.

This year I've spent $1200 so the $25 gave me back around $133 (must have tolled up $1333 so after discount $1200). It's still a lot of money but taking the edge off the pain really helps.

I am thoroughly unimpressed with the new system. My typical week involves latte every morning and then on the weekend the family will pop in for a snack so usually couple of coffees, couple of milks for the kids and a couple of food items. So even if I game this to the max and pay for each item separately (and frankly I don't want to be the d**k in the store doing that) I'm going to be losing out.

Sadly for me there is not much alternative, but I will certainly be trying hard to find them