Starbucks card " improvements"

fluffnutter

thriftymanc wrote: »

Why do people keep making the incorrect assumption that being a member of MSE means you can't spend any money on anything vaguely non-essential?

I like Starbucks coffee. I save money on other things which means I can afford to "waste" my money on Starbucks coffee if I so wish (which I do!).

Completely agree. It's a fallacy that to save money you need to cut out the small, 'non-essential' purchases. You don't. It's pointless. If you need to rein in your spending, you should look at your expensive purchases - holidays, mortgage, school fees, car, (expensive) clothes etc.

Cutting out your £2 coffee every day makes very little difference to your total wealth and will also have a detrimental affect on your happiness and well-being.

[Deleted User]

fluffnutter wrote: »

Completely agree. It's a fallacy that to save money you need to cut out the small, 'non-essential' purchases. You don't. It's pointless. If you need to rein in your spending, you should look at your expensive purchases - holidays, mortgage, school fees, car, (expensive) clothes etc.

Cutting out your £2 coffee every day makes very little difference to your total wealth and will also have a detrimental affect on your happiness and well-being.

(£2 x 5) x 46 = £460 on coffee a year

It's stupidity to ignore the small cumulative expenses

soothyerboots

ringo_24601 wrote: »

(£2 x 5) x 46 = £460 on coffee a year

It's stupidity to ignore the small cumulative expenses

Not if you can afford to, it isn't. :cool:

fluffnutter

ringo_24601 wrote: »

(£2 x 5) x 46 = £460 on coffee a year

It's stupidity to ignore the small cumulative expenses

But it's about quality of life. Those small cumulative expenses are enjoyable and worth the comparatively small outlay. There's a perception that because something is 'non-essential' its impact is negligible and hence can readily be done without. Not so. A life cutting out all of your small pleasures in the name of economising would rapidly make you feel miserable.

pulliptears

Just for clarity here is a transcript of the email....

We've got exciting new rewards – and you're the first to hear about them. Tomorrow we're launching My Starbucks Rewards and the benefits are better than ever. Now, every time you pay using your Starbucks Card, you'll get a star. Every time you collect 15 stars – we'll give you a free Tall drink!

This is just the beginning. At Green level, you'll also get exclusive news and offers. And at Gold level, we'll add free espresso shots, syrups, soy and whipped cream.

As a thank you for being a current Starbucks cardholder, we're making you Gold right away.

Your card works the same and your balance is still safe. But so we can send you vouchers for free drinks, please make sure your details are up to date.

The good news keeps coming. If you have an iPhone, be sure to download our new app tomorrow. You'll be able to scan your iPhone to pay for your favourite drink.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

- My Starbucks Rewards

faithcecilia

brightonman123 wrote: »

WHY are MSE'rs wasting money in these places?

Support your local caff, and prob save some money!

If you can find me a local caff that does a decent grande no-sugar vanilla soy latte then I'd gladly go there!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

faithcecilia wrote: »

If you can find me a local caff that does a decent grande no-sugar vanilla soy latte then I'd gladly go there!

That sounds awful. what the hell is that?

I beat all you non-MSE'rs by just drinking tea :p

Highview

Looks like gold status lasts a year before you are downgraded back to green (unless you get 50 stars in a year!) - not happy about the loss of the filter discount - that's all i used my card for...

andys2tyred

I believe the rule is 1 star for every time card is used. Therefore order every single item individually. 2 coffees and 2 cakes becomes 4 stars. Might cause a few queues if everyone did this but hey no pain no gain! Now that the free drink with a bag of beans or Via 12 pack has gone, will source cheaper coffee elsewhere. US scheme seems much better - Free birthday drink for everyone and free extras at only 5 stars including free drink with beans (free drink every 15 only at 50 stars though but no great loss). Also don't forget and not widely advertised anymore on the menu boards is a free tall filter refill for any filter coffee purchased. Has to be a must now discount has gone.

Over half my visits were to buy the coffee beans so I will be struggling in future to get to 50 stars unless i use the method above and order individually.

What really annoyed me was the email telling about this great new rewards programme when it is clearly worse than the old one.

LeeSouthEast

I agree with the majority of your post!

thriftymanc wrote: »

You wouldn't go out of your way to go to Starbucks to get your freebies, you'd go in whichever chain happened to be closest.

But, I go to whichever chain happens to make the best coffee for me, that's Starbucks. I find Costa coffee horrendously disgusting, cafe nero is bearable but the service is awful, and a lot of the local ones are very expensive (in comparison to a Gold Starbucks purchase), and they use Costa/Monin syrups, which I hate lol.

So... yep, agree for the most part it's not an "improvement". Particularly as I thought I was going to get a nice shiny gold card with my name on it and it seems actually it was just an assumption on my part based on the US Rewards scheme.

At the end of the day tho... I buy enough coffee to stay Gold. And I find Starbucks coffee the best of the options I have locally.. so I'll keep on truckin'.