The NY Times reports that Starbucks has a new rewards program where you can get free soy milk/syrup, free same-visit refills on drip coffee (hot or iced), and two free hours of WiFi per day. It’s free to sign up, but you will need a Starbucks gift card to do so. In addition, if you sign up by July 14th you’ll get a coupon for a “free handcrafted beverage”. Might be worth buying a $5 gift card next time and turning this into a buy one get one free offer.
This isn’t bad for me. I usually use the Starbucks as a place for reading/studying and often drink the house coffee anyway, so now a $2.50 coffee also gives me free refills and internet access.
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it’s a good deal…but a better deal is stop drinking Starbucks. =D the last time i had Starbucks coffee was when i had to use up the gift cards i got during the holidays.
I already registered my card so I simply removed the card from my account and registered it again. Says I should expect my free drink coupon in the mail 10 business days.
I already new about the free flavor shots with a card – that’s been around for awhile. But the internet is a nice add-on. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for posting this! I work from a home office with a starbucks store just a few block’s walk from my house. I’ve always wanted to be able to pop in there every now and then just to break up the monotony of the home office, but I’m too cheap to pay for wi-fi. This is a great deal!
If your credit card offers extra rewards for grocery store purchases, you might want to buy that gift card at the market!
It’s too complicated of a plan to work effeciently. My local Starbucks is in a new strip mall, 3 doors down is Panera Bread. They offer free Wi-Fi that reaches inside Starbucks. Personally, Starbucks coffee blows chunks, the only things I can drink from there are the “creative” drinks, espresso is lack-luster at best. Should I feel the need to sit in one though, I can access the internet from the store offering it free without any headaches 3 doors down.
Wi-Fi wants to be free, why can’t businesses understand that?
If I hung out in Starbucks regularly, it would be a good deal. However the caveat, that I’ve heard, is that the 2 hours free WiFi is only one per day and in a contiguous block. That is, you can’t drink your coffee for two hours, then buy another coffee for another two hours — it’s not like a parking meter. And you can’t use an hour now, leave, come back later for the other hour.
This is a good way to solve my temporary disconnect from the Internet at home to pay bills and manage my finances. And I could use it to earn rewards on buying potential job leads coffee. Perfect.
“it’s not like a parking meter”
sorry, dude, but you arent supposed to refill at parking meters either
@sfordinarygirl: IMHO, one shouldn’t do any financial transactions or read sensitive email on a public WiFi. If the entire site is SSL encrypted (https), then maybe. It would be very easy for someone to be around you sniffing packets to pick up usernames and passwords and account numbers, and anything sensitive.
***There is something very important to remember about getting these discounts though (by personal experience)***
Make sure to tell the cashier your card is registered, and to “hit the button” before they swipe it. It’s been weeks now since this has been out, but even their employees will tell you they aren’t trained properly 🙁
I go there every work morning, and in an experiment i didn’t say anything for an entire week. Out of the 5 visits, only ONE person actually hit the button for the syrup and soy discounts!
For what it’s worth 🙂