Starbucks Launching Prepaid Card That Lets Rewards Members Earn Loyalty Points

Image courtesy of emilybean

In a bid to lure more people to sign up for its loyalty program, Starbucks is launching a prepaid debit card soon that will let users rack up rewards “stars.”

The card will be offered through Chase and will be accepted anywhere that takes Visa, the Associated Press reports. There won’t be any monthly service or reloading fees, unlike other prepaid cards, a Chase rep says.

The only fees involved will be a $5 fee for a rush card replacement, a 3% foreign transaction fee, and a $75 legal processing fee that would come into play if a bank had to hold or pay out funds from that account due to legal action.

Starting next month, Starbucks is switching how rewards members earn points, from one star per transaction to one star per dollar spent. Members using the prepaid card won’t rack up stars at the same rate as they do for purchases at cafes, Kevin Johnson, chief operating officer for Starbucks said. The rate of rewards for the prepaid card will be revealed at a later date.

This isn’t Starbucks’ first attempt to woo rewards members by giving them other ways to earn stars outside of spending money in its cafes: the Seattle-based company previously worked out agreements to sell stars to the New York Times, Spotify, and Lyft. Those companies then hand out stars to their own customers.

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