Some of us like them. Some of us hate them. And some of us just want hot caffeine that tastes OK. I’m of course referring to Starbucks coffee.
Starbucks, Birmingham Bullring kiosk.
Now, we all know it has a loyalty scheme (which does vary from country to country), but the idea is you collect stars when you buy drinks, and eventually you get to a Gold Tier after 50 stars.
But did you know your Starbucks card works aboard too? Well, I’ve done some testing on my trips, and it appears to work fine.
According to Starbucks UK:
Can I use my Starbucks Card when I travel internationally?
Starbucks Cards activated in any of the participating countries can be used to make purchases and be reloaded in any other participating country. Starbucks Cards must first be activated by loading money onto the card in the country of purchase before being used internationally. The participating countries are; UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Mexico, and the Republic of Ireland.
This can be your physical card, through their app or through an Apple Passbook app (as I’m brainwashed by Apple, I use the Passbook App).
Of course, you should load up on your preferred point earning credit card before you go… But you do that already I suspect….
Like British Rail used to do – I’m getting there…
According to a Frommers article, you can’t us a card that has been issued in Greece, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, or Turkey internationally (without fees).
As usual, top up the card before you go in your local currency, and spend. Your spend will be recorded through the app (as well as the location and time), with currency conversion done on the fly.
Here’s the biggy however, whilst you get stars, you will not get your rewards as the rewards programmes and benefits are localised to your local country – 0r in the words of Starbucks UK:
Will I collect stars and receive rewards when travelling internationally?
Customers with registered cards in the following participating countries (UK, Republic of Ireland, USA and Canada) will collect stars when travelling internationally. However, as each country has a unique rewards programme, customers will not receive rewards (such as free extras) when using their cards internationally.
For those of you who don’t like to carry cash or who have loyalty to this coffee house, this is an easy way to keep caffeinated as you travel, whilst earning the rewards you so want…
I always wondering what exchange rate they use?
Not site, but my £2.25 americano with an extra short came out at £1.77 or so.
do you mean $2.25 came to £1.77
And France is soon to be added if not already…….
the other you have to be careful of in the UK, if the Starbucks is a franchise then they’ll not accept the Rewards cards with a feeble excuse of “technical issues” – Costa Coffee franchises don’t seem to suffer from the same problem.
The only way you can tell if they’re a franchise is the lack of the reward card rack as featured in your photo above.
You can sometimes be caught out as in Waterloo Station,London there are two Starbucks, one is a normal on and the other is franchise
You can re-load your Starbucks card outside of the country of issue. This is a great way to get rid of a little extra local currency before returning home as it will be available for you to spend back in your home country. Small amounts not worth converting back can often get lost or forgotten about by the time you return.
brilliant idea!