Starbucks Launches New Rewards Visa Credit Card Built For The Chain’s Fanatics

If you’re someone who drinks Starbucks on the daily and are looking for a new credit card, the coffee chain just created one that’s built for its most obsessed fans.

Photo courtesy of Starbucks

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, the new Starbucks Rewards Visa Card capitalizes on two of the company’s biggest growth trends: the rewards program and card transactions. While overall sales fell, these categories increased, with 42% of all purchases in the US and Canada coming off of the Rewards card. The new credit card, made in partnership with Chase, aims to increase those numbers.

There’s a lot of freebies that come with the card, including 2,500 Bonus Stars (aka 20 free drinks/food items) if you spend $500 within 3 months of receiving it. You can also get another 250 Bonus Stars (2 free drinks/food items) when you use the Starbucks credit card to load money onto your regular Rewards card for the first time.

Using it in Starbucks stores gets you varying additional stars per dollar, while all other purchases get you a star per four dollars (given you spend more than $500 monthly). As usual, 125 Stars gets you a free reward. Card members will also get eight additional “Barista Picks” rewards automatically added to their account throughout the year. All holders will also be Starbucks Gold rewards members as long as they hold the credit card.

There are some drawbacks to using the new Starbucks credit card, however. You’ll be charged a $49 annual fee to keep using the card, and you won’t get any other cash back or travel point benefits, just Starbucks Bonus Stars. Those will expire six months after they’re earned, so you’ll need to utilize them quickly or risk losing them.

Nonetheless, if you go to Starbucks all the time, you can easily take full advantage of the credit card’s benefits, making it worth picking up. Applications for the card are already open, and it’ll take about 7-10 days to get to you if approved.