Starbucks Tarnishes its Gold Card

Starbucks is revising its Gold rewards membership program, more or less neutralizing its appeal. Even though the annual membership fee was $25, you easily recouped the cost with the 10% discount perk. That discount is no more in the “improved” Gold card program.

Starting on December 26, 2009, the new program rolls out in a tiered system. Each use of the Rewards Card gets you one star. By collecting stars, you unlock more benefits, going from the Welcome to Green to Gold Levels. Once you reach the Gold Level (30 stars), you get a free drink for every 15 stars(!).

Current Gold Card members get to enjoy the Holidays with their current benefits extended until January 5, 2010. Also, current members will automatically start the new program at the Gold Level and receive their new and personalized membership card in a welcome packet.

The details of the new Starbucks Rewards program can be found here.

That 10% discount was just too good to be true. The new benefits are nice but surely not worthy of a gold status. As a freebie, I’ll keep going with the program (why not?), but sadly, the Starbucks Gold Card is now just like any other frequent buyer card.