Starbucks Rewards Card and Mobile Apps

I just got finished writing up a post on my food blog about the Starbucks Rewards Card. I didn’t even know until a few days ago that Starbucks even had a reward program. I always thought they were just regular gift cards. Now I know better and now my goal is to reach the gold level. I’m not even close, but I’ll make it. For specifics on the card, visit my food blog. I went over the system pretty thoroughly on that site. Here’s a quick summary though, before we move on: All you need is to grab a Starbucks card and register it on Starbucks.com. Then get started! Every time you buy a drink with your Starbucks card, you’ll earn a star (as long as the particular location is participating). Keep collecting stars and the more you collect, the more you’ll be rewarded!

I’m not going to talk about the specifics, but you can consult the image above for some more facts regarding the benefits you receive. Let’s instead look at two iPhone and iPod apps that you can download that’ll augment your Starbucks enjoyment and visit. You can do a lot with your mobile phone and internet enabled devices. Here are two things that you can do with your mobile and have some Starbuck’s fun:

Starbucks: The official Starbucks coffee application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s everything that you need to know about Starbucks. Absolutely everything minus the products that they sell. Let’s break it down. With the Starbucks application, you can find the location of a Starbucks around you and view the services provided. See which locations have free wifi connections and which ones have drive-thrus. You’ll even be able to check if the branch is still open at the time you’re searching this up. Get directions to the coffee shop, invite a friend to come with you, share your location on your social networks, and add it to “myStarbucks”, which are you favorite stores. Searching for a Starbucks location that fits your needs has never been easier. You can filter the locations by amenity, which can come in very useful, especially if you want to take advantage of the “Mobile Payment” option that we’ll talk about later.

Under the drinks tab, you can have a look at their menu, discover new drinks, and create your own from scratch. Save your created drinks to “myStarbucks” and even share them with friends. Everything is customizable and all you have to do is take your custom drink over to the Starbuck’s you’re visiting. Under the coffees tab, browse all the different coffees, their descriptions, photos, and similar coffees. Don’t forget you can add your favorites to “myStarbucks”. You can even use the “explore” mode and pick a characteristic from a list that you want in your coffee and the application will find one for you! It’s a coffee chooser!

The food tab is pretty versatile. You can search for food by filtering by calories or filtering by the lack of a certain ingredient. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you start using it. In the food tab, you can view pictures, view nutrition information, view allergens, get drink pairings, and add to “myStarbucks”.

Starbuck’s Mobile Card: Have a Starbucks card that you’ve registered online? Or maybe you have a couple? If you have one buck haven’t registered it, go register it for some free goodies. With the Starbuck’s Mobile Card application, you can enter the information from your card into the application and check your balance from the app. You can even reload your card, set up auto-reload, and view your recent transactions. Also, after you’ve registered your card, you can track the number of stars you’ve earned and what level you’re on.

Then there’s a cool feature called Payment Trial, where you can pay for Starbucks locations in Target Stores just by using your iPhone and iPod touch. You don’t even have to take your card out. Your iPhone and iPod will generate a code that can be scanned for charging your account. Neat feature!