(Update 6/13/21: Card no longer available for new signups as of June 10, 2021. Hat tip to EosHuffer)
Chase and Starbucks have finally launched a prepaid Visa product which was discussed two years ago. This comes on the heels of the launch of the Chase Starbucks Visa card back in February.
Overview
Direct Signup Link | Press Release | Terms (pdf)
The Starbucks Rewards Visa prepaid card is issued by Chase and can be reloaded online with a Chase bank account, Liquid account, or with a debit card (not clear if it has to be a Chase debit card). The terms state clearly that cash reload is not available on the prepaid card, thus negating any manufactures spend angle here.
The Starbucks prepaid card does not have a bill pay function and does not have access to Zelle, nor does it have ATM access. It does come with a PIN.
Similar to the Chase Starbucks Visa credit card, the prepaid product also earns Stars wherever it’s used. ‘Stars’ are Starbucks rewards currency which give you any free Starbucks item after accumulating 125 stars. That will usually be a value of $3 – $10.
Ongoing Earn
- Prepaid cardholders get instant Gold status on the Starbucks loyalty program which typically would take 300 stars ($150 in Starbucks spend) to reach.
- Earn 1 star per $10 spent everywhere with the prepaid card (free item after $1,250 in spend)
- No special earn on Starbucks purchases: you’ll get the regular 2 stars per $1 that all Starbucks members get when paying with their Starbucks card or app, and you’ll get the regular bonus 1 star per $10 as does all spend.
Signup Bonus
- Get 125 Stars (one free item) after you reload $10 or more with your Starbucks Rewards Visa Prepaid Card to your Registered Starbucks Card.
And, yup, it comes with the 24 month limitation 🙂 : This offer is not available to current cardholders or previous cardholder of this prepaid card who received the new cardholder bonus for this prepaid card within the last 24 months.
Fees
- $0 signup fee
- $0 annual/monthly fee
- $0 reload fee
- $0 fee per swipe
- $0 inactivity fee
- $0 customer service fee
- $5 fee for a rush card replacement
- 3% foreign transaction fee
- $75 legal processing fee, which would be triggered if the bank was required to hold or pay out funds from the account as a result of a legal action.
Final Thoughts
For someone who can not get a credit card for whatever reason, this prepaid card can be mildly rewarding. It’s not much of alternative to the no-fee Bluebird/Serve/Redcard line from American Express which are fantastic products for the underbanked since this Starbucks prepaid requires having a bank or debit card to load. Plus, it does not offer bill pay and ATM access. The Starbucks prepaid card is better than Chase Liquid prepaid card which comes with $4.95 monthly fee.
$1,250 in spend to get 1 free item isn’t much. Most items cost around $4 which would amount around 1/3 of 1%. It would be almost impossible to get a 1% value. For our readers who have credit cards, I can’t find any use for this prepaid card. Maybe it could help rack up debit card purchase requirements, but realize there is a $25 debit card load minimum, and remember that you’ll have to spend down the balance somehow. If anyone finds a usefullness for this, please let us know.
Readers note it could be interesting for racking up ‘debit card’ spend. And also for racking up free drinks by using the card at places who only accept debit card.
The Chase Starbucks credit card which released in February is better than the prepaid product, as expected. It earns 1 star per $4, two and a half times the earn rate of the prepaid card, though overall it isn’t too interesting either. Read our review of the Starbucks credit card here.
Related: Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts: Which Has a Better Rewards Program?
I load my card every payday through direct deposit from work. I commute so I spend a lot on gas. This card is great for using on internet, gas stations, places that require a Visa card and since its pre paid you cant go in the negative. Earning stars is reason and I love it!
There goes the neighborhood.
I think that we killed it. LOL. I got $800-$1000 cashback.
How?!
But that was from CashApp, not Chase. Chase didn’t necessarily lose money on us.
I only got to load it one time before I screwed it up. I was so sad.
I signed up for this card earlier this year when I read some comments in the Cash app post when they had Starbucks as as one of the boosts offering very good cashback people were loading funds onto this card from their Cash app debit and receiving very high amounts of cash back. Unfortunately for me once I received the card and tried to do the same thing the Chase website said the card wasn’t valid as a loading source so I guess they caught onto people doing the Cash app thing.
I would feel sad if they discontinue this card for existing users. It’s an additional card for chase offers. I got two 10% bestbuy ($35 max) offers this year on this prepaid card
I can’t be the only one who had no idea this existed. I only ever saw the credit card marketed.
It was launched quietly with the credit card (maybe the same time or very close to it) and wasn’t marketed much. I grabbed it for the heck of it and behind-the-scenes, it’s a Chase checking account + debit card with all sorts of blocks/restrictions to only work for the intended purpose.
I got it mostly for the bonus stars at signup, no costs, and it served as my sole Visa card for a few months when I converted a CF to CFF. Funny enough, UR as cash back could be dumped into it if you wanted to reload <$25 at a time.
Besides the initial sign up bonus of stars, there were a few times they gave out free drinks for cardholders (usually once a weekend during the holidays, and then last June there were a few when stores re-opened, but had very little traffic.
Finally, it got Chase Offers, so I made about $10 off of those over the last year or two.
I'll be curious if it's shut down entirely or converted to something new? (I also dabbled with Chase's Finn product and closed it a few months before they shut that down and gave everyone the Secured Checking for free…kind of wish I kept that to get grandfathered in.)
This was the only no-fee way to prevent stars from expiring. I hope that benefit continues for current card holders.
Does Chase consider the prepaid Starbucks debit card to be an “existing Chase checking account” for the regular checking account bonus offers? I’ve been churning Chase checking/savings bonuses for years, but only recently opened the Starbucks debit card. Wondering if I’ll need to close it to be eligible for future checking/savings offers from Chase if they have similar terms? Thanks!
I think my card must have been closed as I have not seen it on my Chase account for a long time. I also noticed my Stars are expiring, those shouldn’t expire If I had the card. I did call Chase support last year and the CSR said he could see the card on my account but, it wasn’t visible from my side.
I’ve got the chase Starbucks prepaid credit card and have been unable to load it for over a month now. Everybody says they’re working on it but nobody’s resolving the problem. Starbucks claims it’s Chase. Chase says they’re working on it. There is no alternative way to load to card, only through the Chase app.
Yes, I’ve found this product to be extremely frustrating. One day I’ll have cards running fine then I’ll have several days I cannot process anything. I’ve had times where $100 won’t load, but $25 loads will work four times. Then that sets off some fraud alert with the debit card bank and I have that to clear up.
I closed my checking account with Chase. When I had it open I was able to easily transfer funds from that account to the debit card, but I didn’t need the checking account so I closed it.
This is probably one of the poorest product executions I’ve ever seen, and the benefits aren’t really even mediocre.