Update 1/4/2020: Deal can be made even better, SimplyMiles is offering 1,000 American Airline miles and some Chase cards have 10% back as well.
Update 1/3/2020: When you sign up you now get a $10 instant reward, previously you didn’t get one immediately but at the end of your first month.
CVS has launched a paid membership program called ‘CVS CarePass‘, the new subscription service costs $5 a month or you can pay a yearly fee of $48 ($12 savings over the monthly fee). It’s only available in selected areas currently.
Membership Benefits
CarePass members get the following benefits:
- $10 promotional credit monthly, can be used in store or online. Minimum spend is $10 excluding taxes & fees. Excludes: alcohol, lottery, money orders, prescriptions and co-pays, pseudoephedrine/ephedrine products, postage stamps, pre-paid cards, gift cards, newspapers and magazines, milk (where required by law or regulation), bottle deposits, bus passes, hunting and fishing licenses, any imposed governmental fees, or items reimbursed by a government health plan
- Free 1–2 day shipping from CVS.com with no minimum spend requirement
- Free 1–2 day Rx delivery on qualifying prescriptions
- A 24/7 Pharmacist Helpline Call 1-833-320-CARE whenever you have an Rx question
- A 20% discount on CVS Health™ brand products
Our Verdict
If you do the yearly deal you’re paying $4 per month and getting a $10 credit and some other benefits. If you regularly spend money, or get your prescriptions through CVS then this could be a good deal. I’d just be careful of signing up unless you know you’re actually going to use the $10 monthly credit on something useful.
I Joined for a free trial month and they shipped my order to a UPS access point. If I wanted to go pick it up I would have just gone to the store, which is closer!
Since December my date pass has been used by someone who uses my telephone number. I called to complain and they even emailed me a receipt. It was used by someone at the Glen Oaks CVS store where I never shop. I canceled my extra care card and got a new card with no telephone number listed. I used an old email. I suspect it’s someone from the store as bingo! The care pass was used again the following month. So I canceled my care pass too. I am not sure why they continued charging my credit card. And in March snd April it was redeemed again. I finally called my credit card company to block the recurring transaction by CVS. I intend writing to their care pass office to let them know how inefficient they are. CVS owes me for 3 months charged. And I am working on trying to find out who was cashing in on monthly $10 my care pass. I suggested they insist on seeing the extra care card before they allow anyone to redeem the benefit.
I moved from FL to VT and had not used a brick and mortar CVS during a period that matched the start of CarePass $5 mthly charges. No contact/no paper work, no knowledge of carepass. Had trouble with CarePass staff stopping these charges. Had a problem with Regions Bank in getting credit for these fraudgulent charges removed from my bank card. Now I am in negotiation with Regions Bank. What a mess. FJB
They recharged my yearly membership even though it was on hold (did not want to continue for another year), then when I canceled it, benefit ended end of month even though a full year was paid for. Definitely how they ‘get you’ with this program. $10 a month to spend on products that cost 2X more than other places. What a deal!
Also, their CS number connects to offshore agents that read over and over from a script. Good luck trying to get real help.
Please be careful when cashiers ask for your information you may find a $5.00 debit on your checking account for cvs.com and don’t know why?
Is it really free shipping? It says you have to include at least one carepass item in order to get free shipping? I plan to buy some nuts today? Can I get freeshipping without adding anything else? Appreciate it if someone can share some experience.
Thansk.
CAREPASS sounds good but its almost impossible to cancel it once they got you! So make sure you are going to use the coupons and the $10.00 at CVS on something that is actually saving you money over other stores. I had someone hack or otherwise get their name on my account (or maybe CVS messed up) so every time I tried using the CAREPASS 10 bucks or coupons, the cashier would question me, name, phone number, credit card, password, email address.etc, and when i didnt know that other person’s name, they often refused to give me the $10.00 discount or use the other coupons! So i tried to cancel it, what a run around! THe website gives you a phone number to call AND when you finally reach someone at that number, they tell you to cancel online- there is NO way to cancel online, and the call center is in Asia somewhere, and they said they couldnt cancel it because it was in someone else’s name. They sure were CHARGING me the 5 bucks a month on my credit card, and i couldnt get them to stop! Finally after three days of calling one of them said he got it cancelled and gave me a confirmation number. waiting for next month to see if im charged again. Definitely not worth it for me.
It’s easy to cancel this membership (nothing like FYE which is impossible). What’s bad is the discounts they give you offset the $10. By the time I was done using my 40% off one item and 20% of CVS products, my $10 turned into$1.37, so I actually lost on the $5 of my money I was supposed to get back.
I shop often at CVS anyway. For five dollars a month they give me ten dollars plus free shipping? For someone like me, what’s in it for them?
Gina. CVS cost way more than any other store. I have noticed that prices are raised on things they put on sale. This $10 reward will shrink if you use a 40% off one item and 20% off CVS products. All the money these discounts supposedly saved me are deducted from the $10. When all is said and done, this $10 was actually $1.37. This means that CVS gave me nothing and I got back $1.37 from my $5. I lost.
In addition, if you use the CarePass reward on a sale item, it takes it off the full price, not the sale price. I just bought Candy that was on sale for $12.16, $12,88 and $2.11 before tax (6%). Used the $10 and a 20% off and 10% off and total came to $28.77 – that’s more than the sale prices of the items. Definitely going to TRY to cancel. Very disappointed.
I was told when I signed up that I would receive an email within 3 weeks that would give me the option to continue or opt out. Never received the email. I want to cancel this service immediately. I will not pay any charges for this service. Please confirm.
https://www.cvs.com/carepass/cancelplan
Money grab. It is virtually impossible to cancel this program or even remove your credit card. Be sure you want this charge for life!! Definitely a different customer service experience when trying to cancel.
Care to elaborate? What happened when you tried to cancel?