Starbucks today announced a new partnership with JP Morgan Chase to create a prepaid card that allows customers to earn Starbucks rewards points, called stars, every time they make a purchase with the card, even if they’re not at a Starbucks.
The Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card from Chase, announced at Starbucks’ annual shareholders meeting today, will be available at the end of this year and will work at almost all retail locations that accept Visa as payment.
“We were sitting around thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if we all had a payment card that would enable you to earn Starbucks stars for every dollar spent using that card?” said Starbucks COO Kevin Johnson. “Now if this card were accepted virtually anywhere, this could become your primary card for shopping, for travel, for online spending.”
Every time customers use the new prepaid rewards card, they will automatically earn stars that are directly transferred into their Starbucks accounts. They can then spend those stars at Starbucks stores or online, redeeming them for rewards.
The prepaid card builds on an existing partnership between Starbucks and JP Morgan Chase, which began in October when Starbucks announced that Chase Commerce Solutions was replacing Square as its payment processor and that Starbucks stores would accept Chase Pay.
Customers can apply for the prepaid card through the Starbucks Mobile App or the Starbucks website. It can be reloaded with money at any time.
The card is part of Starbucks’ larger plan to “open up its digital ecosystem and expand payment options,” CTO Gerri Martin-Flickinger said. The prepaid card will extend Starbucks’ existing loyalty program, in which Starbucks customers will be rewarded with 2 stars for every dollar spent in the store — a change in policy from the previous practice of rewarding customers based on number of visits. The program currently has more than 12 million members, up 1 million over the past quarter, she said.
