I think you can earn Gold status on your own. It is not difficult, at just 300 stars per year ($150).

If you don’t spend $150 a year at Starbucks, or about $12 a month, then I really wonder why you need to spend $50 on the annual fee for a Starbucks credit card.

I didn’t directly answer whether I think Gold status has value. It does, but I don’t think it’s a real benefit of the credit card.

Do you place any value on their ‘Gold Status’ ?

I think in the old days you could actually pay with cash and just show your card, but not anymore.

Understood; Thank you.

I understood it as paying for coffee with cash, while you meant reloading with cash.

You have to load money onto your Starbucks app or Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card before you can use it to pay for coffee. Every time you pay for coffee you get 2 stars per dollar.

But you can use any credit card or cash to load your Starbucks app or Prepaid Card.

The prepaid card and the app are NOT the same thing as the credit card. If I’m going to load the app, I would rather use my Chase Sapphire Reserve card to get 3 Ultimate Rewards points. Or I could use my Chase Freedom Unlimited card to get 1.5% cash back with no annual fee.

I don’t think there’s any good reason to load the app with the Starbucks credit card, which gives me only 1 star, worth 0.9% cash back as I calculated above.

“Will I earn Stars if I pay with cash, credit or debit card instead of my registered Starbucks Card or Starbucks® app?
No. To earn Stars on your purchases, you must pay with your registered Starbucks®, Teavana® or Evolution Fresh™ Card. You can also earn Stars from purchases made using the Starbucks app for iPhone® and Android™. We cannot award Stars for purchases made with alternative methods of payment until the Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card is available later in 2016.”

But you say, “Anyone can get those 2 stars with any credit card, or even when paying cash. ”

I’m confused. How can we get stars while paying with cash?

Correct, it’s for any Starbucks Rewards member. I’ll remove that item from the benefits list.

Ack! Thanks. I knew it wasn’t that good, and then when I was revising I somehow had a brain fart. Will update ASAP.