How to get free drinks at Starbucks
or, Stickin’ it to the man with the Starbucks Duetto Visa
To make this trick work for you, you’ll need to be…
[ ] A Royal Bank of Canada account holder (or willing to become one)
[ ] A Starbucks drinker (a weekly one, not a daily one)
[ ] Interested in saving money
[ ] Keen on stickin’ it to the man
The plan:
The moderately well-intentioned corporate gurus at RBC and Starbucks have teamed up to introduce the Starbucks Duetto Visa. Get one, before they re-think their idea. For every dollar you spend using your Duetto card, you get 1% back in Starbucks dollars. So that’s 1 cent for every dollar. Sounds insignificant, but it adds up. Let’s say you smash up the front end of your old car and need to spend $500 at the neighbourhood car repair shop – pay with your Duetto card instead of debit, and bammo, you get $5 bucks back for Starbucks. Here’s a helpful chart to explain it:
The card has no fees attached — it’s free. Plus you get $10 in Starbucks dollars when you first sign up. Additionally, if you’re into books, literacy and kids, each time you sign up, $5 gets donated to the Children’s Literacy Foundation.
How it’s worked for us:
My wife Kendra and I signed up for the card in November. Since then, we haven’t paid for a single drink at Starbucks (okay, maybe one, but we were treating a friend). Each one has been free, and we’ve visited Starbucks about once a week. The key purchases that scored us the capital in Duetto Dollars have been…
- RBC hopes you’ll overspend your credit limit and pay your bill late so they can charge you interest.
- Starbucks hopes you’ll overspend your free Duetto dollars and splurge every now and then with your own cash.
Making it work for you:
It’s important to not let yourself get tricked. RBC and Starbucks, of course, are hoping their coffee-crazed customers will make a couple mistakes to benefit them:
- Don’t do it. Here’s how to make sure this card doesn’t rip you off:
- Make sure you always pay your Visa bill on time. One good way to ensure this happens is by signing up for online banking. After each purchase, once you get home, go straight online and transfer the funds onto your Visa. Basically, treat it like a debit card.
- At Starbucks, don’t be seduced by the well-packaged music and the sort-of-fresh pastries. Be diligent and disciplined: only pay with the Duetto Dollars.
- Don’t expect a bottomless supply of lattes. Depending on your spending habits, you’ll get about 1 free drink (five dollars worth) a week.
- Also, it’s helpful to know that the card reloads at the beginning of every month, once your Visa bill has been issued. That means that:
a) You shouldn’t expect to have Starbucks dollars waiting for you the second after you buy a plane ticket.
b) You can’t buy a bunch of expensive items and then return them, and still keep the Star-bucks.
Conclusion:
I know it sounds like I’m probably shilling for The Man, but don’t believe your inner conspiracy-theorist. This is a completely workable way to get free drinks at Starbucks without any dirty tricks, losing any money, or, say, getting arrested for being part of an international pyramid scheme/Nigerian email scam. Works for us.
Yep, this archaic archive of articles and projects is a little outdated. BUT! At one point, these were cutting edge. Or least, relatively useful/funny. They were made, painstakingly, by Kevan Gilbert: you know, from Vancouver, works for a web agency, sometimes makes up songs, is a totally dorky dad and husband. More boring details on the 
Hmm… I have definitely thought about getting one of those, especially given that I’m already an RBC customer.
Your post may have just pushed me over to the dark side… :)
so…thanks to you kev, i’m now considering becoming an RBC customer just because this seems like such an amazing deal. hmmm! thanks for the food – er, drink? – for thought kevan. :) (oh my word, the part about the inner conspiracy theorist definitely was true.. i was thinking, yeah right.. haha)
Kristen, you mean the dark roast side…
Hey Kaylie: It really is a rad deal for Sbux freakz like us, so it’s probably worth the hassle of switching. I gotta say, I still prefer the web banking interface of TD, though.
I HAVE USED THE CARD SINCE THE END OF JUNE. I AM VERY HAPPY WITH IT.TO DATE,I HAVE RE CEIVED $40.00 IN DUETTO DOLLARS-APART FROM THE $10.00 BONUS DOLLARS FOR APPLYING FOR THE CARD. THE STARBUCKS CARD IS ALSO USED TO RELOAD THE SECOND CUP COFFEE CARD.I NORMALLY USE BOTH COFFEE CARDS.YOU SHOULD SEE THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES AT SECOND CUP WHENEVER I GIVE THE BARISTA MY STARBUCKS VISA.WHAT A LAUGH
AN UPDATE CONCERNING THE RBC STARBUCKS VISA. THE OTHER DAY,WHILE IN A STARBUCKS,THE COUNTER PERSON HAD ASKED ME WHAT DID I MEAN BY ” PUT THE PURCHASE
ON THE STARBUCKS CARD. ITS A VISA
I HAVE TO CHARGE THE PURCHASE TO VISA” I REPLIED BY ASKING HER TO
LOOK AT THE CREDIT CARD AGAIN. DID SHE NOT SHE THE STARBUCKSLOGO?
I SPENT A GOOD TEN MINUTES
EXPLAINING THE BENEFITS OF THE
CARD. SO MUCH FOR TRAINING. OVER THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS,I HAVE
NOTICED STAFF AT VARIOUS STARBUCKS NOT RECOGNIZING THE CAR
-D.WHAT COULT THE PROBLEM BE?
JUST ENDED A CALL WITH THE RBC VISA CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPT.I WAS ABLE TO CHANGE THE STATEMENT DATE CONCERNING THE STARBUCKS VISA. AGAIN,VERY SATISIFIED WITH THE SERVICE,ETC,
FOR A SUNDAY AFTERNOON
A follow up to the postings 4-6.The card is still being used by myself.At the moment,I am averaging $6.00 a month in
duetto dollars. I still have to explain the benefit of the card to Starbucks employees.I guess some one has to do it. There
are still the odd occaision when an employee does not understand the function of the card.
Hi Nicholas: thanks for all the updates! $6.00 a month is a nice bonus — that would get you a couple tall drinks for free, right? Maybe Starbucks needs to include a section about the Duetto card in their training, so employees can understand it better.
Hello Kevan;
I am still using the card.My drink of choice is a grande soy latte.There are instances when I still have to give a mini
tutorial to a barista.The quarterly thank-you gifts from Starbucks were a nice surprise.Having an extra $10.00 loaded to
the card was a real treat.Caution must be exercised when using the card at Starbucks.It is so easy to have the card re-
loaded several times during a month.For instance,during the month of September,the card was reloaded three times.Albeit,
a reload is automatically set for $20.00. Reality does set in when the statement arrives.As well as the Second Cup coffee
card re-load,I have added the rbc Starbucks visa to the Tim Hortons auto load coffee card.If I could, Dunkin Dounuts would be added as well.
Hello Kevan;the starbucks card has been put to rest. The DESJARDINS VISA has caught my eye.The card offers a 1% cash back concerning all purchases.What makes the card interesting is the cash back can be applied to bank fees or may be deposited into an RRSP plan or other investment instruments that are offered by DESJARDINS.There is no minimum required before the dollars can be redeemed. I plan to apply the dollars to the bank fees. We will see how this will play out
I have been trying to understand this subject for a while, there is so much information out there, but your post helped
me understand the concept.
So thank you!