How to use your Starbucks card for free foreign currency conversions

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• Peter K says:

  1 Jan1 January 14:26

  Thanks Harry

  • David says:

    1 Jan1 January 14:36

    I’m “not eligible for this offer”. 🙁

    • Alex says:

      1 Jan1 January 16:36

      Yes, t&c are quite restrictive.

• RussellH says:

  1 Jan1 January 17:19

  Interesting article, but I just do not see why any regular traveller (as I assume most people here are) would not hang on to the cash for the next trip?

  Particularly USD or EUR – there are plenty of places outwith the USA where USD can be spent as cash. I never change spare cash from a trip, unless it is somewhere like Tunisia where they ban import and export of their currency.

  Occasionally I do get caught out by this – the Swedish Kronor I still ‘have’ have all been cancelled and I had to send several CZK banknotes to the Salvation Army in Prague as they were due for cancellation in a couple of months.

  And given that throughout my life the value of GBP against almost anything else has been steadily downhill, there is always the distinct possiblity of making a profit.

  • Peter K says:

    1 Jan1 January 17:31

    I’ve seen the £ compared against the € within the past few years go from 1.4 to about 1.1 back to 1.4 down to 1.1 again. Things go in cycles as a general rule.
    Also, some of us lose coins or forget to take them on the next hol so a good cashout is useful.

    • RussellH says:

      1 Jan1 January 18:48

      Re value of GBP – I am looking over the period frm when I first started to travel on my own, so since 1961. Of course there have been short term fluctuations, but the overall trend has been steadily downward.
      I very clearly recall my first summer (1966) job in Germany, in a small machine shop near Bonn. I was paid DM2 per hour. At the time the exchange rate was £1=DM13,40, so my pay was the equivalent of 14.925 pence /hr. This was a definite improvement, though, on the 1/10+1 halfpenny I got at the GPO in 1964, equal to 8.54p per hour..
      [For those who are too young to remember DM. €1=DM1,98]

      And, lose coins??? Forget them??? Really???
      🙂

• Tom1 says:

  1 Jan1 January 19:40

  Given that you can frequently buy Starbucks gift cards through various schemes at 5-10% discount, I don’t think you are really getting great value even at spot rates. (it’s small amounts, I know)

• Nick Burch says:

  3 Jan3 January 06:35

  You can add India to the list of places with a Starbucks but where the cards aren’t interchangeable. UK Starbucks cards won’t wok in India, and Indian ones won’t work back over here. I believe it’s because Starbucks India is a 50% joint venture with TATA

• dotti says:

  6 Jan6 January 05:07

  in France and London cannot use my starbucks app or gold card..refused to take it!!

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