Review: Starbucks Card Mobile

September 25, 2009 in Reviews by Bob Faulhaber

If you have an iPhone and frequent Starbucks to get your daily caffeine fix, there’s now an app to make your life easier. Starbucks has released an iPhone app that brings your Starbucks card to your iPhone. Mobile Card app lets you view your card balance, reload the card, view transactions and actually pay for transactions (Currently being tested in the Silicon Valley and Seattle, WA areas).

After downloading the app from the App Store and entering your Starbucks.com username and password, the app will show all your existing Starbucks’ cards (if you have multiple cards, like other caffeine addicts) and the card balances.

After you select the default card, it will display the actual card artwork and current balance. This is also the page you will see when you start the app.

While you cannot pay for transactions yet, other than in the test area, the application quickly updates your card balance after making a purchase. After I made a purchase, by the time I made it back to my car (3 minutes or so), the balance was updated when I restarted the app.

Other features include the ability to view a transaction history for your card, along with the capability to reload the card balance using a credit card.

Starbucks has not announced how long they will be testing the Payment option, but once available in all areas, the app will generate a bar code that either you or the cashier will swipe past a reader. The only potential problem I see might either be the glare on the iPhone screen or the barcode being obscured by fingerprints on the screen.

All-in-all the Starbucks Mobile Card app does a nice job giving you access to your Starbucks card balances and information, along with ability to reload and eventually pay for transactions without having to carry the physical card in your wallet.

Are you in any of the test areas and have you used the Payment feature? Let us know how it worked by leaving a comment below.

Starbucks Mobile Card is now available in the Apple App Store.