Both Walgreens and CVS have rewards programs that allow you to accumulate “cash” in your account that can be applied toward future purchases. But each program has unexpected redemption limitations that may mean you won’t get full value for your banked bucks.
| Walgreens – MyWalgreens |
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Last fall, Walgreens ran a promotion giving folks who got their vaccine shots there a $10 reward for each one. MrConsumer accumulated three $10 certificates and promptly had them credited to his account.
Unlike cash, Walgreens cash rewards expire if you have not used them in six months, and only have at most a one-year lifespan before they disappear from your account. That is nasty enough for “money” you’ve earned. But when it comes time to use the accumulated credit, Walgreens places unreasonable restrictions on it.
MrConsumer recently bought an item that with tax came to $1.58. I told the clerk to use my points. She then said, “that will be 58 cents.” I said “excuse me, I’ve got close to $30 of credit on my account.” She then explained that they only can apply whole dollar amounts of credit toward your balance. Crazy! The computer doesn’t understand the concept of cents, I thought?
Fast forward to later that week at a different Walgreens, where a purchase I was making came to $6.66. I said I’ll apply my points to that. The checkout clerk said he can only take $5 off. What? He showed me his screen and the only choices for deductions were whole dollar amounts from $1 to $5. And only one reward can be applied to a transaction. So I had to pay the balance in cash.
Looking at the terms and conditions for the MyWalgreens program shed light on the issue.
*MOUSE PRINT:
How crazy is that? You cannot use your full balance toward your purchases. You have to pay with real money when the total falls between these wide brackets. So someone making a $25 purchase could only use $20 of Walgreens’ funny money toward it.
We asked the company why they limit redemptions like this, and whether they would consider allowing customers to apply their full balance in the future. They did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
What do you think? Has Walgreens rigged the system in their favor forcing you to pay with real money in many instances even though you have enough of their funny money in your account?
Next week we’ll look at tricks and traps in the CVS ExtraBucks program.
One of the worst aspects of healthcare in this country is the retail pharmacy chains. Both are incompetently run, and terrible for consumers, and they seem to just keep getting worse.
I would have discontinued gracing Walgreens with my presence, and my money, after the first incident. Customers have only one power, and that is using their feet to walk out.
Marty… the problem is they have $30 of credit for me, so going somewhere else is not an option.
Well, Edgar, it wasn’t money that YOU banked, it was a ‘bonus’ you received for getting your shots there. So you really aren’t losing anything. But if you really need to get your ‘bonus bucks’, you could go & buy three things (at different times) that total $10.00 (give or take) & your account will be at zero. I personally stopped shopping at Walgreens years ago because of their ridiculous prices.
Gert said it, Edgar. You seem to have fallen into the same trap that government engineers to hook people on their “crack” habit (except Walgreen’s doesn’t extract money involuntarily from you first before giving some of it back.) A prime example of this ploy is controlling public education: “Enact this pet project of ours and the money will keep flowing. If you don’t, we turn the tap off.”
This is the worst kind of rip off. This is very obviously set up so that there is always a balance left over when you make a purchase and so that you always have rewards balances that are going to expire soon. With a system like this they can guarantee you’ll never be able to hit $0.00 on your rewards account.
I can never fully use my points with Walgreens because of their tiers, but I often come close! I might have $20.57 and only get to use $20, leaving that 57 cents hanging around to maybe use or maybe vanish, but I spend enough at Walgreens that I do get value from most of the points.
A lot like the minimum payment on credit card bills, only in reverse. Not likely to ever “win.”
I’m retired military and for retail Rx am tied to whoever has the contract. Have hated WalG ever since they held us up over relatively small bucks years ago in contesting the award to CVS, of whom I am not a fan, either. Wife worked there long ago.
I have three post graduate degrees. I am a new member of Walgreen’s ‘rewards’ program. I have yet to figure out hth it works. A shelf item states “$5 rewards” yet it does not appear on my account. I have checked my credentials on the account for any errors but none to be found. This has happened a number of times. Then, yesterday I got a ‘receipt’ that stated I could use a $5 credit for a $10 purchase, yet the expiry is April 14 and I can’t use it on a number of things.
I didn’t KNOW the rewards would default to ZERO NOR that it had to be in certain increments. It’s just to bizarro world for me. I don’t want to bother with such messes . I will be removing my account information from Walgreen’s site.
So if you spend somewhere between five and $10, they are hoping that you will try to round it up to just over $10 by buying candy or something else if you had no intention of buying in the first place, therefore using a full $10 on a purchase. That is my take.
Hope CVS article addresses newer CVS Pharmacy and Health Program vs Extra Bucks. Seems to me it’s all about health data.
Sorry, Ann… it is about Extra Bucks. This is a series of stories about REWARD programs.
I get my Rx at Walgreen’s and that’s it. Pretty much everything else, including store brand items, is more expensive, even on sale, than they are at Target or Stop and Shop.
Years ago Walgreen’s had a simple rewards program that I took advantage of, but I’ve completely ignored it since it was changed a few years ago. Any rewards program or coupon that comes with that much fine print is simply not worth the aggravation.
I have a soft spot for Walgreens I’ll admit it. In 2005 after the Katrina hurricane our VA medical center was flooded with people that left home with a few days of supplies. I could call Walgreens and they faxed us all the prescription info so our pharmacy could take care of them. No other drug store would or (could? I’m not sure?). Anyway, it was a life saver.
I noticed this a long time ago, and it was one reason I stopped going there. Other bargain-shopper websites will have their ‘deals’ so I dropped by a local store to check and nothing was there. With [edited] the oil industry making gasoline and diesel more expensive, it makes shipping more expensive, so all items have to have higher prices, and this makes it harder to find any bargains in stores.
When Clerk explained the system : I would just politely lay down the products and say Cancel my order. The way your system is set up is very misleading I will just go down the street and spend my REAL money at CVS and you can keep my FUNNY money Thank you Have a “nice” day and Smile 🙂 and walk out leaving products on cashier desk for them to restock using my funny money to pay for the extra time to restock it.
I transferred all of my RXs from CVS to Harris Teeter bc I couldn’t stand their ‘rewards’ program. After looking at Goodrx.com I found out that both CVS and Walgreens had the highest prices on RXs and that grocery stores are much lower bc they don’t rely on prescriptions for their primary revenue.
I agree that you’ll never utilize all the points earned at CVS. Their prices are much higher to begin with and the rewards bring them down closer to competitive prices elsewhere. Thanks for your article!!
Oh! That’s not the worst of it when they went to the $1, $2, $5, $10 and $20 redemption. About 3 years ago, just before Christmas, they went to this system. I had accumulated over $100 in points, intending to use them for Christmas shopping, But I could only redeem $20 per purchase. That was infuriating. And I get one warning, via email, that a specific $ amount of my points will expire at the end of the month if I do not use them. Nowhere on their website can you look up this information under your account.
What’s really disturbing about these business practices at CVS and Walgreens is that they actually sat around a table and came up with these schemes on purpose. They know that people are not likely going to be able to redeem 100% of these Rewards. Also, the way that CVS applies coupons and discounts in a specific order (applying ExtraBucks before applying any percentage discount on the same order) is just unconscionable. They disclose all of the rules of these programs in advance, so it’s not illegal, but it certainly is not consumer friendly. I avoid both of these stores.
Better yet, just avoid CVS entirely, since they use part of your money (from their profits) to fight any sort of nationalized medicine. I switched my statin prescription to Amazon Pharmacy and the cash price (no insurance needed) was less than my co-pay had been at CVS. For a statin that costs $10/mo cash, CVS was charging me $50/3mo and my insurer $500! What a racket
Ever since I stopped shopping at Walgreens and CVS I feel much better. Besides, Walmart has most of what they carry anyway and no gimmicks are necessary to get a fair price.
If these programs were easy to use and understand,everyone would participate and the companies wouldn’t offer as much to each individual.So,you can take advantage of others’ unwillingness to go through the hassles.