Walgreens new loyalty card — brief update, no huge details

A while back I told you a bit about Walgreens new loyalty card, and they’ll be be rolling out their new Balance Rewards program to customers next month.

What’s happening to Register Rewards?

My understanding is that Walgreens will continue to participate at least in national Catalina deals, such as the Kraft Catalina and the Glade Expressions Catalina going on now, due to contracts with Catalina. I’m unclear at this point whether they are going to be phasing out Walgreens-specific Register Rewards or just cutting back on them with the new system, because everyone has conflicting reports — we’ll have to see how that plays out. My original info was that they were phasing them out, however, they may just be limiting them. The comments on Wild for Wags here are hysterical, because people using the Wags online chat are being told different things about that.

You’ll need a card to get the price

Starting in September, Walgreens will be pushing everyone to sign up for the new loyalty card. It looks like the card will be advertised in the Sept. 9 ad, official rollout will be Sept. 16, and you’ll need the card to get advertised prices starting Sept. 30.

Purchases equal points

5000 bonus points = $5.00. You’ll be asked at checkout if you want to redeem points on your purchases, and you cannot cash out until you hit 5000 points. There will be monthly and weekly bonus points offers, and you’ll also earn 500 points for filling a prescription. There will also be special bonus points offers for AARP members.

Points are good for 36 months after you earn them, but will expire after six months of inactivity.

Points do NOT roll

If you use points to pay for a product, you will NOT earn points on that product. So no rolling for you.

Read more

Here are a few sites with more info about Walgreens Balance Rewards:

• Coupons, Deals and More
• Wild for Wags
• Coupon Dad
• You can also call 1-855-225-9225 if you want to talk to a rep about Balance Rewards. The site they send you to when you call is not yet active; it just redirects to the main Walgreens home page.

From their Balance Rewards brochure

And the marketing-speak:

The program is simple: just sign up and start saving. You will be able to instantly earn and redeem points for thousands of items in store and online and receive exclusive savings. Balance Rewards will include many of the best aspects of existing loyalty programs and have distinct features that competitors do not match, including:

•  Members can earn points for making healthy choices, such as getting an immunization or participating in Walk with Walgreens (walk.walgreens.com).
• A lenient, customer-friendly expiration policy – points will not expire as long as members remain active by shopping at Walgreens at least once every six months and redeem their points within three years.
• Members may earn and redeem points for both in store and online purchases.
• Exclusive benefits for AARP members.

From September 2 – 15^th, you can join online at http://Walgreens.com/Balance. Beginning September 16^th, customers can also enroll at any of the more than 7,900 Walgreens drugstores across the country and start enjoying all the benefits of Balance Rewards.

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