Updated Terms for Walgreens Balance Rewards – You Can Now Spend and Earn Points in the Same Transaction

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walgreensA minor change to the Walgreens Balance Rewards terms of service on April 24, 2016 could make a big difference in how you earn and redeem your drugstore rewards points. The change is just one sentence, reading:

…points will not be earned on the portion of a transaction that was paid for using redemption dollars or store credit.

However, this actually means more than it seems. The addition of this policy, de facto allows for customers to earn rewards even at the same time as using their points to pay for their purchase. There are some caveats, however, so pay attention.

How to Spend and Earn Walgreens Balance Rewards at the Same Time

Basically, the real boon of this new policy is that it allows for users to use their rewards balance to pay for purchases in which they earn more rewards. Yes, you read that right. Here’s the catch though, you can only do this if the rewards-earning activity is unit-based. For example, this week, Walgreens is offering 1000 Balance Rewards Points ($1) when you buy 2 or more of select L’Oreal products. If you use our suggested Deal Idea and buy two (2) L’Oreal Advance Shampoo for $3.99 and use (2) $1 off printable coupons, your total should be $5.98 with $1 back in Walgreens Balance Rewards.

BUT…

With the new policy change, you can use the Balance Rewards you have already earned to pay for these products and still earn the 1000 points offered in the promotion. Therefore, if you have 5000 Balance Rewards to spend, you pay $0.98 OOP and get $1 back (1,000 points) in additional Balance Rewards.

How Spend and Earn Can Negatively Impact Your Couponing

Unfortunately, this new policy does not apply to other Balance Rewards activities, most specifically Everyday Points and spend threshold rewards. In other words, you will not earn Everyday Points, equivalent to 10 points for every dollar spent, on any value paid with rewards. You also lose threshold spending credit if you use rewards to pay for your purchase. Therefore, if you need to spend $25 on baby items to receive 5000 Balance Rewards, using a 2000 point redemption will decrease your total spending by $2. So you will not receive your 5000 points if you spend $25 on diapers but use $2 in rewards to lower your total to $23, missing the spending threshold for more rewards.

For more information on this policy and how the company plans to apply it, take a look at some employee documents about it, courtesy of slickdeals.net: