A few months ago, I came across an ad on Instagram that said I could get free Starbucks each week just for 1) being a homeowner and 2) having good credit. Naturally, I was skeptical. In fact, although I started to fill out the information needed to get this deal, I put it aside for a couple of weeks before returning to it. But, cut to today, and I’ve managed to score $75 in free Starbucks gift cards thanks to this app. So, what’s the deal?
Aven Advisor is a financial aggregation app geared towards homeowners. Using the service, you can view your VantageScore credit score, home value, and account balances all in one place. Beyond that, you can also check out items for sale in your neighborhood, spending insights and subscriptions, celebrity stock trades, and more. Yes, there’s a lot going on.
But what does that have to do with coffee? Well, presumably in a bid to acquire new users, Aven is offering new customers $5 a week in Starbucks gift cards. However, to be eligible, you’ll need to be a homeowner and have a credit score over 700 (there are also now state residency rules we’ll talk about in a minute). But, as long as you meet those requirements, you’ll be able to activate your weekly gift card.
This gift card drop used to happen on Mondays but, at least for me, it’s since moved to Thursday. What’s great is that I’ve been able to load my new card in the Starbucks app and immediately transfer it to my main card. In turn, I’ve watched my balance slowly grow as I await the next time I’m traveling and could use some free coffee.
I should note that, since I signed up for Aven, they’ve apparently made some changes to this offer. First, terms now states that its limited to residents of f AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, WI, and WY. If I had to guess, these might be the states when Aven’s home equity-backed card is available — but that’s just a guess.
Also, if you prefer Dunkin’ to Starbucks for some reason, there’s also an offer going around for that option. The same terms and restrictions apply to that one as well.
Something else to mention is that, in order to sign up for Aven Advisor, you’ll need to give quite a bit of information. I’m pretty used to handing such info out at this point, but I’m betting there are people who won’t be as freewheeling about it. For those people, the $5 a week in coffee may not be worth handing over their data.
Lastly, Aven also has a weekly drawing where you could win $1,000. To qualify for this, you’ll need to connect at least one account via Plaid. I’ve never won this weekly drawing but I do keep trying each week just in case.
So will this free coffee train last forever? Absolutely not. As I see it, this is just a clever way to acquire users before they make whatever pivot toward profitability they’re eventually going to make. However, as long as Aven has venture capital to burn, I’m happy to take advantage and keep sipping my free lattes.