Hi ladies - this sounds like a great thing to do....can you tell me how to get started or point me to an old thread about it???
You can sign up for your Extra Care Card by asking for one in the stores or clicking on this link:
http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/extracarehome and signing up online (usually takes up to 2 weeks to get your card in the mail vs. starting immediately in the store). You can also reads terms & rules on same website.
Basically the card works like all the grocery stores. You need the card to get advertised sales. But you can also earn Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) by purchasing certain products. You earn a flat 2% on all sales but certain products are advertised as getting back ECB's and these products either cost little or end up free, sometimes you can even make money. For example this week Viactiv Viatimins are on sale for $5.99 and they are offering $5.99 back in ECB's so the item is free. Usually these specials are limited to 1 or 5 offers meaning you can only buy that many and still get back ECB's.
You can use mfg. coupons on top of sale prices, even if they are giving you back ECB's for the full amount of the product. So using the Viactiv example above, if you have a coupon like the one from Sundays paper of $1.00 off you can use it at the time of purchase and after ECB's you will have a $1.00 profit.
Your ECB's print 2 days after the initial transaction or your next visit, whichever one comes 1st. You can get online to check your balance and print out your ECB's from home as well but many recommend making sure that your own local CVS will accept the home printed ECB's vs. the ones printed out on receipt paper.
Your 1st sale or even your 1st couple depending on what you purchase are usually the big cost. After that you roll your existing ECB's onto you next purchase and paying nothing or very little. The last couple transactions I have had ended up costing me OOP around .11 and .38 after using ECB's and I will be replenishing those ECB's with what I bought.
You will not get change back from ECB's so make sure you use all of it when spending. If you purchasing 2 separate items (like deodorant & shampoo) that have ECB's on them you will get back 2 separate ECB's - 1 for each item. BUT using again the Viactiv example from above - limit is 5 - if you purchase 5 in 1 shot, you will get back 1 ECB for 29.95 so if you want smaller increments, spread your transactions out over the week. Same items purchased in the same day are grouped into 1 ECB.
