The Basics:
Corporate phone #:1-800-SHOP-CVS (1-800-746-7287)
Website: http://www.cvs.com

You can do the following activities @ the CVS website:

• View the weekly circular
• Track your ExtraCare account
• Contact CVS through the “Contact us” link

EB / ECB: Extrabucks
CRT coupons: Coupons printed at the end of your receipt.

Both EB and CRT coupons specific to your CVS account, which means you can not use them with another CVS card. If you have multiple CVS cards, you will not be able to use a EB/CRT coupon coordinated w/ card #1 on a purchase being made w/ card #2.

ExtraBucks:

You “earn” EBs. They are printed at the end of your receipt, so you will have to clip them and use them on your next purchase.

At the end of each quarter, CVS rewards it’s customers by giving them 2% back (in the form of EB) of the total amount spent during the quarter. The 2% is calculated after coupons. CVS also rewards $1 for every 2 RXs filled @ CVS. The $1 is reflected in your quarterly EB total.
Alternatively, EB are earned through promotions, such as “Buy $?? of ????, receive $?? in EB.” The required amount to receive the EB is calculated before coupons. You do not have to buy all the products for that particular promotion in the same transaction. In fact, they can be bought anytime, at any store, as long as the purchase is made during the time period the promotion is valid.
If you are participating in a current EB promotion, it will take 48 business hours for your account to reflect your purchase and the EB to print. It is possible for your online account to reflect the purchase before the 48 business hours have passed, but this does not guarantee that your EB will print before the 48 hour time period.
EB are basically the equivalent of cash, as you can purchase nearly anything in the store. Please note that the following items are excluded:

• Prescriptions
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Gift Cards

EBs expire EXACTLY 4 weeks from the date they are printed. By exactly, I mean, exactly! If your EB print on July 1st at 12:00 PM, they expire July 28th at 12:00 PM. If you go in at 6 PM on July 28th, the EB will beep. Of course the cashier/manager will manually input it for you (since it‘s not past the expiration date), but it’s good to know what to expect.

If your EB expire, you may call CVS (1-800-SHOP-CVS) to have them reset. Unlike EB, CRT coupons can not be reset once expired.

EB can be printed online at the CVS EC website. If you print your EB online, they will not print again at the store. On the other hand, if your EB are printed on your receipt, they still show up online. In fact, EB will remain online until they expire. Although EB can be printed online multiple times, they will only scan once since each unique EB coupon has it’s own unique code, regardless of the number of times it is printed. Once that code has been scanned, it will not scan again.

At many stores the CVS sale for the following week is put into effect Saturday afternoon/evening. Although the sale price in effect, your purchases will not count toward and EB promotion. If a “Buy $20 in Revlon products, and get $10 EB” promotion” is supposed to start the following week, and you buy Revlon products Saturday night, you will get the sale prices, but it won’t count toward the EB promotion.

Rolling EB:

Savvy CVS shoppers roll their EB by applying previously earned EB on a current promotion.

The “Spend $20 in Clearasil products and earn $20 EB” promotion comes to mind.

Let’s assume that Clearasil cleanser was on sale for $4 each and there are currently $1.50/1 coupons out.

Initial purchase (preferably on Sunday):
5 Clearasil cleansers @ $4 each ($20)
-$4/20
- 5 $1.50/1 ($7.50)
= 8.50

In 48 business your $20 EB will print. You can go to the store and purchase an inexpensive items in order for the EB to print to use in the next transaction:

10 Clearasil cleansers @ $4 each ($40)
- $4/20
- 10 $1.50/1 ($15.00)
- $20 EB
= $1

In 48 business hours, your $40 EB will print.

Rinse & repeat until the promotion is over.

BOGO sale on items qualifying for a EB promotion:

If an EB promotion requires a certain # of items to be bought to qualify for the EB reward, both items will count toward the promotion. For example, if Colgate toothbrushes are BOGO and there is currently a “Buy 3 Colgate products and earn $5 EB” promotion, you only have to buy 2 sets of the BOGO toothbrushes (4 total), instead of buying 3 sets (6 toothbrushes total).
If an EB promotion requires a certain amount of $ to be “spent,“ and a item is BOGO, the amount is calculated after the sale price, so the free item is not applied toward the promotion.

Let’s assume that Colgate toothbrushes retail for $3 and they are BOGO while there is a “spend $10 in Colgate products to earn $5 EB” promotion. If you buy two, only $3 will apply toward the promotion because the free item was a part of the sale. EB are calculated after sale prices (but before coupons).

Using coupons on a BOGO sale:

Although the CVS coupon policy does allow for 2 coupons to be used when a item is BOGO (one for each item), it is ultimately up to the store manager to accept both coupons.

CVS ExtraCare card:

The EB program is tied to your CVS card. If you forget your card at home, the cashier can manually enter in your phone number. The register then will pull up the information on the last card scanned coordinated with this phone number.

Let’s say I have two cards, one for my SO and one for myself, and both are tied to the same phone number. If I went to CVS in the morning today and scanned my SO’s card for my purchase. If I forget my card the next time I go to CVS and give the cashier my phone number, the register will pull up my SO’s account since his card was the last one to be scanned.

Also, if a phone number is manually entered, EB and CRT coupons will not print. Your card needs to be physically scanned for coupons to print on your receipt.

Combining CVS and Manufacturer’s coupons:

The CVS coupon policy allows for the use of one manufacturer and one CVS coupon on the same item. Keep in mind if you are buying 4 items and have a manufacturer and CVS coupon for each item, you will need to purchase an additional item (can be anything; from a candy bar to a coke) if you plan to use EBs in that transaction.

Overage at CVS:

CVS registers are programmed to not allow overage. If you buy 5 Gillette deodorants on sale for 1.25 each, and plan to use 5 1.50/1 coupons, the first 4 will scan without a problem. The last coupon, however, will beep. The register will display a message stating that the coupon has “exceeded limit” and it will prompt the cashier to modify the coupon to the max value (which is included in the prompt). In this case, the last coupon will be modified to 25c since:

1.25 x 5 = 6.25
- 4 x 1.50/1 6.00
= .25

Therefore, the register will not let the last coupon to exceed the 25c “balance.”

***There ARE exceptions to this rule if you scan your card after items (even just one) have been scanned.

Using coupons on clearance:

Coupons can be used on clearance. However, if your store has to enter in clearance items manually (will show up on receipt as generic “taxable item“ rather than a specific item), they will have to enter in the coupons manually as well because the register will not will not recognize a item to apply the coupon to, as the product was entered in a generic format.


Note: I worked at CVS during HS (not that long ago!) and know firsthand if a cashier inputs in more than a couple (2 or 3) coupons manually, they do get “written up“, so please keep this in mind. Luckily, I never had to experience that as we didn’t have many customers that were couponers.

Returns on items that were purchased with coupons/EBs:

CVS registers are programmed to not return more than the total (after tax) on the receipt. However, in this type of situation, my shift supervisor/manager would conduct the refund by selecting the “return without receipt” option on the computer, which allowed for the return of the full purchase price of the item.

CVS Rebates/Coupon Booklets:

The CVS rebates are kept behind the front end counter.
CVS coupon booklets, such as the Medicare $5/20 booklet and the Aisle 1 booklets, are typically found in the pharmacy area. Check the pharmacy counter! Sometimes the pharmacy actually has the booklets behind the counter. If you are looking for a specific booklet and can’t find it, it doesn’t hurt to ask the person running the pharmacy register!

This is a work-in-progress. I will add more information as necessary.
__________________
Copyright 2006 desidoll88 @ DAGG. Permission to repost is denied.

This is McMama, updating this in 2008 - Please note that this original post was dated 2006. There are a few changes - please go to the CVS website for updates on accessing your ecbs and info about them printing or being mailed to you.

Whew!

As I stated before, this is a work-in-progress. I appreciate any feedback (good or bad!).

Thank you.

Originally Posted by desidoll88

Whew!

As I stated, this is a work-in-progress. I appreciate any feedback (good or bad!).

Thank you.

Desi!! That looks great!!!

This looks great so far! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Can you mention how Gift cards for prescriptions are tied to your quarterly EB's? And in your 1.50 coupon off a 1.25 deodorant example maybe add that you could also do 6 coupons and 7 deodorants. That way your "saving" an extra coupon or getting an extra deodorant KWIM?

Originally Posted by bearschick

This looks great so far! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Can you mention how Gift cards for prescriptions are tied to your quarterly EB's?

Added.

And in your 1.50 coupon off a 1.25 deodorant example maybe add that you could also do 6 coupons and 7 deodorants. That way your "saving" an extra coupon or getting an extra deodorant KWIM?

I'll try to find a way to incorporate this.

Thanks to both you and Benjaminna.

Desi, you ROCK! Thank you for doing this!

I think you did a great job. I would have found this very helpful when I first started doing CVS deals.

I noticed where you said that employees could get "written up" for manually entering more than a few coupons. I never heard this mentioned anywhere before.

There is a young guy at a CVS here that on more than one occasion has just added my coupons up and taken them off all at once. I had several coupons for $2.50 off 2 colgate that I was using when they were B1G1 free. He just added the total up in his head and took it off as one large deduction. He has done it other times too. Then again that must only come up as one manually entered coupon so maybe they dont pick up on it. Or maybe thats why he does it.. if I have a bunch of the same coupon and it wont scan he takes them all off at once. I think he gets impatient when a coupon wont scan so he does it "his" way. Not that I mind because he checks you out pretty quick and he is always polite even when I hand him a stack of coupons.

__________________
~Jennifer~

Woohoo!!!!!

Thanks Desi for doing this!

WOW Thanks so much for that, I have only been couponing for a couple of months. I just started going to CVS when the Gillette deodorants had the deal. This really helped explain the ECB and other deals,

thanks for helping a newbie

__________________
Christine
www.aparentsgift.com
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EBs expire EXACTLY 4 weeks from the date they are printed. By exactly, I mean, exactly! If your EB print on July 1st at 12:00 PM, they expire July 28th at 12:00 PM. If you go in at 6 PM on July 28th, the EB will beep. Of course the cashier/manager will manually input it for you (since it‘s not past the expiration date), but it’s good to know what to expect.

I didn't even know about this. I wonder if it is the same with CRT coupons. That could explain why my Herbal Essences CRT coupon wouldn't scan last week. This thread looks really good. Thank you for typing this!

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Formerly known as Liz34

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