FAQ
CVS Coupon Policy
*You can see the CVS Coupon Policy HERE.
*You are allowed to use (1) manufacturer and (1) CVS coupon per item.
*You may also use ExtraCare Bucks towards your purchase and $ off your order coupons.
*CVS accepts internet printable coupons.
*You can use a B1G1 Free coupon in a B1G1 Free sale.
*CVS will issue rainchecks on ECB items.
The ExtraCare Bucks Program
CVS’s ExtraCare Bucks (ECB) program pays you in ExtraCare Bucks when you purchase certain items. ExtraCare Bucks print at the register after you make a purchase and you can immediately use them to purchase other items at CVS. They do have expiration dates – generally giving you 4 weeks to use them. There are some exclusions such as stamps, gift cards, alcohol, tobacco, lottery, money orders, pre-paid cards, prescriptions, and special order Home Health Care items, including footwear. etc. ExtraCare Bucks are another way for manufacturers to incentivize shoppers to purchase their products.
How Do I Start?
In order to start earning ExtraCare Bucks (ECBs) you need to apply for a CVS rewards card that you can keep in your wallet or your key-chain. You will need to have your card scanned prior to making any purchases.
Look for items that are advertised in the weekly ad as offering ExtraCare Bucks on your purchase. Some will be for buying a very specific product … (Get $3 ExtraCare Bucks WYB Colgate for $3). Others will be when you meet a certain threshold… (Get $3 ExtraCare Bucks WYB $15+ in Revlon Cosmetics).
There are both weekly ExtraCare Bucks deals that you’ll find in the weekly ads and monthly ExtraCare Bucks Deals that you will find in the store.
Limits on Extra Care Bucks
There will be a limit on how many ExtraCare Bucks you can earn on each deal and that limit will be in the ad and tracked by your card. If the limit is (2) you will only earn ExtraCare Bucks on (2) purchases of that item. You can however buy them in one transaction if you choose, however you will earn an ExtraCare Buck that is for 2x the amount you were to earn, not (2) smaller Extra Care Bucks. Lets take a look at an example…
Get $3 ExtraCare Bucks WYB Colgate for $3 (limit 2)
If you do this deal 2x in separate transactions you will earn (2) $3 ExtraCare Bucks
If you do this deal 2x in one transaction you will earn (1) $6 ExtraCare Buck
This may not matter to you but if all you wanted to purchase immediately following that deal was an item for $3.50 you would be better off having a $3 ExtraCare Buck to spend than a $6 Extra Care Buck to spend.
What are Extra Bucks Rewards?
In addition to the regular ExtraCare Bucks you also earn Extra Bucks Rewards for making purchases in the store. You’ll earn 2% back with every purchase in-store and online at CVS/pharmacy and (1) Extra Buck for every 2 prescriptions purchased in-store and online at CVS/pharmacy. These special rewards will print out quarterly on your receipt or at the Coupon Center, located in the store.
What are CRT’s?
CRTs are Coupon Register Tape coupons that print after your receipt or in the Coupon Center located in most stores. These are store coupons and are often based on your past purchases.
Is there an order I should hand in my coupons?
*If you have a $/$$ coupon like $4/$20 always give those FIRST.
*Hand over manufacturer and CVS coupons next.
*Lastly hand over any ExtraCare Bucks you are using to pay.
Can I use ECBs to pay for another item that produces ECBs?
Yes absolutely! In fact the best way to maximize your savings is to use your ECBs to pay for other items that produce ECBs. That strategy in conjunction with coupons will guarantee you spend as little as pocket as possible and help you maximize your savings. You can even use an ECB you earned to buy another of the same deal and earn another identical ECB, as long as the limit for that offer is more than one.
Are ECBs considered coupons? Do I need as many items as I do coupons and ECBs?
Nope! ECBs are not considered manufacturers coupons, consider them more like CVS cash. So you can have 10 items, 10 Manufacturers coupons, 10 CVS coupons and as many ECBs as you’d like to bring your balance down to zero. You will not however, receive cash back from an ECB.
{ 77 comments… read them below or add one }
Can you explain swagbucks I have an account but somehow can’t figure out how to use the search engines. Also, do you use Upromise I have heard good things about haven’t figured that one out either. Thank you!
Where in the store do they sell the Green Bag Tags? I’d love to purchase one!
Can you use a 2 $ off coupons on BOGO free sale items or just one coupon? Also, I did 2 transactions today and a coupon for the first transaction was in my 2nd transaction stack. So, I completed my first transaction and then saw I didn’t use a coupon. He wouldn’t do anything about it. Said that I could return and buy it back to use the coupon but would cancel out the ECBs I used to pay for the first transaction. Is there a way a manager might fix it the way I intended or am I just screwed? I really don’t care about losing it this time, but next time it might be a serious waste of money.
I think the manager should have made the adjustment for you. The B1G1 issue will really depend on your store. It’s not really addressed in their coupon policy. Some stores allow it and others do not. In my area they do. So it will just depend on your store or your region.
Thank you so much, Christie. I appreciate your websites! I’ve been shopping Walgreens a long time, so when he said I’d lose money on that at CVS, I was shocked.
I just now found this site after following you on your other “wild” blog. I can’t believe it has taken me this long. Now, I have used CVS for about 5 months and have gotten some terrific deals. My question is where do you print the CVS coupons? I always get some cents off coupons at the store when I scan my card at the red kiosk but not the ones I see pictured on different pages on your blog. What am I missing? I feel like I could have saved even more! Help!
Hi there! Sometimes CVS will put CVS coupons on it’s site and I’ll post those when they come up. 🙂
Hi, newbie here and I have a few question, the first one is, why would you use a BOGO coupon for a item that is on sale BOGO……confused. My other question is harder and would require a long answer…maybe you know where I can find the answer? I’m looking at the ECB deals and I just can’t figure out how to do it. Let’s take the one I’m interested in, the Schick for as low as .99
8.99 – 4$ ECB – 2$ coupon = 2.99 again confused as how to get to closer to the .99
Any help/direction you offer will be greatly appreciated!
Christie,
Does CVS give overage on manufacturer coupons? I have some coupons that I am planning to use for the Black Friday sale that are more than the sale price and I was wondering if CVS gives you the full value of the coupon even if it’s more than the purchase price. Since CVS doesn’t have a formal coupon policy, I was hoping you would know.
Thanks!
Hi, I hope someone can help me with this : I’ve spent $19.77 so far towards the Schicks products to get the $10 ECB (spend $20 on any Schick/Playtex and get $10 ECB this week) but was just 0.23 cents short of reaching the $20 and still got the $10 ECB. My question is, on the receipt it says that I’m 0.23 cents short instead of “reached limit”. Does it mean that if I bought another Schick or Playtex product I would get another $10 ECB althought it’s a limit of 1 ECB per card? I’m confused… Thanks!
Hi, I hope you can help me. I was trying to get the gift card from CVS during Oct.16-22 I brought the bounty paper towels for 13.00. I tried to buy the Wisk detergent. But each CVS I went to was out. So I got a rain Check . The next time I brought 4 Wisk detergent for 4.99 on sale used my 2.oo mfr Q. which made it 2.00 but I did not get my gift card for 10.00. I ask the shift manager about this. She said I needed my sale paper. Last night I took my sale paper to her. She said she could not do anything about this. I had to buy all the items in that week to receive the gift card. I told her I read somewhere that they where accumlative.
I suggest calling corporate and letting them know what happened. The Gift Card deals vary from week to week and one week doesn’t spill into the other weeks but it’s still worth calling.
My understanding is that at CVS, where your purchases are tracked using your ExtraCare card, you may buy items towards a promotion separately and they will accumulate. HOWEVER, you must purchase all items during the promotion week in order to earn the promotion rewards. Buy $20 on Proctor & Gamble products to get $5 rewards – this can be split into $10 worth of items purchased on Tuesday, and $10 purchased on Thursday. You would still earn the rewards because you reached the promotion amount during the promotion week.
IDK about getting a raincheck on promotion item… you’d probably need to get the gift card amount written on the raincheck for it to be honored when the item is back in stock. In the alternative, perhaps they’d be willing to mark down the price of the item by the gift card amount if they weren’t able to issue the gift card after the promotion was over. This is similar to how they’d mark down the item price taking into account the ExtraCare Bucks you would’ve earned if the product had been in stock.
Hello,
I am new to couponing this year (Thanks for all your help BTW) CVS sent me a notice that I am only $12.12 away from $5 ECB for the beauty club. I purchased 13.00 today the cashier told me to sign into my online CVS account as it takes a few days to get those ECB’s. In my history it says …..2% of your Fall 2011 Spend will be issued on January 1st. Rewards are redeemable in-store and online. What does this mean? Are my offers only as good as how much i spend the previous quarter?
Thanks Tracy
You have a couple of things going on at the same time. The Beauty Club is one thing. Then totally separate from that you also earn 2% of your spending as a quarterly ECB. So when you go on-line or go to the store on Jan. 1st you should get an ECB for 2% of most everything you spent total the previous quarter! That’s in addition to the $5 Beauty Club! 🙂
Hello,
I have a question I did the Colgate and cards transaction today and I did not get my extra care bucks. I did the same deal the previous day and I did get the cvs extra care bucks. So my question is can you only do the deal once a week to get the extra care bucks? Thanks again for such a great website 🙂
Hi Tina, the ECB deals do have a limit. Each one is different – so those two have a limit of (1) so you’ll only get the ECB once. I suggest just bringing in your receipt and returning the items. That should be no problem. You can let them know you are new to CVS and didn’t realize the limit. 🙂
When CVS does the buy $30 in product get $10 ECB is it $30 before coupons or after coupons?
So if Clean and Clear is $4.99 and I have a $2 off will I get $4.99 towards the $30 or $2.99?
Thanks so much!
It’s before so you’ll get $4.99 towards the $30 🙂
Since last night My CVS (@santa ana, california) DOES NOT accept internet printable coupons! I never had a problem with them with e-coupons until now. The cashier told me that the Supervisor told her that they can’t accept it because people photocopy them!?!?! I told her that I printed them out from my printer and u are only aloud to print two, but they wouldn’t accept it. I feel Lost Now, I don’t know what to do with all these coupons I printed out, what a waste of paper and ink! I guess now I have to walk that extra five blocks to get to Walgreen to use them (I don’t have a car).
Tomorrow I will be getting Snicker’s Eggs priced at 2/$1.00 – I have coupons from last weeks paper (2/$1.00 – which will make them free) and I have been getting CVS coupons for $0.25 of the purchase of 2 Snicker’s eggs, Can I use both to get a $.025 overage?
You can stack a man Q and a store Q (the one that prints at the koisk)- worked for me just the other day
Does CVS accept competitor coupons? I have a Target coupon (not internet printed) from their ad.
I have a weird question… I realize that ECB’s are non-transferrable- however I recently posted a picture of my CVS haul along with my ECB print-outs without blacking out the bar codes. Am I in any danger of someone “stealing” my ECBs? (Not that anyone would, just curious if that is a possibility).
ECBs can only be used with the card they were issued under. I don’t see how anyone could “steal” them unless they had your ExtraCare card.
What about % off coupons? I.e I have a $5/$15 beauty and a 20% off next beauty purchase can I use these both in the same transaction, cause that would be super!! =D Thanks =D And if I can what order should I give them in??
I’m fairly certain you can use both. The order you hand them shouldn’t really matter because the computer doesn’t apply the 20% until the very end. But I would hand the $5/$15 first. Then the 20% off which will apply to your beauty total – $5. So if you were right at $15, you’d get another $2 off.
I keep having issues with my extra care card when it comes to printing my extra bucks. For example last week I bought 3 of the Charmin toilet paper packs to get me to $30 and my $10 extra bucks printed, but it didn’t print with my name on the extra bucks, like all of my other extra bucks do and it also doesn’t have the last four digits on the bottom that should match mine. This is the 2nd time this has happened. I handed over my extra care card, but I’m wondering if the manager that checked me out used a store card instead of mine. Any ideas?
Do the ExtraCare Bucks offers apply to purchases online as well?
On the 10ECB after 30 does the tally roll over from week to week? For example, I spent $14 this week on Pantene and won’t shop til tomorrow, will the 14 toward my $30 purchase still earn me the 10 ECBs?
Thanks in advance!
I had a strange thing happen at CVS today! I scanned my card when I arrived, it printed out $5 extra bucks for the beauty club. Then I scanned again, it printed out another one! I scanned again and got the “no more coupons for you” msg. So I made my purchases (holding on to the two ECB’s for a later time) and on my receipt was ANOTHER ECB for $5 for the Beauty Club. It was very crowded so I did not ask a cashier if all those ECB’s were valid. I am thinking not, had anyone else ever had this happen.I plan to ask when I go back before using.
Christie,
I have used your wildforwags site since I started couponing almost 3 years ago. We just got a CVS that will open next week. I am really nervous about shopping there, from what I have read here, everything is so much more complicated at CVS than Walgreens. I have already signed up for my card, what else do I need to know before I do my first shop? I have also been watching their ads, it seems Walgreens has better deals? What do you think?
Sharell
Hi Sharell – don’t be nervous! You can get great deals at CVS too. 🙂 I mostly stick to the ECB deals at CVS and deals where I can use CVS coupons AND MQs. I would start looking at the Scenarios I post for CVS on Saturday evenings as a good place to start. 🙂
I’ve been shopping at CVS for a couple of years and been receiving their (almost) weekly emails with coupons such as 25% off, $3 off, or beauty club coupons. A couple of months ago the emails suddenly stopped! My mom still receives them weekly. I emailed customer service and never heard back. I updated my personal profile and still nothing. I asked a manager at my store and she had no idea why that’s happened. Has anyone had similar problem and if yes, what did you do to fix it? The only emails I continue getting directly from cvs have only online discount/codes in them, not coupons I can use in store. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I see from the posts here that I’m missing out on great coupons!
I had a $4 off $10 razor, shaving, etc. that printed from the machine. I bout a razor $11.99 gave them that coupon then the $4 manufacture coupon. It declined it. Kicking back the $4 off $10. I thought it should work. Any ideas?
I have reach my limit on L’oreal products. Now what? When does reset?
Do you have a newslettrr i can join?
Under your heading “Is there an order I should hand in my coupons”, in what order should I hand in my coupons if they are percentage off coupons as those we get through our email from CVS (ex Get 30%)
I usually do the % off coupons first. 🙂
Thank You
I’m curious about coupon links that don’t take me to a specific coupon. I’ve tried several times to locate the $3.00 gainer coupon, but all I get is one for hair color. Also, site says it was in the RP insert in today’s newspaper. I didn’t see any at all. Bought 6 papers and not one had it in them. Is this coupon specific to one region or what? Anybody help. This happens often.
The coupon is now out of prints – that’s why you no longer see it. Like I always say when I post printable coupons – the good ones go quickly. Some insert coupons are regional so it’s possibly your area didn’t get it. 🙁 You can try a coupon clipping service or eBay.
We just got a CVS and I am pretty excited about it. I have looked all over the internet and asked at the store and nobody has been able to explain what the bottom of my receipt means:
New You, Spend 15 get 5 EB
Amount Towards this Reward 23.36
Amount needed to Earn Reward 6.64
How do I know what is included in New You?
Also, I don’t understand another thing at the bottom of my receipt:
Nutrition, Buy 2 Get 4 EB
Quantity Toward this Reward 2
Quantity Needed to Earn Reward 2
How do I know which products count towards “Nutrition”? I think I got this because I bought one of the Atkins products with a buy one get one free coupon (which you listed on this site: THANKS!). I can only do it once, per the ad. Are they only counting the one I paid for and not the “free” one?
Please explain!! Thanks!
Well the New You includes a bunch of different products. So looks like you got it once and now you can get it again when you purchase an additional $6.64 worth of product. It includes cosmetics, hair care, body lotion and a few other items and goes thru next week 1/24. The limit is at least 6.
For Nutrition – it could be the Atkins. Sometimes the limit is listed as one but when we get to the store we find out it’s higher, so that’s my guess as to what’s going on there. The limit is actually higher than (1) so you can actually do the deal again! 🙂
Thanks Christie!! This is a great website and I check it several times per week. I also really enjoy your wildforwags site, as well. Keep up the good work!!!
Thanks Amy! 🙂
Can you tell me how to fix a mistake in a CVS transaction? I purchased the wrong size item and WAY overpaid, but in the subsequent transaction I used the ECB’s from that purchase. The smaller size would have generated the same ECB, but I don’t know if I can return the larger and buy the smaller instead. Any thoughts on what I can do?
Hi Erica, just go ahead and exchange the item for the smaller one. If you paid for that transaction with a lot of ECBs they might give you a card instead of cash or whatever you paid with. I don’t know which deal you are talking about so if the limit was one, it won’t generate the ECBs again, which is ok since you’ve already received and used it. Just explain to your cashier. They should be happy to help you.
Thanks, Harriet! I was so bummed when I saw that I messed that up.
I made several purchases on Monday, President’s Day, that should have counted toward my Beauty Club Reward, however nothing is updating. I still have the amounts I had on 2/14 for my Winter Spending and my Beauty Club. The only thing changing is my Year to Date Savings. Is this normal for a holiday? I thought it would update today, but when I made a purchases at CVS I can see that it did not. It concerns me because those items should have earned me a $5 reward coupon I was planning to use this week. Any thoughts?
Can anyone clear up this confusion for me? What exactly are considered cosmetic items?
What is the cvs welcome spring book?
question: do any of you have problems using the $6 cerave coupon? I just discovered cvs and seems to be that they don’t accept many internet print out coupons, also the L’Oréal Paris Gold Rewards free item coupon. every time the scanner won’t accept it and so they would not do the discount. anyone how do you get them to take this coupons who do talk to; besides the manager.
Hi, This is my first time using this site. Ok I checked the little boxes that I want coupons for and I have my list, the extracare bucks I checked off in my list, do they automactically go to my cvs card? or what do I do?
Thanks,
Christina S
The lists are shopping lists for you to take with you to the store. Once you purchase the items, the Extrabucks will print for you at checkout. 🙂
I have a question regarding the B1G1 deals. This week they are having a deal on Clean and Clear face wash and it is B2G1 Free, with this they also have a Spend $20 get $5 Extra Bucks back. My question is if I were to buy three Clean and Clear Morning Bursts for the $7.29 each would the third FREE one be counted towards the spend threshold for the extra buck deal? Or would I need to buy 4 clean and clears to make the extra buck deal work? Thanks in advance!
When CVS does the buy $30 in product get $10 ECB, i have a total of $29.96 in products will the $10 ECB still print if im shy .04cents?
Yes you will get the ECB. 🙂
Good morning,
When trying a deal such as Spend $30 get $10 ECB for an item that is on sale, what price do they use to calculate the $30 threshold. Is it the regular price or the sale price?
The sale price.
I have a question about the spend $30 and get $6 back offer.
If I spend $30 dollars but then use a $5 extra bucks reward to bring my
total down to $25, do I still get credit for spending a total of $30 and get
the $6 back? Or do I have to spend over $30?
Thanks.
Coupons and ECBs won’t impact you. You could pay $0 after coupons and ECBS and as long as you had $30 in merchandise, you’d get your $6 in ECB. 🙂
Hello 🙂 My question is about earning ECBs. So when it says $3 ECB when you spend $10, is it $10 on a specific product or $10 in general?
Usually it will specify $10 on a group of products – so like Schick razors or Clairol Hair color for example. Other times it will be for a specific product – like Schick quattro razor or something. It’s always different since there are over 20 ECB offers every week.
Hi Christie,
I believe that I spent more than $25 each quarter but I did not see my 2% rewards printed out at the Red machine any more. I logged into my account today, I did not see anything either only the status of fall spending. Do you what changed? Do I need to log in on october 1st?
Hi, I appreciate your updating this site frequently to help couponers. I have a concern. Yesterday, I used 8 internet printable coupons ($3 off Revlon lip product) at a CVS. They all scanned at the register without any problems. When I got home, I checked the other alike coupons, and noticed that they had actually expired on 2/26 (that was 4 days ago). Now I am worried that the store will not get reimbursed for the amount of the coupons that I used and that the nice cashier that helped me would lose his job. I’m wondering if CVS will be reimbursed for manufacturer’s coupons that expired but had successfully scanned at the register? If they won’t, then I think I should go back to the store and pay them for what they lost because of this mistake. This has been bothering me this whole day. Please help.
Hello, I was just wondering if the ECB’s are linked somehow to the card/account we used or we can use the ECB that is a different card/account? Thank you !
The ECBs are tied to your specific card. Hope that helps!
Hello,
I have been using cvs for a while now. My question is my last transaction I received 17 extra bucks back. I used those extra bucks to pay for another transaction. When i went to go look at my cvs account online it still shows those 17 ECBs. I know its a mistake but could it be that those 17 Bucks are still good?
Everytime the coupons say printing for everyone, when I click on it, nothing happens.
When it say printing for everyone I click on it and nothing happens. What a am I doing wrong?
CVS has a coupon center kiosk in store that gives you coupons once you scan your card. So long as you’ve been a member for at least a week, there will be weekly coupons that will print for you. These will print for everyone and are specified in the ad. In addition, you’ll get personalized coupons for you.
Hello. Has the extrabucks/coupon match up part of this website gone away or moved somewhere else? It use to be under the link “weekly ad” but I see there are none for the last 2 weeks.
Thank you!
I am having an issue with coupons that I load from the CVS app not being on my card when I go to use them at CVS. Is anyone else having this issue??
If the deal is spend $20 on a brand’s items to get back $10 in ExtraBucks Rewards, how close to $20 do we need to be to still get the $10 reward?
If I return an item that I purchased partly with an ECB, will the value of the ECB returned to me?
So frustrated…I attempted to get the P&G deal, spend $20/get $10 ECB. I made the purchase online spending $21 before coupons, after coupons the total was $12 so i was denied the ECB. I read through the coupon policy but couldn’t find clarification.