fbpx

13 Key Takeaways from SingleCare Prescription Discount Card Reviews

Sharing is caring!

This page contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.

Medically reviewed by, Russell Braun RPH

Thinking about trying the SingleCare prescription discount card? Are you looking for an honest review that isn’t another page from the SingleCare website? Well, you found the right place.

Your friends and neighbors probably don’t understand exactly how they work and the SingleCare website makes it sound too good to be true. Pharmacist get asked about pharmacy prescription discount cards all the time. The drug experts can give you the low down on these programs and here at BestRxforSavings, we are dedicated to helping you save money on medication.

Let’s get started!

The questions in your mind

Did you see an ad online, a flyer at the pharmacy or receive a SingleCare card in the mail? Does an offer like this claiming to be a FREE way to save up to 80% on medications seem to good to be true?

1. What is the SingleCare prescription pharmacy savings card?

SingleCare is a company that offers a free (more on this below) prescription discount cards. It claims to save you up to 80% on prescription medications. They have a website and mobile app that allow you to search for prices at pharmacies near you on your medication.

SingleCare contracts with pharmacies to get discounts on prescription medications. It is important to remember this is NOT insurance. The size of the discount will vary drug by drug and pharmacy by pharmacy. While these discount cards do save money, the average savings is normally much less than 80%.

You can get information on medication prices by simply going to the website and searching based on the drug name and dosage. After that, results with prices will display from several pharmacies. Select the one you want and then you can print, text or email yourself the discount coupon. Finally, you can use the app and just pull it out at the pharmacy to obtain the savings.

Below is what the website with a basic search box for your medication looks like.

At the pharmacy, they will use the numbers on the SingleCare prescription card when filling your script and give you the price you saw on the website. Making the process very simple.

Certain services were being offered by SingleCare in addition to prescription savings. However, these have now been discontinued. It is unclear if they will offer these services again in the future which include savings on:

  • Medical care
  • Telemedicine
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • Counseling
  • Dietician services

2. What types of drugs are included?

Like other pharmacy prescription discount card programs, SingleCare offers savings on any drug you have a prescription for. That means if you take a drug that is Over The Counter (OTC) you will not be able to search and find it. Therefore, you will not be able to receive a discount in those cases.

Keep in mind that some drugs sold as OTC’s do have prescription strengths. In those cases you would be able to find the prescription strength versions. Similarly, some human medications can be used for pets. In those cases you can also use your SingleCare discount for pet medications.

Dietary supplements, vitamins, herbal products will not be available for discounts via SingleCare.

3. What pharmacies participate in the SingleCare discount?

SingleCare claims to work at 35,000 pharmacies across the U.S. This is roughly half of all pharmacies in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Major chain pharmacies that are included would honor SingleCare discounts at all of their stores. The table below lists the largest pharmacies that accept SingleCare.

CVS HealthWalgreensWalmart
Rite AidKrogerHarris Teeter
Longs DrugsCVS in TargetAlbertsons
FriesDuane ReadeTrue Pill*

*True pill is a mail order pharmacy that SingleCare works with. If you decide to utilize them, they work with your pharmacy to get the prescription transferred and then mail the medication to your house.

4. How do the discount cards work? How do they make money?

SingleCare is “free” so how do they make money, is there a catch?

There are different types of discount cards and they make money in slightly different ways. SingleCare is free to the user because they make money off of the data they collect. Marketing of data is big business! While they may not share your personal details with marketers or pharmaceutical manufacturers, rest assured they can get paid for the rest of the information collected.

They also offer the advantage of working directly with a pharmacy to get a discounted price. Therefore, the insurance middleman who run some discount programs don’t get a cut of the savings. SingleCare also keeps part of the discount the pharmacy is offering in exchange for driving traffic to them.

Therefore, it really is free to you! Just keep in mind these details from their terms of use.

5. SingleCare terms and conditions

Below are the three important points you need to know from a very long set of terms and conditions. These are not a reason not to use SingleCare prescription discount card, but be aware how your data could be used.

1. We may share Non-Personally Identifiable Information, such as aggregated user statistics and log data, with third parties for industry analysis, demographic profiling, to deliver targeted advertising about other products or SingleCare Services, or for other business purposes.

2. We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

3. We share your personal information for a business purpose with the following categories of third parties:

  • Service providers.
  • Parent or subsidiary organizations.
  • Partners
  • Social media companies
  • Internet cookie data recipients like Google Analytics]

6. Can you use SingleCare with insurance?

You can NOT combine any pharmacy prescription drug discount card with insurance. SingleCare is no exception to this rule.

However, it is important to remember you should ALWAYS look at prices of medications that are covered by your insurance using the SingleCare pricing tool. Why?

The answer is simple but shocking to most people. Your insurance copay does not guarantee you the best price! In many cases the SingleCare prescription discount card will be cheaper than your copay. See the example below.

Wellbutrin SR (Bupropion SR) 150mg #30 tablets
Insurance copay$20
SingleCare discount price$4

Comparison shopping using the SingleCare prescription discount card is a great way to save money!

What about drugs not covered by insurance?

When insurance is not going to foot the bill for your drug, you should always shop around using a pharmacy prescription drug discount app like SingleCare.

Some examples of this include:

1. Have a high deductible health plan (HDHP)?

  • The pharmacy is not going to offer up the discounted price to you, instead you need to know that this is available and search for the best price.
  • Keep in mind that any time SingleCare prescription discount card is used that will NOT apply toward your deductible.

If you use a discount card to pay for your medication during the coverage gap in Medicare it doesn’t count toward your out of pocket  (TROOP) expenses either. However, if you don’t expect to get out of the coverage gap and into the catastrophic phase then saving all that you can with a prescription discount card is the way to go to reduce your overall money out of pocket until everything resets on January 1st.  

2. Drugs that Medicare and commercial insurance commonly do not cover are used to treat the following health problems.

Weight lossCough and cold
FertilityCosmetic purposes
Sexual dysfunctionSleep aides
Muscle relaxersOTC medications
  • For these medications pharmacy prescription drug discount cards may be the only way to get money off of the full cash price!

7. Singlecare membership?

In addition to the basic drug price searching features SingleCare offers, they also have a membership option. You provide just name, date of birth and email and they will enroll you in the program. In return SingleCare will provide:

  • $5 for enrolling
  • $1 for each prescription that is filled using SingleCare

Regardless, if you sign up for membership or not, SingleCare is free! That is an important point because there are very few times when you should pay to use a pharmacy prescription discount card.

8. Is SingleCare prescription card legitimate?

Yes, SingleCare is a legitimate prescription discount card. Let me provide you with some facts to back up that statement.

  • SingleCare has been in business for 6 years.
  • They have a customer service number available 24/7. This is not the case for all prescription discount cards!
  • Were accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in July of 2019.
  • Received an A+ rating from the BBB
  • SingleCare.com is listed as a safe website by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). They are the organization that regulates pharmacy laws state by state. Their safe website verification is intended to help patients know if they can trust online pharmacies.

You can click here to view the BBB page for SingleCare. You will notice the also have customer reviews, more on that below.

9. Pros of SingleCare prescription discount card:

1. It is free to use, just remember your data is being shared.

2. No problems that you run into with insurance such as:

  • Prior authorization
  • Formulary problems
  • Drug not being covered
  • Quantity being limited
  • Step therapy required

3. No eligibility requirements for use.

4. Membership option that saves you $5 up front and $1 for each script filled using the card.

5. Special deal with CVS pharmacies that provide another $5 discount on the first fill.

6. Partners with Walmart to find the lowest price you can get anywhere, which implies that Walmart will price match. However, it does not state that officially.

7. Save on pet medications when your vet writes a prescription for a human medication that is used for your animal companion.

8. They have a mail order pharmacy option called Truepill that can allow delivery of 100 of their most popular drugs.

10. Cons of SingleCare prescription discount card:

1. When searching for a drug, the strength and quantity default to a preset value. You have to change these to ensure you are getting the right medication price.

2. Inhaler sizes can be confusing. When selecting them you need to know how many grams or inhalations. Again without this information you may not get the correct price.

3. Liquids come in amount per volume description. Example 125mg/5ml. To get an accurate price you will need to know the right size bottle and strength.

4. Most results will be large chain pharmacies. Local pharmacies and independents can’t afford to offer large discounts required to be offered on SingleCare.

5. Some larger pharmacy prescription discount drug cards have larger pharmacy networks that are included. SingleCare has 35,000 pharmacies, which is still significant.

6. They do not show pharmacies that participate near your location in a map view. It does indicate how far away the pharmacy is, but the map view is a nice option to have especially in heavily populated areas.

7. When you pay with a SingleCare prescription discount card the amount you pay after the discount DOES NOT APPLY TO YOUR DEDUCTIBLE for insurance or toward out of pocket maximum amounts.

11. What do the customer reviews say?

The Better Business Bureau website has several patient reviews. The overall rating does not look that good for SingleCare. However, like with any review keep in mind typically only people who are upset leave a review.

Let’s face it, medications can be confusing. Strange strengths, dosage forms, quantities can lead even someone familiar with medication to pick a variable that is not correct. When that happens and the patient thinks they have the right price, only to find out it doesn’t match, naturally they get angry. Several of the reviews on the BBB site appear to be related to this type of situation.

Helpful tips from the reviews

  • The price quoted may change day to day or even within a few hours.
  • Make sure you print the coupon and take it with you, or have it available on your phone.
  • Quoted prices do not always match, SingleCare customer service says that prices are estimated and final price comes from the pharmacy.

12. Is SingleCare like GoodRx?

SingleCare is similar to GoodRx. Both offer websites and apps or the option to print off a physical card that can be taken to the pharmacy. In addition, they both make there money the same way.

The main difference is that GoodRx is offering some other medical alternatives and has a paid premium membership. The membership ranges from $5.99 to $9.99 per month depending on if you utilize it for one person or a family. SingleCare’s membership is free other than providing your name, date of birth and email address.

13. Which is better SingleCare or GoodRx?

This question is going to depend on what prescriptions you take and what area of the country you live in. GoodRx has more pharmacies and probably a bigger discount overall for most medications.

That does not mean you should not use SingleCare. In fact, the BestRxforSavings best practice is to put all the drugs you take in a medication list and then spend some time comparing prices utilizing all the drug discount card apps or websites.

Below is a table showing how SingleCare stacks up against GoodRx for the top 10 prescription medications (by number filled). Keep in mind this is for a midwestern U.S. location and drug prices change frequently.

DrugSingleCareGoodRx
Lisinorpril 10mg, #30 tablets$4.00$4.00
Atorvastatin 20mg, #30 tablets$7.60$6.77
Levothyroxine 100mcg, #30 tablets$4.00$4.00
Metformin 500mg, #60 tablets$4.00$4.00
Amlodipine 10mg, #30 tablets$8.89$6.86
Metoprolol tartrate 25mg, #60 tablets$4.00$4.00
Omeprazole 20mg, #14 capsules$10.56$5.61
Simvastatin 20mg, #30 tablets$4.19$4.23
Losartan 50mg, #30 tablets$8.37$7.79
Albuterol 6.7gram, #1 inhaler$57.70$19.97

Click here to get Dr. Jason Reed’s exclusive list of medication questions you MUST ask your doctor, for FREE!

Share your story

Have you tried using a SingleCare discount card? Also, please share how much it saved you. Chime in below with your comments and thoughts.

Related Posts: