Is anyone a heavy Costco user? I should be one of them. I spend no less than $3000 a year on Costco. Buying gift cards and wine at Costco is a no-brainer. So I bought a Gold membership card from Costco.
Costco members need to pay for purchases, ordinary Gold Star Memberships are $60 per year, and Gold Star Executive Memberships are $120 per year.
So is there any way to get a membership for free? Or what can I do to save at least $60+ after joining the membership? Read on with me!
When will Costco memberships be discounted?
Keep an eye out for Groupon
It’s been five months since Groupon offered a discount on Costco memberships (the last discount was in July). As a rule, Groupon offers discounts on Costco memberships once or twice a year.
Subscribe to us
As of this writing, Costco memberships are discounted, and new memberships get a $45 Costco shop card.
There is no way to predict when Costco will be discounting, and there is no way to infer when Costco’s next discount will be based on the law of discounts.
So the only way to know when the discount is fast is to subscribe to us (can cancel at any time). Don’t miss the remainder of every discount.
Although there is a Costco membership discount, there is no way to directly purchase a membership for free. But let’s think about it, can we save at least $60 from Costco spending to offset the membership fee? Here are 15 ways to save money fast.
Use Cash Back Smartly
You don’t want to figure out where to buy discounted items to fill up your Costco membership. The most direct way! Use cash back! The cashback site is really useful. And it can be used for stacking rewards. Read on to understand the maximum cashback calculation you can get.
2% cash back on Costco membership
Costco offers members an instant 2% cash back on eligible purchases. However, you need to register as a Gold Star Executive Membership to get a 2% cash bonus ($120/year). Regular Gold Star membership ($60/year) has no cash rewards.
2% cash back on the Costco Anywhere Visa Card
If you only want to open a regular Gold Star membership and want to get cash back, you can try Costco Anywhere Visa.
Costco Anywhere Visa offers 2% cash back on every purchase. That is, if you spend an average of $250 a month on Costco, your membership will be completely free.
In addition, Costco Anywhere Visa can get 4% cash back on gas and 3% cash back at eligible restaurants.
Although the card has no annual fee or registration fee, you can choose whether to apply for a Costco Anywhere Visa card according to your needs.
Cashback with Topcashback
I don’t want to apply for any new cards to increase my number of cards, what a hassle! Then consider using a cashback app. topcashback is one of the recommended cashback apps.
Both the 6.3% cash back at Costco and its cashback speed are one of my favorite cashback apps. Activate cashback order tracking when you buy a Costco membership and save 6.3% instantly. You can also enjoy cashback discounts on purchases at Costco.
Rewards: Sign up now to get a $10 bonus for new users
Related Reading:
Use the ibotta app
Ibotta and topcashback have a different cashback mechanisms. topcashback is a direct cashback based on the amount of the purchase order, while ibotta needs to upload a receipt after shopping and obtain cashback according to different shopping records. Ibotta also occasionally has 100% cash back items from other grocery stores.
Rewards: Sign up now to get a $10 bonus for new users
Related Reading:
Through the superposition of cashback, you can get up to 12-15% cashback. Assuming that your monthly consumption on Costco is $300, you can easily obtain a passive income of $36-45 through simple cashback.
“Free” Costco Membership
How to make members feel at ease and trust shopping at Costco? That has to mention Costco’s risk-free 100% satisfaction guarantee policy. Simply put, as long as you have an unpleasant purchase, you can apply for a refund from Costco.
Therefore, if you are not satisfied after purchasing a Costco membership, you can apply for a 100% refund. Then you can use a Costco membership “for free”
Well. . You should make sure you are no longer a Costco member before using this method.
Get a Costco Shopping Card for Special Careers
Costco offers registration discounts to get a $20 shopping card for people in different occupations, including students, nurses, police, teachers, military, and other special occupations. If you or your relatives are in the above occupations, you can save money as a Costco member through this method. Read about it here.
Other indirect ways to offset membership fees
Buy gasoline
The price of gasoline has been on the rise since this year, and the expenditure on gasoline is also a very troublesome thing. Of course, you can use gasbuddy.com to check local gas prices, and then compare the cost of gas at Costco.
If Costco saves an average of 10 cents per gallon on gas prices and needs to top up once a week with 20 gallons, that saves $2 a week and $96 a year. According to this calculation method, it is worth buying a membership, provided that Costco’s gasoline is cheaper near you.
The monthly coupon book
Costco’s monthly coupon book records Costco’s monthly discounts and the time of the discount, you no longer need to use traditional coupons to get discounts. Before each purchase, you can read Costco’s monthly coupon book for the current month’s discounts and decide whether to buy it. The savvy buyer will budget for the month’s purchases.
In addition, if the item you want to buy has a discount but you don’t know it, you can also get the same discount at checkout.
Remember the 30-day “Price Protection” policy
Costco’s 30-day price protection policy allows you to apply for a price difference when the price of a product changes. All you need is to keep your receipts after each purchase and keep an eye out for price changes within 30 days. When you see a lower price on an item, you can go to customer service with the receipt and request a refund for the difference.
Lost your receipt? Don’t worry, all your shopping information is recorded on your membership card. You can go directly to the customer center for processing, but the processing time is longer.
So it is necessary to keep the receipt well.
Related Reading:
Buy gift card
Gift cards are a popular payment method right now, and while you can get cheaper gift cards from various channels, don’t forget that Costco also offers discounts on popular gift cards.
Usually, buying gift cards at Costco can save you 20-30%.
How can I buy at Costco if I am not a Costco member?
Use a Costco Shop Card
The Costco shop Card is the smartest way to shop at Costco. You can shop directly on the Costco website without being a Costco member. But the Costco store card requires a Costco member to buy it.
That means you need to seek help. You need to take a friend who has a Costco membership to the Customer Service Center to purchase a Costco store card.
Costco store cards are available in amounts ranging from $25 to $2,000, and you can purchase the corresponding amount of Costco store cards according to your needs. An important point to remind is that you need to pay an additional 5% membership promotion fee for each order you make.
Maybe you can buy Costco store cards on other websites that sell gift cards, such as eBay, rasie, but please ensure the authenticity of the gift card to protect your funds.
Shop with Costco Members
According to the evaluation of Costco online, Costco allows members to bring up to two guests to enter Costco shopping together. You can’t go directly to Costco with a friend’s Costco membership card alone.
For those who occasionally want to go shopping at Costco, you can use this method, and your friend will pay for the order at the checkout, and then reimburse your friend based on the amount purchased.
Shop Directly at Costco.com
Costco membership is for offline shopping, you can shop on Costco.com even if you are not a Costco member. It should be reminded that some of Costco.com’s products are purchased for members, that is, you cannot buy this part of the products.
In addition, the price of goods on Costco.com may be higher than the price of Costco’s offline stores, and you need to pay an additional 5% membership promotion fee when you purchase and settle.
Hmm, that sounds difficult. But, even if Costco adds a 5% surcharge, many items will be cheaper than in other malls. You can use your shopping habits to see which categories are worth buying individually at Costco.
Summarize
Whether a Costco membership is worth buying depends on your annual spending on Costco.
If you just want to buy some groceries at Costco simply, you can use the Costco store card to buy; if you buy goods at Costco for a long time, you can consider purchasing a Costco membership.
Don’t miss any offer updates
Click the red bell in the lower right corner to subscribe to this site
Send messages up to 5 times a week
