If you're someone who likes to take the time to think about personal finance decisions, then you may have been unsure about joining Costco for a while. The benefit of a Costco membership is that you get access to the store's affordable inventory, from groceries to household cleaning products to clothing. The disadvantage, of course, is that you have to shell out the money for a membership fee.
Currently, a basic Costco membership costs $60 per year. An extended executive membership costs $120 per year, but you get 2% cash back on your Costco purchases.
You may want to wait to see if Costco runs a promotion that gives you access to a cheaper membership before joining. However, you should know that unlike Sam's Club, which runs membership promotions relatively frequently, Costco almost never discounts its membership fees. However, sometimes there are affiliate offers you can sign up for to effectively reduce the cost of your membership.
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That is currently the case. When you purchase your Costco membership through StackSocial, you can earn $20 back in Costco cash with a basic membership and $40 back with an executive membership. And honestly, both are a pretty good deal.
Something small print
If you're already a Costco member, this promotion might sound interesting to you. But you can't just cancel your membership, wait a few days and then rejoin using this promotion. This offer is valid for new Costco members only. And your membership must have expired for a period of more than 18 months to qualify as a new member again.
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You should also know that this promotion won't give you your Costco cash right away. However, it should arrive within two weeks of activating your membership. That's pretty reasonable.
Should you join Costco?
Costco gives you regular access to thousands of items. So if you have a larger family to support or a home to maintain, you can easily save enough to make paying your membership fee worth it.
You should also know that your Costco.com membership will work fine even if you don't live near a Costco store. And although warehouse prices tend to be cheaper than online prices, you generally get access to a wider selection of inventory at Costco.com. Plus, the online offerings themselves are still pretty nice.
Which membership should you purchase?
You can easily find out which membership you should choose here. If you expect to spend more than $3,000 a year at Costco, the Executive Membership makes sense. Because 2% refund on $3,000 is $60 – the cost of your upgrade. So if you spend a dollar more, an executive membership will give you a financial advantage over a basic membership.
And here lies the beauty of Executive Membership. If you don't earn enough money back to repay your upgrade fee after one year, simply contact customer service and ask to downgrade to a basic membership. From there, Costco will refund the portion of your $60 upgrade fee that you didn't earn in the form of cash back. So, for example, if you only earned $45 in cash back, you'll get $15 from Costco when you downgrade.
Of course, you may still be wondering if a Costco membership is even right for you. And if yes Really If you're stuck on the decision, you may want to consider purchasing a basic membership using the promotion above to get $20 in Costco cash. This effectively reduces the cost of your membership to $40, which isn't a huge amount to spend to give Costco a try and see if it's worth it.
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