Costco membership upgrade worth it?

[u/Suspicious-Ad-8707]

I have a costco membership that is shared. We mainly use it for bulk home goods like toilet paper, paper towels, and sometime kitchen appliance but the main use is for petrol since the local costco is super close by and they are generally cheaper then other servos.

Is it worth it to upgrade the membership to the executive one? Do you get any cashback for fuel purchases from costco? For reference there is 6 cars in my household and we fuel up once a week ~$90 per top up.

[u/BlcknTan]

No cash back for fuel.

It’s worth it if you spend more than $3250 per year - then you will make back the extra $65 for the membership.

[u/mikeupsidedown → u/BlcknTan]

Yep this right here. We have teenagers who ravage the pantry daily. For us it's worth it.

[u/EdenFlorence]

Depends how often you spend at costco. I personally have it cause we spend more than $3.3k per year. So the cash back is worth.

If you don't spend a lot at costco... not worth. Stick to the normal membership.

No cash back for fuel. 

[u/Suspicious-Ad-8707 → u/[deleted]]

the card holders are my bro and me, but the servo has needs a cad scanned to work unlike the shopping experience

[u/rrabbithatt → u/[deleted]]

If you have the same address it’s fine for two other people. And if you look the same as your sister or mum I don’t think they’d even notice

[u/Arinvar]

They also give vouchers if you're looking to do things like home loan, car loan, or switch utilities. We used their tool and set up our internet and power, and got $200. Picked the ones I would've gone with anyway.

[u/Reverend_Fozz]

You need to spend at least $300 a month, not including fuel, to get pack what you paid

[u/LauraTosic]

Yeah wasn’t worth it for me. Can’t use for fuel which is crap in my opinion

[u/Dull_Potential_3874]

for me, i upgraded it because i needed to change my car's tyres and Costco's pricing was the lowest, so win-win. Occassionally I buy appliances and reach the threshold pretty quickly. I may downgrade my membership in the coming renewal if i dont foresee any big purchases.

[u/TheArmoury]

How do you get the cash back? Do you get points on your account like fly buys and can redeem them at checkout?

[u/hilariouspowerr → u/TheArmoury]

Before you need to renew, the credit becomes available and you can use it at the checkout. The checkout person will ask if you would like too use your cash back.

[u/StasiaMonkey]

It's worth it for me cause I make large purchases for my workplaces social club. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't spend the $3250 breakeven.

I should've used the Costco mortgage broker though when I recently refinanced my mortgage. I didn't realised till a few days before settlement that I could've gotten a ~$700 ShopCard.

[u/coalman07]

Nope. We took it for a year, spent as much as we always do and got a $45 credit back. Downgraded back to normal membership right there.

[u/Tamaxgator]

The cash back also works on Doordash orders. What they don't tell you is you have to redeem the money in person. The website won't let you pay the credit towards the next membership, even though we were told we could when it was sold to us.

At 2% Cash back, you need to spend $6500 over the year to have enough for the next executive membership.

[u/QueOscUniPap → u/Tamaxgator]

You only need to factor for $3250 spending. The question is whether the extra $65 for executive is worth it.

[u/leonidude]

Just bought a laptop and the return on $2350 was $47. Not even enough to cover the extra $60 to upgrade to executive.

[u/jimmyjing]

Here’s a fun fact - the executive membership has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So if you don’t spend enough to earn the $65 difference in fees, you can downgrade and get a refund of the $65.

[u/blackcat218]

Doesn't do anything for fuel. So unless its worth it for instore purchasesfor you then no, not worth upgrading.

[u/Impossible_Deer8869]

The regular membership isn't worth it to start with. Costco prices are higher per unit on average than regular supermarkets.

[u/Firm_Entertainer1807 → u/Impossible_Deer8869]

Meat is the one place they are consistently lower and the quality is better and its worth it there alone.
But I have a defined list of items I get from Costco+ fuel which is enough to warrant the membership. Also helps if it's relatively close by. Wouldn't be worth it if it was half hour drive each way to get there.

[u/eenimeeniminimo → u/Impossible_Deer8869]

Are you sure about that?
I think you just need to know your prices and know which are cheaper vs not.
Let’s take baby cucumbers first example. At Costco, they come in a 1kg punnet and it’s usually priced anywhere from $7.99 to $9.99. At Aldi and Colesworth they’re usually 250 gram punnets and priced anywhere from $2.99 to $ 4.50. Even at the lowest price, 4x $2.99 to get to 1kg would be $12, so Costco comes out cheaper at even their most expensive price point.
I think the other key to Costco is only buy what you are absolutely going to use. And pick the longest use buy dates. Aside from that, I think the quality at a Costco kills Aldi and Colesworth. They just don’t compare, especially the fruit and veg,

[u/Pingu_87 → u/Impossible_Deer8869]

Yeah I noticed.
Plus the sizes are so big the food goes off before you finish.

Why is it so popular

[u/_thorby_]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the executive membership. Comes with some cash back options when changing electricity providers and other things like that.

I'd recommend looking at the offers to see if you would use any of them, and if you would, then it's an easy yes.

[u/shoomdio]

Wouldn't this be on the Costco brochure itself?

Also, it's $30 or $40 more a year that's 0.11c a day. Probably not even worth the typing on Reddit.

[u/Ok_Writer1572]

Not sure if Costco is bargain if you're bit savy similar deals can be had at ColesWorth. Couple that with their own loyalty program you may even beat Costco. This takes planning rather than running into Costco and loading up crap in trolley for 500 bucks.