Can you use someone else's membership at costco?

i went once & had to get a guest pass with the name of the school that my mom works at to let me pick up some stuff... they gave me a hard time about it & i said "i'm glad my mom makes these decisions on where to buy bulk from.. i guess i'll tell her to renew at sams club"

once i did that i shopped with no problems

Tip for you guys that want to go in without a membership - get someone with a membership to buy gift cards for you online in small denominations. Your Gift card acts as a membership card. You pay by cash or any other payment methods if your transaction is more than the gift card value, and next time, take another gift card with you.

I used to go with my dad's card all the time. Never got questioned until about 2 months ago when the cashier noticed that it was a different person. The supervisor let me go through that time but put some kind of a "note" on my dad's card and told me to not do it again. I have my own card now.

nogoro wrote: ↑

Nov 20th, 2007 9:21 pm

my experience has been they don't care who pays... just need:
1. valid costco card
2. that person has to be visible to cashier

In my experience, they do unless you pay cash. The credit card you use needs to match the membership.

Jon Lai wrote: ↑

Nov 20th, 2007 10:59 pm

Tip for you guys that want to go in without a membership - get someone with a membership to buy gift cards for you online in small denominations. Your Gift card acts as a membership card. You pay by cash or any other payment methods if your transaction is more than the gift card value, and next time, take another gift card with you.

really? Is shipping free for online orders?

'Sash[DSL wrote:;5962820']really? Is shipping free for online orders?

You don't have to ask your friend to buy that online. Member can buy that from the store.

my mom has used her sister in law's card several times with no problem.

me and my coworker used another coworker's card with no problem.


but now I got my own card anyways

I bought a membership and gave my wife the free spouse's card.
Then she lost the card.
So we went and had another card made for her (it was free).
Two days later she found her original card.
We compared the two cards, and the numbers were the same.
So she kept the new card, and gave the original one to her younger sister.
Her sister never gets hassled because she looks quite similar to my wife.
So basically her sister (who lives at a different address) got a free membership!

honest thief wrote: ↑

Nov 20th, 2007 8:59 pm

Does the person who has the membership have to pay for the purchase or can someone else with the person who has the membership pay for the goods?

my friend who was with me (who doesn't have her own card) was told that she had to pay cash and couldn't use debit, to pay for her purchase.

pintobean wrote: ↑

Nov 21st, 2007 9:17 am

I bought a membership and gave my wife the free spouse's card.
Then she lost the card.
So we went and had another card made for her (it was free).
Two days later she found her original card.
We compared the two cards, and the numbers were the same.
So she kept the new card, and gave the original one to her younger sister.
Her sister never gets hassled because she looks quite similar to my wife.
So basically her sister (who lives at a different address) got a free membership!

I thought they cancelled the old card when the new one is issued

The_dream2k wrote: ↑

Nov 21st, 2007 11:46 am

I thought they cancelled the old card when the new one is issued

Apparently not...
The new card has the exact same number and bar code as the old card except it has a new picture.

honest thief wrote: ↑

Nov 20th, 2007 8:59 pm

Does the person who has the membership have to pay for the purchase or can someone else with the person who has the membership pay for the goods?

My wife goes with her mother all the time. My mother-in-law has a Costco membership, my wife does not. One time they broke up what they were purchasing so they could pay for what they were getting. Simple enough. Mother-in-law buys her stuff. Then, while she stood beside her, they would not let my wife pay for her purchases with her debit card. My mother-in-law had to make the purchase and pay her back. Crazy!

Thanks a million to all that replied. Especially gman and Jon Lai for providing a simple viable solution to my problem.

MegaSilver wrote: ↑

Nov 21st, 2007 11:59 am

My wife goes with her mother all the time. My mother-in-law has a Costco membership, my wife does not. One time they broke up what they were purchasing so they could pay for what they were getting. Simple enough. Mother-in-law buys her stuff. Then, while she stood beside her, they would not let my wife pay for her purchases with her debit card. My mother-in-law had to make the purchase and pay her back. Crazy!

The exact same situation happened once with me and my brother.

Since I'm an a$$ when I'm challenged on something stupid like this, I chose to argue with the cashier.

I politely said "Fine I'm the member and I'll pay for the purchases, but I want to use a different debit card than the one I just used to buy my stuff"; I then openly took the debit card from my brother and told him to tell me his PIN. I then presented his debit card to the cashier and said that I'd punch in the PIN. She sighed and refused and called the manager. The manager came and said that what I was trying to do was not allowed, so I asked him to point out the rule that says that members can only pay with their own personal debit card. He couldn't do that, but he said "Why don't you just pay and let your brother pay you back later?" So I said "Why don't you just let me use his card and save me the hassle? Why does it matter to you so much which account the money comes from?" He finally said "OK we'll allow it, but just this one time..."

That policy really is crazy.

pintobean wrote: ↑

Nov 21st, 2007 1:56 pm

That policy really is crazy.

You are missing the point though, it's a private business and they can do what they want pretty much. If you don't like the policy don't shop there...

The reason they don't want people doing that is that they are losing out on another membership fee, pretty simple to understand.