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Costco's substance stations are built astir a elemental premise: access is reserved for members. However, pinch nan thief of a Costco Shop Card, you won't request thing more. Anyone paying pinch a Costco Shop Card is allowed to acquisition fuel even without a membership. Granted, you can't get these cards successful nan first spot if you aren't a member, but anyone tin usage it astatine their leisure erstwhile it's successful their hands (if it isn't stolen, astatine least). The paper will fto you usage Costco's services arsenic though you were a member, and that includes nan company's state stations.
This argumentation is intelligibly stated successful Costco's ain Shop Card FAQs, wherever nan institution intelligibly states who tin bargain nan Shop Card and who tin usage it. For each non-members, arsenic agelong arsenic nan paper has a equilibrium successful it, you tin spell and redeem it astatine immoderate Costco state position conscionable for illustration immoderate different member. This is nan only measurement a non-member tin take advantage of Costco's substance discount without needing to tag on pinch personification aliases signing up for nan yearly membership.
Why nan Shop Card works, and what it does not change
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The Shop Card useful arsenic a prepaid gift paper that temporarily bypasses nan request for a rank scan. However, you tin only bargain and reload nan paper if you are a member. As a result, managing nan Shop Card online isn't imaginable without nan thief of personification who's already a member. After getting that help, though, you're bully to usage nan paper without overmuch much trouble.
The magnitude successful nan paper tin beryllium spent astatine immoderate Costco shop and tin beryllium utilized aggregate times. In different words, you tin conscionable spell guardant to a Costco-branded state position and usage nan paper for illustration immoderate different costs method. Even if your substance acquisition mightiness transcend nan magnitude successful nan card, Costco allows nan stations to judge nan quality pinch immoderate different costs method. There's 1 exception, though: rate payments are not allowed sloppy of rank status.
Once you've made your payment, you tin proceed to capable up your vessel utilizing those other agelong hoses (which most state stations isolated from Costco don't have, by nan way). It should beryllium noted that nan Shop Card grants access, not typical treatment. The substance and process stay precisely nan aforesaid arsenic they are for members.
When this attack makes sense, and erstwhile it doesn't
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Using a Shop Card to bargain state useful champion for drivers who want occasional entree to Costco substance without committing to a membership. It's a applicable prime if a friend is already a personnel and doesn't mind purchasing aliases reloading a paper from clip to time. For infrequent fill-ups, this avoids nan request to salary an yearly interest while still letting you seizure per-gallon savings.
The limitations go clear pinch regular use, though. Relying connected personification other to reload a paper tin quickly go inconvenient, particularly if you scheme to substance up weekly. That's wherever nan mathematics starts to favour membership. Even humble per-gallon savings adhd up complete a year, and successful galore cases, they tin transcend nan costs of a basal yearly rank connected state alone.
There's besides nan broader picture. A rank unlocks much than fuel, from in-store shopping to recreation services. And Costco besides provides a generous restitution guarantee that includes refundable memberships, which tin even get you cheaper state abroad.
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