Costco Shop Cards now have the option of being loaded into your Costco online account or app, and then will be spent via the account/app. The the card and card number will no longer be usable once redeemed into your Costco account/app.
In the Costco login, you can find it at this link. There’s a similar option in the Costco app as well. You’ll check the ‘Enable Shop Card’ option to allow your using the funds for online purchases.
When shopping in-store you can use the Costco app to pay at the register. You scan your QR with Costco membership card and then it applies your Shop Card balance when auto-apply is enabled. If auto-apply is not enabled it’s a bit more complicated and not all cashiers know yet how to do it.
Notes:
- “Shop Card balance cannot be used at the Food Courts and Pharmacy at this time.”
- It does work on Costco gas. (This new method now allows Costco e-gift cards to work for gas which was apparently not possible before.)
- The max Shop Card value you can load per day is $2,000.
- The max you can carry in your Costco wallet is $2,000. For larger purchases, I’m not sure if you can combine Costco Shop cards along with your $2,000 balance to pay at Costco.com. I assume it would work in-store.
- You can not use your Costco Shop balance along with a rebate check, per reader comments.
- Interesting note: You can buy a Costco Shop card with the money in your Costco balance. And so there is not big ‘risk’ of linking your card to your account since it can always be effectively de-linked by buying a new Shop card.
- Costco shop balance works at self-checkout if you have auto-apply enabled.
- After zeroing out the card into your Shop balance, the physical Shop card still works and can be reloaded, it just resets the balance down to zero.
Some people like buying Costco Shop Cards online since they accept both Visa and Mastercard online versus Visa only in-store. (Some do this to get 5.25% on their BofA Mastercard.) Some like loading up their Costco balances to help meet a spend requirement. With this new system, it’s easier to immediately drain the Costco Shop Cards into your Costco account and not have to track its balance.
Costco Shop cards are available online in the following denominations: $25, $50, $100, $250, $500. I’m not sure if other denominations are available in-store.
I love this kind of system, and find myself regularly willing to buy Amazon gift cards since I can easily apply it to my account and forget about tracking the card. I really hope that Walmart also enacts a system similar to what Costco is rolling out now.
Hat tip to FrenchFryExpert
