The Offer
The Fidelity 2% card from Elan just sent out an email offer:
- Buy Costco membership (costs $60) with your Fidelity credit card and get a $40 statement credit.
- As an added bonus, when you present your certificate at your local Costco and sign up for auto renewal of your membership at the time of sign up with your Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card, you will receive a $20 Costco Cash Card by mail.
The Fine Print
- Valid for new Costco memberships only. To qualify as a new member, an existing Costco membership must be expired for 18 months or more. Not valid for renewal of an existing Costco membership or an upgrade of an existing membership to an Executive Membership.
- New Costco members must be 18 years of age or older.
- All memberships must be purchased between April 1 and April 30, 2019.
- Costco Membership Activation Certificates are vaild in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
- Please allow 6 to 8 weeks after your certificate purchase to receive the statement credit. The statement credit will be posted to your Fidelity Visa card. Account must remain open and in good status until the credit is posted to your account.
- New members will receive the $20 Cash Card by mail within 4 to 6 weeks when auto renewal is setup at the time of signup. Costco Cash Cards are not redeemable for cash, except where required by law.
Our Verdict
Pretty nice way of picking up essentially free Costco membership. U.S. Bank sent out a similar type of offer on their Flexperks card back in February. I believe we’ve seen the $20 gift card offer from Costco for auto renewal before. If you don’t want it to auto renew, set yourself a reminder to change the auto renewal status after the bonus is reached.
They are upgrading to executive membership for free if you sign up for a citi card.
Man, this card is getting more and more tempting with spend promos, not to mention fair catch all card for MS.
I guess you have to receive the e-mail to receive the statement credit?
i received a mailer w the offer
Is there an invitation code or just the above link that everyone can access?
We already have Costco executive membership in the house.
Why can’t the spouse/partner sign up for a new Costco membership, wait till you receive $60 credit and then cancel?
What would likely happen if, after receiving the $40 bonus and $20 cash card we decided we no longer enjoyed our Costco membership and decided to cancel? Do they still offer a prorated refund of the remaining unused months of membership?
Costco has banned customers that they believe are abusing their business practices. Given all the great deals/items Costco has, I’d just take my free membership and call it a year.
Costco offers a full refund of membership at any time. I’ve never done it myself as I love Costco, but recently we did cancel an extra four-month old renewed membership because we didn’t need it and got a full refund.
If this is the case I would advise Justin to wait at least a couple months to avoid any hassle.
Personally, I don’t think Costco is worth it. I may sign up for this card later in the year so if a deal like this returns I would definitely be up for a free or nearly free membership.
But depending on the item, Walmart, Big Lots, Ocean State Job Lot, Shoprite, Dollar Tree etc. all offer better prices. Costo, BJ’s and Sam’s Club are good for people who want to make one stop every weekend and that’s it, but if you are like me and try to get the absolute lowest price on every single thing I buy, there are cheaper alternatives without a membership.
Thanks, I’ll probably cancel after a few months unless they offer compelling value. I’ve comparison shopped there before and they are significantly (like 40%) more expensive than Aldi and SuperWalmart on staple grocery items (before you factor in food waste from having 2 gallons of peanut butter or six heads of cabbage or whatever). Might give their meat a shot as I’ve heard it is higher quality than the grocery store but YMMV I suppose. It’s not a convenient shopping option for us anyway and THE LINES OMG.
Is there a way to get this offer if the previous membership expired 2-3 months ago? Would putting spouse as primary considered new if she was on as a household member?