While the technical answer is, “No, Costco doesn’t offer free trial memberships or membership coupons,” the truth is they sort of do if you’re willing to look at it from a different perspective. There’s no official Costco free trial program or even a Costco free one-day pass, but there are ways to get essentially the same thing if you want to give Costco warehouses a try.
Free Costco Membership
The easiest way to get a free Costco trial membership is to actually purchase a membership at Costco. How is the membership free if you have to purchase it? Costco has a customer satisfaction guarantee policy when it comes to its membership. If at any time you aren’t satisfied with your membership, you can just go to customer service, tell them, and they’ll give you a full membership refund.
Yes, you have to pay upfront, but in essence, you are getting a free 364-day free trial because at any point during that time, you can simply ask for your money back. This will give you access to all the benefits of the warehouse including buying top-tier gas from their stations.
Since a free trial should be about figuring out if the warehouse membership price is worth it to you, you should have plenty of time to figure it out. If you like shopping there, you would end up paying to continue to be a member. That means the only difference is you have to pay upfront. While paying upfront may not be ideal, it does have an advantage. Having a full year to decide if a membership is right for your circumstances and needs will actually give you a better perspective than a one-week or one-month free membership trial would.
Go with a Friend
If the goal is to see what the warehouses are like, another option is to visit with a friend who already has a membership. A single Costco card can get an additional two people besides the card holder into the warehouse even if they aren’t members. This will give you a chance to check it out to see if you like it. The only issue will be if you decide to purchase something, you’ll have to pay for it in cash or pay back your friend if she pays with a credit card.
Get a Costco Gift Card
Another option is to get a gift card (called a Costco Cash Card) which will allow you to shop at Costco without a membership. As long as the Cash Card has money on it, you can enter the warehouse as many times as you want. The problem is only members can buy these cards, which would mean you would either have to get a friend with a membership to buy it for you or to buy it on the secondary market like eBay (this also allows you to buy gas at Costco without a membership).
While none of the above options are a true free trial membership at Costco, they ultimately provide the same risk-free ability to check out the warehouse to see if it’s worth the price of the membership. Some people don’t think it is while others see the membership price as a bargain. Either way, you know you can visit the stores knowing you don’t have to pay the membership price in the end if it turns out getting one isn’t right for you.
For more on if a membership is worth it and how to shop without a membership see these great articles.
Is the Costco Membership Fee Worth it?
Costco Membership Fees and Plans
How I Shop at Costco without Paying for a Membership
(Photo courtesy of terrykimura)
There is a reason Costco doesn’t give out free trial memberships. That’s because if you want to shop there, you need to buy a membership! Stop being a penny-pinching whiner and get a membership like you’re supposed to do. What does everyone think they deserve to get everything for free?
There are some of us that want to know what we’re getting before we buy something. Most places have some kind of trial membership where you can check out the store before you buy it. Why does Costco think they are better than every other place? It seems that only snobs shop there.
I think BJs wholesale lets you walk around the store w/o joining, but not buy anything…you don’t need to buy stuff to see what they carry and prices, so really, a free membership is not warranted.
It might be BJs too which will let you buy stuff but they charge an extra 10% if you are not a member? that’s a good option too.
I don’t think BJ’s does the 10% upcharge like Costco and Sam’s Club. It’s easy to get a few few months though – check their site for details.
Bjs whole sale os a 15% surcharge when youre not a member
BJ’s does offer a free 30 day trial membership. I was a member when I lived on Long Island but now BJ’s is to far from my condo. I think when it is time to buy tires for my car I will join Costco as they have the best prices and best guarantee and they are only 2 miles from my home. But it would be nice to have a trial membership.
Supposedly Costco produce isn’t as good as some competitors like Safeway or Whole Foods Market. That said, I think their user experience is better than Sams Club.
A membership trail isn’t about getting something for free, it’s about knowing what you are paying for before you make the commitment. I don’t think enquiring before jumping into a purchase is being a “penny pincher” or “whiner” it’s being wise. My husband and I purchased a Sams Club membership early into our marriage and found out the hard way it was just Walmart prices in bulk, not really savings… Try not to be so negative and judgmental.
It’s not that I want a free membership, it’s that I have never shopped at Costco before and don’t know what they carry, or if I will like their product selection, or if the savings of shopping there versus somewhere else are worth the membership cost, or if it will be so crowded that I will never want to go there. Who wants to pay for something when you don’t know if you will ever use it? I would have to look around the store to see if it is worthwhile.
Darren, quit being a hater. Your comment is ignorant and hypocritical. You joined Costco because you’re a “penny-pincher” like you are accusing others of being. Knock it off and enjoy your savings.
Sweet burn
Darren,
There’s a cool thing that wise people do: Do their best not to waste money. That way there’s more money left to do other things too, like pay bills and have a hobby or two. There’s probably a personal finance class in your community. If you can’t afford the class or dont have time, there are other ways you coukd save money to pay for it. One great way would be to get your Costco membership free or discounted. Good luck in your searches.
I do wish Costco would provide trial memberships. I know there are alternatives that get you the same thing, but $55 can be a big upfront investment when you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
They usually offer free trial membership during the xmas season.
Awesome, thanks sweetpea200! I think I’ll wait until Christmas then 🙂
Is that through personal experience?
Is that based on your experience?
Is Costco going to give me a whole refund if I decided that it’s not for me the day before the membership expires?
I agree with Darren, you know they sell food just like regular grocery store and you know they sell everything else under the sun. What’s the point of getting a “trial membership!” Are you trying to see if they sell the food you like lol I don’t understand. And as far as living check to check I’m sure even if that’s the case a person living check to check can manage 55 as a 1 time purchase…
What if I wanted to see if they carried the food I wanted or if it was worth my money to pay “dues” to shop there.
On another note, no some people living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford $55 even once. That takes $55 worth of of food out of their children’s mouths.
Personally, I would like to see what I am buying into before buying into it.
@Snob If they sold food like every other grocery store, no one would be paying for a membership. There obviously is an added value Costco offers but people want to see if the prices make sense for that kind of investment. With that said, you can browse in the store by filling out a form but you just can’t purchase anything until you get the membership.
Snob you’re out of touch. Even my health club gives guess passes. It’s called marketing.
I used to have a CostCo membership and only used it a few times because, as another poster said, Walmart has better prices. Same merchandise.
At this time I can no longer afford $55. At all. I thought I was signing up for good buys but I was greatly disappointed.
All I want is a couple of trays of cooked food from the back of the store but I don’t know anyone any longer that has a Costco membership. They are with BJ’s and Sam’s. Both are too far for me to get to because I do not drive.
The number of people on food stamps in this country has exploded because income’s have dropped significantly. Many, many are simply trying to dig out of credit card/student loan debt and all the money is going to that. So even a hard-working, well-earning income household simply cannot find $55. That is the current reality in this nation’s economy.
Walmart, local grocery stores – they are a better deal, but Costco’s cooked food in the back of the store are a very good price and as long as they are refrigerated not hot they can be purchased with food stamps and help a single, disabled person like myself get through the month. And I love all the sample foods they offer, I bought many of them.
You don’t need a membership to buy gas!! Stores are required by law to sell gas to everyone just like prescriptions. The only requirement any warehouse can make is limiting payment to CC. But they can’t turn you away for gas if you don’t have a membership. In fact when you get gas they don’t even ask if you’re a member.
Only a knucklehead pays for the privilege to shop at a store.
Go to Walmart instead for the best prices and for food package sizes that are not designed for large circus families.
Why in the hell would I pay $55.00 just to shop (spend money) in a store? Last I checked, it was free to go inside a store & shop.
If money is so super tight that 55 dollars is hard to swing, you shouldn’t be buying MEMBERSHIPS TO BUY FOOD. It would be worth it to drive to, if possible, one of the super-low discount supermarkets like Aldi or Save-A-Lot and buy things in their ads, real foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, at ROCK BOTTOM SALE PRICES to stretch those dollars. As far as kids, snacks, etc., they’re chips are 1.49 (not 3.00), they have their own brands of pop tarts, cereals, etc., all at about half the price of other places, and extremely low prices on nearly everything else. You can easily walk out of there paying less than 50 dollars a week on groceries. They also have the sales of the 10 lb bags of chicken for $2.50 during the year, so buy and freeze it in the garage freezer; 1.99/lb ground chuck (buy and freeze); celery, carrots, lettuce .99, 15 lbs potatoes 2.99; You just need to COOK YOUR OWN FOOD to get this benefit of low prices, and get their generics for pre-packaged foods which happen to be EXCELLENT QUALITY or I wouldn’t even touch them. Here’s also ANOTHER IDEA: Get a group of friends or co-workers or trusted family members to each chip in like 10 dollars and SHARE THE MEMBERSHIP, where you have to just meet on a schedule to shop there to get the deals on the hot food. Surely 10 or 5 bucks is worth it. Then you can all make your weekly shopping trip to Costco preplanned to get the stuff, or the one family member who HOLDS the card in name has to pay 25 and the other three pay 10, and each year, you take turns being cardholder.
Another idea would be to order a pizza from Costco and bring it home for the crew to eat. The pizzas are just 9.95 each, with soda and hotdogs for $1.50. I feel like thats a pretty good deal when you compare it to Dominoes.
I want a trial membership
I won’t ever buy a membership again. I’ll use gift cards and my citi rewards. They screwed up and when they wrote the citi rewards policy and we switched from Amex, it said we had to have a current membership to get the Citi Card. Well I did, when I got it. I figured out I go twice a year (if that) and decided to stop going. Turns out Citi still kept me and I still have rewards sent to me every year. So I use my certificate and go to Costco and shop with it. They can’t do shit to me. I don’t have to have a membership to use it. See… they changed the policy after I signed up. Whoops. Lol