Costco sells gas for $0.10-0.15 less per gallon than retail stations, but only to members who pay annual dues. Blueprint For Financial Prosperity claims to have found a way for non-members to access the bargain gas…
Normally, you have to swipe your Costco Card or the American Express Costco TrueEarnings card in order to authenticate in their gas station systems. It appears that you can simply use any American Express card in the authentication phase because the American Express Costco TrueEarnings card is just an AMEX with a Costco bar code.
The trick definitely works in Maryland, but not in New Jersey or Oregon. Would you fill your tank at Costco, or are the ethical considerations enough to keep you at your local station?
Buy Costco Gas without Costco Membership [Blueprint for Financial Prosperity]
(Photo: beebo wallace)
More From Consumerist
-
Another Non-Member With Costco Gift Card Encounters Resistance
-
More Obnoxious: Agreeing to Membership Rules You Have No Intention of Following, Or Having Your Receipt Checked?
-
With Average Prices Of $3K Already, So Begins The 2013 Super Bowl Ticket Frenzy
-
If You Buy An iPad In A Gas Station Don’t Be Surprised If It Turns Out To Be A Picture Frame
-
We Know We Love Them But Why Are Chicken Wings So Popular At Super Bowl Time?
Expired card trick FTW! I used my expired Costco card for years to buy gas…. until I broke it scraping my windshield
@creativecstasy: i’ve used Costco Cash cards without a membership card, but i’ve never tried using the cash card to authenticate membership and finishing with debit, i’ll have to try that next time i’m out there
Gasoline at my local Costco is usually only $.01 less than the competition. I’m single so many of Costco’s items are too big for me to use economically. Where I really clean up is using them for discount home and auto insurance. Their affiliate program with IDS saves me upwards of $600 a year over my next lowest price choice.
I wish Costco didn’t have to change their returns policies…. I Guess the gas pricing is next. You could always steal someone’s Costco card and use that. You could just siphon the fuel out of a Costco member’s tank. Just a matter of ethics and laws in the end.
Fraud promoted by consumerist? Lovely.
Costco probably makes a few cents on every gallon so my feelings are mixed. Just buy the membership, it’ll pay for itself in no time if you do most of your shopping there.
A couple bucks a tank isn’t worth the possible consequences you face if you’re caught.
who cares, there’s not even a costco in my state
Where I’m at, the Citgo (Casa de Chavez) is usually the cheapest gas around. However, I’ve noticed my car gets SIGNIFICANTLY better mileage from Chevron, which usually costs 3-5 cents (damn, when did they take the cent sign off keyboards?) more. By doing the math, I actually save MORE money by buying the more expensive Chevron gas and getting better mileage than I do by getting the Citgo gas and saving a little bit at the pump. Something to consider.
@krunk4ever: On my Charger, the owner’s manual recommends 89 octane. This probably carries over to any vehicle with the 5.7L V8.
I also know the 3.5L V6 in the Charger takes 89, which is probably in a few other vehicles as well. The 2.7L V6 is 87 though.
But you’re right, most cars will advance or retard the timing if you put lower/higher octane than required.
This is theft, pure and simple. The price of gas at Costco is $X.XX per gallon plus $Y for an annual membership. If you haven’t paid for the annual membership, then you haven’t paid the full price for the gas.
I can’t believe that anyone is trying to justify this. Shame on Consumerist. What next… discussing the “loophole” of trying to sneak into a movie through the back door without paying? Five finger discount at the Kwik-E Mart?
Dumb article. Super Cheap??? Ha! The best I’ve seen at Costco is a nickel cheaper. On a twenty gallon fill-up that equals ONE dollar. Even at a dime, you save…yeah, you can do the math. Here’s a better idea, just get a Costco membership and save some real money.
As a Costco member, I disagree with people that are taking advantage of this glitch in the gas station pumps.
Should this be on the Consumerist? Since when is this site pro fraud other than posting when the airlines made fare errors and promoting that people take advantage of it?
Please, someone now post that since they’re poor or underprivileged that they’re entitled to this company’s money.
There is a reason the price difference is smaller from Costco gas to retail gas. The retailers are forced to compete so they must lower their gas prices.
Gas prices in my town were the highest in the state before Costco put a gas station in their parking lot. The retailers whined about the competition in the local newspaper. Eventually they realized they were getting no sympathy and selling much less gas so they lowered their prices. Thanks Costco now my wallet is no longer sodomized by the retailers.
For those of you advocating scamming Costco — so…you’re ethical, except when there’s 15 cents involved? Nice!
If you’re for fair and ethical treatment of consumers by corporations, how come you’re not for fair and ethical treatment of businesses by consumers? Is it that your cries for corporate fairness and ethics are really just about getting as much as you can out of a business?
I don’t know about you, but I’d pay 20 cents extra a gallon just to know I’m not a scumbag. Of course, I do have a Costco membership, but I also have a Honda Insight, so I spend very little on gas anyway. Bought it in 2004 so I wouldn’t be putting pollutants into the air unnecessarily when I drive, and contributing to OPEC. Hmmm, sometimes you score by accident when you try to do the right thing. For example, driving a Honda Insight, I spent $228 on gas. Last year. All year. You?
Here’s who you’re scamming, asshats:
[abcnews.go.com]
I believe this is wrong and this article should not be on consumerist. There is a difference between consumer rights and scamming an honest business.
Costco is one of my rare list of “Good Company”. They treat their employees right, so their employees are happy and treat the customers (us) right, which made my shopping experience there always a good one.
People, please don’t scam Costco. And I sincerely request consumerist to remove this article from the site.
@aaron8301: Congratulations on stealing, star poster. You must be proud sticking it to those evil corporations that provide jobs and livelihood for so many of your fellow humans.
freeloaders.
Stealing is stealing. You can rationalize it by saying that Costco is “big”, but only if you’re dumb. Anyway, I’d consider this stealing not only from Costco, but from their members, who are often regular people.
At one time, we decided to save a few bucks and buy gas at Sam’s Club. After a couple of months, our van ran horrible. The gas had gummed up our injectors, the repair more costly than the “savings”. I don’t know of Costco is a TopTier gas or not, but I know the damage a cheap gas can cause by direct experience. They don’t show up on http://www.toptiergas.com, so caveat emptor.
If you’ve got an Amex card, CostCo is a good deal. Since I don’t, the best deal for me is BJs, which is usually about a penny more than Costco, but I can use my Discover Gas Card which gives me 5% (up to $100 limit) or 1% back, knocking either 4 or 20 cents off per gallon.
As I recall, certain Amex cards have similar cash-back deals.
I shall send this to Costco headquarters promptly, so they can make the necessary changes to ensure members such as myself continue to enjoy exclusive savings.
@CPC24: You’d be wrong.
If this is truly a technical glitch in Maryland stores and/or other states, it won’t be around much longer because the Consumerist had to blab about it and ruin it for everybody. Boo-hoo!
That said, the closest Costco is at least 10 miles from me now and I don’t even know if they have a gas station. Even when I did live near a Costco with a gas station, their gas prices were never that great, at best 5 cents a gallon cheaper, certainly not enough to justify buying a $50 Costco membership, given the amount of driving I did back then. The amount of driving I do now probably wouldn’t justify it either.
There are a lot of reasons to buy a Costco membership and shop there. Gasoline isn’t really one of them (Sam’s Club almost always has them beat, plus gives you a 5 cents/gallon discount if you’ve shopped there in between fill ups).
Costco here prompts you to run your membercard through first then your debit or AMEX so this is confusing. Plus, Costco here is usually the same as everyone else is for gas. In fact the local full service shop (one of the last remaining in Indiana area of Chicagoland) is typically 5-10 cents cheaper then the stations situated by the highways and Costco.
The local tightwad/freeloader in my town (you know the type) carries a Costco membership card that expired over three years ago. He shows it to get in the store and then hits every free food sample table about four times for a free lunch.
Costco’s here no longer sell gas that cheap, at least as far as the 87 stuff goes. They are usually the same as and sometimes slightly higher than the other stations. the last time I got gas there even the 93 stuff was only 2-3 cents below the other stations.
Nice, so now we’re ripping off companies that aren’t evil? C’mon, Consumerist, “save money” is not a justification for unethical behavior.
@banmojo: You’re right… there are other reasons to buy a Costco membership besides for gas but I still can’t see the justification for it if you are single (if you’ve got a decent size family, then definitely) unless you own a small business or something. Costco stores do have a good wine selection at low prices (where you can actually buy single bottles) although certain laws prevented Maryland grocery stores from selling alcohol, and Maryland considered them grocery stores.
Costco gas at the Fremont, CA store isn’t much cheaper (maybe a nickel per gallon) than any other place. By the time I factor in the time it takes for the 6 cars ahead of me to get gas I’ll go somewhere else.
Even if you have a membership and it expires, you can still swipe your Costco card and get the gas there because it doesn’t check the expiration date of your card. In May I went in to my local one in Sterling, VA and went to purchase some items inside. They wouldn’t ring me up because they said my card expired in February. I went up to Customer Service to find out what’s up because the date on my card says June 07 effective (so I wrongfully assumed that meant I had till June 08) and “I’ve been using those gas pumps right outside for the last 3 months with no problems.” The rep told me that the gas pumps don’t check the expiration date and the date on my card is just my sign up date. I said “So let me get this straight. I’m expired, I’ve been buying gas, and the machine doesn’t check the date so there’s nothign stopping me from using it, right? Okay, so what is the motivation for me to spend another $100 on a membership when I don’t even need it?” She just shrugged and that was that. I’ve been using it ever since.
Yeah, not sure what the basis for this is, but it isn’t 100% correct.
I work at a Costco in Michigan, and years back I actually worked in their gas station. Believe me, one of the most boring jobs ever; you’re basically there to help people only when they need help, and being that all that’s involved is swiping a card and pumping gas, that’s a rare instance in itself. That left me with a lot of walking-around-in-a-circle time, playing around with the pumps and passing time. We tried coming up with god knows how many ways to finagle gas without using a membership card or Costco AmEx.
As it turns out, at one time, any ol’ American Express cards would work. Corporate caught onto this along with a credit card skimming scam that was going around on the west coast and most stores’ card readers were replaced. Not every store had their pumps updated, but the ones that did, the AmEx trick wont work on anymore.
So basically, find an older pump/card reader and you’re gold. Newer ones? No such luck. Unfortunately for you guys, you have no way of telling which readers are new without being able to open the pump itself.
The problem with the Costco that sells gas near me is that the lines are so long that you waste 20 min and who knows how much gas just sitting in line. At 10 cents a gallon for a 17 gal fillup, I’d save a whopping $1.70 on a $70.00 purchase.
Hardly worth the wait. That’s less than min wage savings per hour.