Costco is hiking its membership fees from this weekend – with some shoppers threatening to “cancel” their subscription.
The wholesale warehouse chain – which has 29 shops and two million customers in the UK – has sent letters to shoppers to let them know about the changes, which will come into force from March. Costco sells items in bulk but you need to be a member to be able to shop there.
Commenting on one deals group a member said: “Going to cancel. Wait for a big tech deal to come along otherwise waste of time.” The membership for individuals, which is known as Gold Star, will rise from £28 to £35 – a hike of £7, or 25%. The cost of adding an extra cardholder to your account will also increase from £14 to £20 – £6 more and a 42% rise.
The cost of business memberships for trade customers will also rise from £22 to £25, an increase of £3, or nearly 14%. If you want to add an additional business cardholder, the fee for this is rising by £1 to £15 a year. For executive business customers, membership will increase by £9 a year, or 16%, from £56 to £65. Executive gold star membership is increasing by £8, or 13%, to £70 up from £62.
Executive level members get 2% rewards on purchases, which is capped at £400 a year for individuals and £500 for trade. In some good news, these caps will rise to £500 and £750, respectively. Costco membership prices don’t include VAT which means you’ll pay slightly more.
If you add 20% VAT on top, the individual member price sits at £42, while business customers will pay £30. The cost of online-only membership is £12.50 and it has not yet been confirmed whether this will also be rising. Costco told The Sun that the price hike, which is the first in eight years, was necessary to “keep pace with rising costs” and inflationary measures.
Business (previously Trade)
Business Additional Cardholders
Gold Star (previously Individual)
Gold Star Additional Cardholder
Executive Business
Executive Gold Star
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