Costco recently added digital Costco Shop Cards as an option, in addition to the physical Shop Card option. The e-cards work both online and in the warehouse, but they are more limited than the physical version in that they do not work for Costco gas. The fine print also mentions that the digital cards do no work at Food Courts.
Thanks to two readers who mentioned this recently.
Anyone have trouble purchasing shop cards with a citi mastercard online?
anyone having trouble accessing their digital shopcards today via the emailed tracking.digitalshopcard.costco.com/tracking/1/click links?
even clicking on the shopcard faq leads to a broken xml page saying “Requested URL not found: /tracking/1/click/…”
Ok, my orders were from last November and it looks like they’ve changed the link format…for anyone that runs into this, you’ll need to go to into Order details/Track my package and resend the email to the recipient to generate the new link. Annoyingly, they limit how many e-giftcard orders you can view/track a day.
Can you help me with this? Which transaction order details did you go into? In my case, the digital gift card was sent as a promotional item from a “spend X get X” offer.
It sounds like you purchased the gift cards yourself?
Looks like I am in a different pickle.
I have the same issue here. Did you resolve it?
Is anyone else having issues with being able to use giftcards.com VGC to buy a cash card from Costco?
edit: nvm must have been user error
Anyone experiencing issues with this? I used to be able to get GC orders thru if I waited a few days in between orders and the VGC was registered. However, lately they have just been cancelling my GC orders.
Useful. Physically cards can take days or weeks to process and you won’t be charged until it ships. I’ve missed out on a large quarterly bonus because of that.
How do readers typically contact you? Is there a slack or discord group or something?
Info here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/contact-us/
little off topic :Is there anyway I can buy Costco cash card physical/digital using Amex ?
No way to do it directly. https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/719/~/what-payment-methods-are-accepted-at-costco%3F
A way to use the amex is to buy a visa/master card with no purchase fees, an offer that occasionally comes up here. Then use those prepaid cards to buy the costco cash card.
Or just skip that last step and use your prepaid visa at Costco – that’s been my approach for years.
Yeah, that’s what I was wondering, too. But
SMan mentioned just below this that you can apaprently shop at Costco with a gift card without having a membership card.
Is there a benefit to using the prepaid card to buy Costco cards vs. just spending the prepaid card at Costco? Do they not accept prepaid cards?
If you have prepaid Costco card AKA Costco gift card, you can enter and buy stuff at Costco without membership card.
Prepaid cards can be used at Costco.
Thanks to both of you for the replies!
@Celia have you been able to purchase a Costco e-giftcard (shop card) recently from Costco’s website? I’ve done it in the past, but now when I try it won’t let me add any to the cart. (The “Add” button is literally blank on screen) Is it just me/my Costco account, or have you had similar issues? Many thanks in advance!
@Celia thank you for confirming that I’ve NOT gone crazy! Will check back another day and see if website has been fixed. Thanks again.
@Celia thanks for all of your great info re Costco. What a great way to liquidate these prepaid Visa cards! On a separate note, I used your referral code for the Marcus Bank $100 promo I opened up yesterday…..hopefully I got the right Celia from the referral post! 🙂 Thanks again for all of your contributions to DOC.
Thanks
EastSideBK , always happy to help.
I was at Costco this morning and love that they have an option at self checkout for digital cards.
@Celia this is great news! Crazy thing is I was literally at Costco last night and the employee told me to use the staffed checkout line because he didn’t think the self checkout line could handle e-Shop cards. So this must be relatively new…..thanks for the tip!
Costco’s website still says they can’t be used at SCOs, but when you go to pay there should be a button on the screen to pay with a digital shop card. Also,you can go to the gift card/jewelry closet register and buy a plastic card with your digital card balance to use for gas.
There’s another indirect way using Kasheesh which turns Amex card into Virtual MC.
data point: i have costco shop cards and basically only use it for costco gas (they blocked visa debit cards from gas stations earlier this year, i believe) – please note that your gas price WILL be higher if you don’t scan a membership card FIRST. Learned this the hard way when my costco membership card got cancelled due to fraud activity and forgot to get a new membership card at customer service.
uh…where are you located? i get the advertised price just swiping the shop card
This seems like it would not be legal either, unless they posted the price difference like price $XX.xx (cash) at other cash stations.
yeah, sounds like a special situation. In DC there’s one costco that sells liquor and therefore can’t sell gas, so the gas station is a wholly owned subsidiary that can’t accept costco shop cards….lol
Florida, the gas station was a business center. I was very annoyed at the time, because 1) I literally drove by a regular gas station that had the same price – I drove a little out of my way to stop by Costco + 2) it had never happened before, so I thought that was extremely weird.
As far as what other people said about “displayed prices” – technically they don’t have a sign that says how much it costs… On the Costco app, I can see the price, but sometimes that might be different.
I know my situation sounds weird, but the price charged/on the receipt definitely was different than what was listed at the physical gas pump itself.
Not enough to go into costco to complain about, but enough for me to be cautious next time.
>the price charged/on the receipt definitely was different than what was listed at the physical gas pump itself
uh…wouldn’t that technically be a sign that says how much it costs? sounds like an isolated error at the pump, unless its legal to advertise fake prices in your state lol
What’d you do to get cancelled for fraud activity?
According to the customer service, if you misplace / lose your card, they auto cancel for “fraud” and as a result, your membership ID is nullified. You have to go into the store to get your replacement card + take a new picture (if you get a mean supervisor like me, although the lady did say they could’ve printed one without the picture….. YMMV)
Gas station rules differ by state. Some states prohibit members-only gas.
Do you still get 2% back with executive membership when you use these cards to pay?
Yes!
How do you get the 2% back when you use these cards and executive membership? I can’t figure that part out/ how to do it.
When you purchase the shop card with your executive membership #, it will not gave you 2% back. The 2% back will only be generated when you use the shop card (remember to add your executive member #) to purchase actual stuff in Costco or at Costco.com.
The 2% is triggered automatically when you scan your membership barcode at check out, regardless of the form of payment. The cash back accumulates and you get a voucher a few weeks before your next membership renewal.
But this would be for people with no membership, except web page lists this as a membership item. Is it or can you buy them without membership?
A member has to buy it, but you can use them without being a member.
My location allows non-members to use cash cards but limits them to only spend the amount on the card. Any overage could only be paid in cash. Not sure if that’s a manager thing.
I use cash cards to be able to use prepaid cards online when spending more than $200.
no, you need a membership to buy them