Watch the video to find out why you shouldn’t get gas at Costco.
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With hundreds of gas stations across the United States, Costco has millions of customers that swear by the cheap gas that the company carries. While that may be true, it’s not the de facto place where every American should get gas.
In fact, assuming you already forked out $60 for the annual membership, if you don’t fill up at least 35 times a year you may end up losing more money than you save at Costco. So here are five reasons why you might want to consider gassing up somewhere else.
1 – The long lines
Some customers have complained of having to wait more than an hour for their turn. That’s a considerable amount of time that may not be worth the few dollars you may save. You might be better off at standard gas stations that have no lines at all.
2 – You need to be a member
Like most membership shopping chains, you need to be a Costco member to gas up at their stations. That’s $60 a year and if you have a 16-gallon tank car, you need 37.5 fill-ups just to cover the cost of membership.
3 – Only Visa credit cards can be used
Costco gas stations don’t accept cash and it sucks if you don’t have a Visa card because that’s the only credit card they’ll take. You could of course pass by a Costco warehouse to buy a cash card but if that’s the only reason for going there then you may be better off just going to a regular gas station.
4 – You could use up more gas just getting there
Any drive that’s more than 20 miles will just use up the savings that you would get by gassing up at Costco. So if there’s no nearby Costco gas station then it’s not worth it to drive all the way there.
5 – Some grocery reward programs can actually give you cheaper gas
Some grocery stores like Stop & Shop and Kroger have loyalty programs that earn you money from each gallon of gas you get from partner gas station chain. Do this often enough and you could end up with cheaper gas than what Costco offers.