Costco Is Cracking Down on Membership Card Sharing. Here's What You Need to Know

One of the best personal finance decisions you might make as a consumer is buying a membership to Costco. For just $60 a year for a basic membership or $120 a year for an Executive membership that gives you 2% cash back on all of your purchases, you can enjoy a world of savings on bulk grocery items and household essentials.

But maybe you're someone who doesn't live particularly close to a Costco location. Or maybe you just don't expect to shop there very often. In that case, you may not want to invest in a membership of your own, but rather, you prefer to piggyback off of a friend, neighbor, or family member's membership.

It's a tactic plenty of people employ. But it might soon prove tricky.

Costco is getting stricter about sharing memberships

Costco gets a lot of its revenue from collecting membership fees. As such, it wants to encourage as many people as possible to sign up. And it wants to discourage people from using other people's memberships to gain access to the store. To this end, Costco is changing the way it checks on memberships -- at least in some locations.

Typically, what'll happen is that when you enter a Costco store, you're asked to show your membership card to an employee. But if you're entering at a busy time, that employee probably only has time to verify that you've flashed an actual membership card -- they probably can't check to make sure that you're the person whose card it is.

A new system is seeking to change that. Costco has installed scanners at some of its store entrances. These scanners are designed to match members to their cards before they're allowed to come in and shop.

Now, this isn't a totally new practice. Costco recently started asking members to show their membership cards and photo IDs at the store's self-checkout registers. This new system, however, could help avoid holdups at the store's checkout lines, which are often lengthy.

How to shop at Costco without a membership

You don't necessarily need to buy a Costco membership to gain access to the store. Members are allowed to bring up to two guests to shop with them. The only catch is that you need to go with a current member -- you're not supposed to just borrow that member's card and go on your own without them.

Another option for shopping at Costco without a membership is to have a current member buy you a Costco Shop Card you reimburse them for. That's Costco's version of a gift card, and if you have one, you're allowed in -- even without a membership card.

Otherwise, if you want the flexibility to shop at Costco whenever you want, you'll need to invest in your own membership. But that may not be such a bad idea.

Should you just join Costco?

Costco is committed to customer satisfaction, so if you buy a membership and don't find it useful, you can cancel at any time and get a refund for the remainder of its term. Also, you may find that once you have easy access to Costco, you're able to take advantage of its great prices and save big on staple items you buy regularly.

So before you write off the idea of joining Costco yourself, try it out. Buy a $60 membership and see how much you save by shopping there in the course of your first two months. If it's more than $10, it means you're ahead financially, since your $60 membership fee divided by 12 equals a $5 monthly investment.

Remember, too, that in some cases, making a single Costco purchase could pay for your entire membership fee for the year. Let's say you're looking for a new TV and Costco has the model you want at a price that's $80 lower than its closest competitor. Right there, you've come out ahead financially. So don't be too quick to write off getting a membership of your own -- even if you've historically been able to use other people's memberships.