3 Reasons to Cancel Your Costco Membership in September

Costco members recently received a rude awakening. On September 1, the deposit club giant increased the cost of its membership fees. A Gold Star Costco membership now costs $65 per year instead of $60, while an Executive membership costs $130 instead of $120.

While the higher fees aren’t exactly something to celebrate, they’re not a good reason to cancel your Costco membership either. These hikes can be annoying, but they are relatively small monthly increases. And if you got a lot of value out of your Costco membership before the fee increase, then chances are your membership will continue to be worth the money in the future.

Even though a fee increase alone shouldn’t force you to cancel your membership, these factors should thought twice about whether you should continue to pay for Costco access.

1. You’ve moved and Costco is no longer easy to visit

The more you shop at Costco, the more likely you are to get your membership fee back and then some. So if you’ve moved to an area where there’s no longer a Costco nearby, that’s a good reason to say goodbye to your membership. You can either stick with regular supermarkets or join another warehouse club store that is closer.

You can tell yourself you’ll still make the 45-minute commute every two weeks or monthly. But when it’s time to get in the car, you might suddenly realize you have better things to do with your weekend than drive 90 minutes for groceries and toilet paper, even though there are potential savings involved.

2. You’ve downsized and don’t have much space

Buying household items in bulk can be cost effective and convenient. If you stock up on things like paper towels and cleaning supplies, you won’t need to refill them as often. But if you’ve downsized to a much smaller home that doesn’t offer much storage space, you may find these bulk purchases extremely inconvenient.

Sure, you might pay less for tissues by the box if you get them at Costco. But if your new house has a tiny closet in the hallway, you might be stuck with piles of 12 boxes of tissues in the corner of your living room for your dog to knock over and for your guests to see when they visit. That doesn’t make logistical sense.

3. You’re constantly making impulse purchases at Costco that add to your credit card debt

The nice thing about Costco is that you can buy a lot of products under one roof, from groceries to kitchen tools and clothing. That’s also the bad thing about Costco, though.

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Because the store has such a wide range of stock at attractive prices, it’s quite easy to fall victim to impulse buying. And if you’re constantly giving in to unplanned purchases at Costco, to the point where you keep adding to your existing credit card debt, then it may be time to withdraw your Costco access.

The savings you enjoy on your essential purchases at Costco could be completely canceled out by the additional expenses you make there. So if you really can’t stop yourself from making those impulse purchases, then it might be time to stop going to Costco.

You shouldn’t let the fact that your Costco membership costs $5 or $10 more per year stop you from enjoying the store’s many perks. But if the situations above apply to you, then canceling your subscription this month makes a lot of sense.

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3 Reasons to Cancel Your Costco Membership This September was originally published by The Motley Fool