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The updated Costco app has the member's ID as an electronic ID Card. Costco also accepts ApplePay, so no need to utilize the wallet.

Unless you're pumping gas, at least for the time being. Then again, digital driver's licenses might have to become more common first.
 
I'm going to use this instead of fishing my card out of my wallet when I go into the store as well!

They key is being able to add these cards to the Wallet app. Sheetz and others are the same way, I can scan a code in the Sheetz app and then pay with Apple Pay, but I still need my phone, because of this...I’d rather have it all on my watch, so I can carry less.

If you have seen how Panera implements this then you know it can be done, and Panera even has it setup that it automatically pulls up the rewards card when you go to pay. This should be forced on developers when submitting these category apps.

Yeah with 7-11 I pull up a QR-type code from my Apple Wallet to scan for my rewards but with the Panera rewards there's no code and it triggers the NFC terminal. I like how Panera bribed me into using it the first time with a free cookie.
 
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Last time I tried a debit MC there (albeit with Google Pay), the error the cashier saw on his end was "invalid PIN", which makes me think it tried to run as debit. Of course, PIN wasn't prompted for, which makes me think they either forgot to do something to make it work or purposely only support Visa contactless (and neglected to have a more friendly error message explaining such).
Doesn't matter what the error was, Costco only takes Visa at their brick and mortar stores in the US. They don't honor any other card networks neither using the physical card nor over contactless using Apple Pay, Google Pay or whatever.
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Meh. Verification on my account fails every time. As usual with Costo, the "customer service" is useless. #massiveFail
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This is more accurate now.
thanks, I already corrected my post (and also quoted the correct post I meant to reply to).
 
Doesn't matter what the error was, Costco only takes Visa at their brick and mortar stores in the US. They don't honor any other card networks neither using the physical card nor over contactless using Apple Pay, Google Pay or whatever.

Costco in the US officially accepts debit cards with a PIN, regardless of the logo. We inserted that same card and it worked fine (including the PIN prompt that was supposed to appear with contactless). If the intention is to only support contactless on Visa debit and credit cards, that sounds like something that should frankly be told to members somehow.
 
Costco in the US officially accepts debit cards with a PIN, regardless of the logo. We inserted that same card and it worked fine (including the PIN prompt that was supposed to appear with contactless). If the intention is to only support contactless on Visa debit and credit cards, that sounds like something that should frankly be told to members somehow.

That's correct. A friend of mine is a member of a credit union that is switching their branded credit card from Visa to MasterCard. They sent out an email letting their members know they can't use their MasterCard Credit Card at Costco like they had been doing with their Visa credit card. They then pointed out that Costco does accept Mastercard debit cards
 
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Trash. You can’t add it to the Wallet app. No Scan & Go features. Dated app.
Agreed. I am looking at the "Membership" section of the Costco app and all it has are:
  • Member Number
  • Since Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Member Portrait
  • Member QR code
The Wallet app can easily accommodate all of these fields.
 
Great! Now just tell me where stuff is in the store via the app! I hate it when they move staples I always get!!!
Staples should be in office supplies. ;)
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come on DMV....driver licenses next please!
This needs to be handled very carefully, so that there is never a requirement to hand your smartphone over to a police officer "to verify your identity".
 
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The proof of insurance thing is just an excuse to write another ticket anyway. All modern police departments punch your license plate into their mobile data terminal before they get out of the car and it checks DMV records right then. It also tells them if the car is associated with a wanted murderer or child abduction. Some even have ANPR cameras that do it completely automatically. Same thing with scanning your driver's license, any warrants will pop up.

I remember about 10 years ago, the local cops had to do all this over voice radio, so it was up to them to decide whether it was worth running your plate and license or not.
I jinxed myself, I literally was leaving the office after typing all of this and got pulled over! Doh!!!
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Agreed. I am looking at the "Membership" section of the Costco app and all it has are:
  • Member Number
  • Since Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Member Portrait
  • Member QR code
The Wallet app can easily accommodate all of these fields.
Screenshot the QR code. Wait a few hours or a day, re-open the app. You’ll notice the QR code is different. I’ve uploaded what happened with mine.

They do this to prevent you from sharing screenshots of your card to your friends, requiring they pony up for their own membership.
D7BAC2DA-628A-4DE4-82E8-79681B13EEDB.jpeg
Notice the top of the QR code is different. In the screenshot version vs the regular version.
 
The only credit card you can use at Costco is specifically the Costco Visa. Other than that, you're limited to debit cards.

Back when the Costco card was affiliated with American Express, I was able to use both Visa and Mastercard branded debit cards (my bank switched from one to the other)... so I'd expect that to still be true. But nowadays I just use the Costco Visa and just make sure I pay it off every month, since their interest rates are stupidly high.
[doublepost=1564011223][/doublepost]You can use any visa at Costco
The only credit card you can use at Costco is specifically the Costco Visa. Other than that, you're limited to debit cards.

Back when the Costco card was affiliated with American Express, I was able to use both Visa and Mastercard branded debit cards (my bank switched from one to the other)... so I'd expect that to still be true. But nowadays I just use the Costco Visa and just make sure I pay it off every month, since their interest rates are stupidly high.
 
The updated Costco app has the member's ID as an electronic ID Card. Costco also accepts ApplePay, so no need to utilize the wallet.

It's clunky without wallet. You have to unlock the phone, find and launch the app, wait for it to load, switch to the membership screen, have the cashier scan it, go to the terminal, double click power, select card, Face ID, then tap the reader.

With contactless, like Walgreens or Panera, you double-click, Face ID, tap reader for membership, then select card and tap again to pay.

The most important part is you can use your Watch for this, and never have to take your phone out. That's the biggest advantage.
 
Staples should be in office supplies. ;)
[doublepost=1564010478][/doublepost]This needs to be handled very carefully, so that there is never a requirement to hand your smartphone over to a police officer "to verify your identity".
The states that have them already just have the officer, and stores for that matter, scan a barcode
 
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Still not able to pay and go from the app itself and that is upsetting. Costco has the most frustrating lines. I like Costco more than Sam’s but I appreciated being able to pay myself in the app at Sam’s.
 
But still need physical card for gas pumps?

Phase in period, it is coming once all stores have adopted digital cards. Some stores are still in the process of getting self-checkout.
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It's clunky without wallet. You have to unlock the phone, find and launch the app, wait for it to load, switch to the membership screen, have the cashier scan it, go to the terminal, double click power, select card, Face ID, then tap the reader.

With contactless, like Walgreens or Panera, you double-click, Face ID, tap reader for membership, then select card and tap again to pay.

The most important part is you can use your Watch for this, and never have to take your phone out. That's the biggest advantage.

One also does not pay for a membership at Panera or Walgreens. The reason why Costco does it this way is to prevent misuse, the QR code is timed and changes for security purposes so one cannot take a screenshot and send it to someone else to use it. Membership fees is where Costco and Sams makes they money.
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[doublepost=1564011223][/doublepost]You can use any visa at Costco

or a Costco Canada MasterCard and it also works with ApplePay in the US Costco warehouses.
 
That's correct. A friend of mine is a member of a credit union that is switching their branded credit card from Visa to MasterCard. They sent out an email letting their members know they can't use their MasterCard Credit Card at Costco like they had been doing with their Visa credit card. They then pointed out that Costco does accept Mastercard debit cards

Costco US is seeing it as a debit card and processing it as such I presume. They do accept the Canadian Costco Mastercard as a credit card though.
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I feel like I should take credit for this, I posted a review of the Costco app on the App Store asking for digital membership cards just a week prior.

This has been in the works for years, the thing that held it back was misuse of sharing memberships and how to deploy it worldwide with the appropriate backend support and security of a timed rotating QR code. Companies don't snap they fingers and things happen, it take time, testing as a large corporation does not want to mess a critical thing like membership and payment processing considering most of they profits are from membership fees.

You were thinking what most have been wanting well before the Wallet app was released and people wanted a place for all their cards.
 
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The only credit card you can use at Costco is specifically the Costco Visa. Other than that, you're limited to debit cards.

Back when the Costco card was affiliated with American Express, I was able to use both Visa and Mastercard branded debit cards (my bank switched from one to the other)... so I'd expect that to still be true. But nowadays I just use the Costco Visa and just make sure I pay it off every month, since their interest rates are stupidly high.
At Costco in the US you can use all credit or debit Visa cards and most other debit cards as long as they support PIN authorization. The only cards you can't use at Costco in the US are CREDIT cards issued on any network other than Visa such as Mastercard, Amex or Discover. As for Apple Pay, it obviously won't work if it's loaded with a non-Visa credit card, and the Apple Cash card (issued on Discover) might not work at Costco either because it doesn't have a PIN number.
https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/719/kw/payment method
 
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Costco in the US officially accepts debit cards with a PIN, regardless of the logo. We inserted that same card and it worked fine (including the PIN prompt that was supposed to appear with contactless). If the intention is to only support contactless on Visa debit and credit cards, that sounds like something that should frankly be told to members somehow.
That sounds more like an unintentional error. The system seems to be mistakenly running the Google Pay token for that MasterCard debit card as credit instead of debit, and since they don't take credit cards with a logo other than Visa the payment fails. Just in case, try the same card through Apple Pay instead of Google Pay next time and let us know how that goes.
 
Well thats still a bummer then.
Costco will accept any Visa card tho. If your card issuer supports Apple Pay then you are good to go.

But given the cash back rewards structure of the Costco visa, you should consider it.
 
The only credit card you can use at Costco is specifically the Costco Visa. Other than that, you're limited to debit cards.

Back when the Costco card was affiliated with American Express, I was able to use both Visa and Mastercard branded debit cards (my bank switched from one to the other)... so I'd expect that to still be true. But nowadays I just use the Costco Visa and just make sure I pay it off every month, since their interest rates are stupidly high.

Unless they do something funny for me this is incorrect. They accept all VISA credit cards, Costco branded or not. I can’t speak to the debit cards but I’m assuming they have to be VISA also.
 
Screenshot the QR code. Wait a few hours or a day, re-open the app. You’ll notice the QR code is different. I’ve uploaded what happened with mine.

They do this to prevent you from sharing screenshots of your card to your friends, requiring they pony up for their own membership.
More companies should do this (easy enough to take the normal barcode data - membership# or whatever - and append a cryptographic digest of the data and a current timestamp, then make the barcode out of the result) to make their QR codes more secure, and Apple ought to add support for that in their Wallet app (if you have the corresponding app, have the Wallet communicate with app when you bring the card up, to get the current QR code).
 
That sounds more like an unintentional error. The system seems to be mistakenly running the Google Pay token for that MasterCard debit card as credit instead of debit, and since they don't take credit cards with a logo other than Visa the payment fails. Just in case, try the same card through Apple Pay instead of Google Pay next time and let us know how that goes.

Possibly. The "invalid PIN" error on the cashier's side makes me think it actually did try to run as debit though, but there's really no way to know for sure. I'll have to dig up the iPhone and try again some day.
 
That's correct. A friend of mine is a member of a credit union that is switching their branded credit card from Visa to MasterCard. They sent out an email letting their members know they can't use their MasterCard Credit Card at Costco like they had been doing with their Visa credit card. They then pointed out that Costco does accept Mastercard debit cards
Why would anybody use a CU issued credit card? The rewards are so meager. Compared to the rewards (4% on gas/3% on food&travel/2% costco/1% all other) on the Free Costco Visa, they should switch.

If their CU issued Credit Card is their oldest credit card and is free, they should just put it in their home safe or desk or wherever (to preserve their fico* history/score), and get and use the Costco Visa card.

*this is based on family member’s FICO scores of 820 - 850.

Mid 50s Sister earns ca 35k$/yr, got first CC 4 years ago (went from a cash/debit card existence to a CU Visa, now replaced by Costco Visa, and a Skymiles AMEX Card), first loan of any kind (car) 3 years ago, always pays her bills on time (prior to getting the recurring bills on her credit card, she was often late, no longer). Her FICO is in the 820s and she gets cash back and frequent flyer miles respectively.)

Mid 80s Mother went from a cash, cheque, and maybe 25 active credit cards but using less than 5, always paid on time (except for maybe being late 1/every 2 years), a mortgage, no car loan these last 5 years, to the same AMEX and Costco cards as sister and has a FICO of 850.

Both pay almost everything using Apple Pay on their Apple watches.

They will be happy the Costco membership card is in the app but nerved with Costco that it’s not NFC scannable (like Apple Pay not being accepted at the pumps - Meijer has been taking AP at the pump gor 2-3 years now.)

I hope that when Apple opens up NFC for 3rd parties in iOS 13, that Costco is positioned to take advantage of this. (And that the will get their pump situation straightened out.)
 
Not a Costco member myself but this is great news.

come on DMV....driver licenses next please!
Move to Alabama. We're not usually known as leaders in much but Alabama allows online driver license renewals (every other renewal; we still have to visit a real office once every 8 years). After renewing online a couple of years ago, I received a confirmation email that even included an attached electronic license file that loaded right into the Wallet app. Talk about being pleasantly surprised! It really worked great and now I have my license with me anytime I have my phone on me.
 
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