No, I was told it was the same price regardless of whether I renewed while my current membership was still in effect (in which case it would be extended from the end of my current time) after it expired but within two months of the expiration (in which case it would be backdated to the expiration date) or more than two months after it expired (in which case it would start from the day I joined).
You should check on that- we don’t pay an additional fee for a second card at BJ’s. I think there is a fee for a third, but it’s not the price of a separate membership.
All three membership options include a free second card for a family member.
Also, doesn’t the basic Costco membership cost $55, not $75?
Join the club!
So you decided to stick with Trapper John’s Wholesale Club?
Signage I saw when I was at Costco a few days ago said $55, and since I live in California, if there are regional variances, I’d expect to be seeing the higher prices here.
Like the OP, I renew at BJs when I am told by the cashier that my membership has expired. I do this because I want to ask about my usage to see if it’s worth doing the more expensive membership or not (with a % back in points.)
I have always simply assumed that they would be renewing back to the date it actually expired and not the current date. That’s how memberships work.
It’s how magazine subscriptions work. It’s how gym memberships work. It’s how gun clubs work.
Why should they reward you for paying them late? If anything they’re doing you a favor not charging you a late fee.
Huh? It appears you’ve misunderstood the situation. I don’t know about gym memberships or gun clubs but I do know this is not how magazine subscriptions work. If you have a subscription to Maxim, for example, and the last issue of your subscription was the July issue but you don’t renew until October, they don’t charge you for the August or September issues. You don’t get those issues and you don’t pay for them.
And what on earth are you talking about with late fees? That just doesn’t make any sense.
Depends on the magazine. I’ve had some that automatically renew and send me the August and September issues even if I don’t pay until October. I haven’t renewed after the subscription expired - I’ve simply paid afterward it expired . Which from BJ’s point of view ( and that’s not the only way to view it) is what they are doing as well. You didn’t pay until October- but you could have come in in August or September and just paid the fee, rather than start the new member process from scratch as you would have to do if you waited until January.
Once I was about ten months late getting the annual car registration sticker at the California DMV. By the time I did, it was easiest to pay, slightly early, for next year’s sticker as well!
They refused (as a matter of policy?) to give me the prior year’s sticker (though I paid for it, and probably a penalty surcharge as well). If I’d paid only for the one sticker, and gotten the new sticker a week later, I’d have had two stickers instead of one!
If you let your membership to BJs lapse from July to Oct then that same thing would happen. But if you are just paying a month or two late both BJs and Maxim would still let you have the service and would take your payment and renew it back to the end of the old subscription/membership.
Late fees are when you pay someone late and they charge you a fee. It happens with many products and services. For instance, if I don’t pay my gun club fee by the end of the year they charge me an extra $50. This way people are motivated to pay on time and not pull scams like you are trying to run.
I’m disappointed with this thread… all I read was BJ’s Wholesale…… no BJ anywhere, damn!
I was told that I couldn’t make purchases until I renewed - but that after I renewed they would charge me anyway as if I had been able to shop there.
So in this case, “late fees” are the scam. They’re not charging for services they provided. They’re charging for services they did not provide.
I have no problem paying a one year fee for one year of service. I do have a problem with paying a one year fee for ten months of service. And I have a problem with the people who make that kind of scam possible by their willingness to accept it.
Do you apply this insane logic to other services based on your usage rather than their set prices?
Do you only pay Maxim 90% of the subscription price if you didn’t have time to read one of their magazines? Do you only pay for half of a hot dog at the ball park if you’re not that hungry?
Is this thread a joke? Do you really not understand that during those two months you were welcome to use the club (once you paid your bill). You just didn’t. But why should they have to eat that cost?
Why don’t you take this to the next level and insist that your year of membership should entitle you to use the club 365 days, even if it’s spread out over ten years. That would also be insane, but it would be logically consistent with your current proposal.
I’ve heard of cheap people, but this is taking it to another level. We’re talking about 1/6th of a year that costs $55. That’s $9.17. Get over it.
Every time I arrive, I get this thrill of anticipation, only to leave as frustrated as before.
I see you’ve met my wife.
I wish that FTFY was allowed:
FTFY
I’m having a hard time believing you’re serious.
Do you really think it’s normal to pay for things you didn’t buy? Because it isn’t.
When you subscribe to Maxim, do you also send Time magazine fifty dollars for not subscribing to them? When you go to eat at McDonalds, do you stop at Burger King on the way home and pay them for the meal you didn’t order there? If you bought a new TV at WalMart, would you also give Target three hundred dollars because you didn’t buy a TV from them? When you go to a car lot, do you pay them for all the cars you don’t buy? Do you just carry around bundles of money and just give some to everyone who tells you that you could have bought something from them?
Guess what? You don’t have to do any of those things. I only pay for the things I actually buy. That’s the normal way people live. I don’t know where the hell you live that things are so different.
By the way, you’re now a member of Little Nemo’s Financial Consulting Services. You owe me a hundred dollars. In fact, what the hell, you’ve now been a member since 2003. Send me a thousand. Plus two hundred more for late fees.
Background, I’m a Costco member, and shop there routinely.
I’m welcome to use BJs under the same conditions, even though I am very much NOT a member of their store. The only difference between me and Little Nemo is that he has paid for BJs membership in the past, I haven’t.
Conceptually, these folks are simply allowing their membership to lapse after it runs out, then getting a new membership when they want to shop at BJs again. My Maxim subscription ends, I stop paying them until I want to get more magazines. If that’s 2 months later, I can restart my 1 year subscription with a 2 month gap.
If these stores wanted to, they could institute a new pricing scheme, let’s assume today’s membership is $50/yr:
Annual Membership $55
Renewal Membership $50 - valid when there is no lapse in membership
New Member Discount $5