Costco members get discounted rates on a wide range of third-party services, from insurance and home installations to travel packages. These aren’t the everyday warehouse deals you’d find on groceries or electronics. Instead, Costco partners with specific companies to offer member-only pricing on services like pet insurance, HVAC systems, flooring, auto coverage, and vacation packages. The discounts vary by category, with some offering a flat percentage off and others bundling perks like Costco Shop Cards or resort credits.
Insurance Discounts
Costco’s insurance offerings cover auto, home, pet, and life policies, each through a different partner. Pet insurance comes through Figo Pet Insurance with a straight 15% discount off base rates available to non-members. Executive Members also get access to 24Petwatch, a lost pet recovery benefit, at no additional cost.
Auto and home insurance is offered through American Family Insurance, with member-exclusive savings. Costco doesn’t publish a specific discount percentage for these policies since rates depend on your location, driving record, and coverage selections, but the pricing is negotiated below what American Family charges the general public. Executive Members may qualify for additional benefits on top of the base member discount.
Life insurance comes through Protective, covering 10-, 20-, or 30-year term policies at what Costco calls “exclusive member pricing.” Term life is already one of the more affordable insurance types, so the member rate can make it worth comparing against quotes you’d get independently.
Home Installation Shop Card Rebates
For major home improvement projects, Costco partners with brand-name providers and returns a portion of your spending as a Costco Shop Card. These rebates are significant on big-ticket installations. Lennox home comfort systems (heating, cooling, and air quality equipment) come with a Shop Card worth 10% of the system cost. On an HVAC replacement that might run $8,000 to $15,000, that translates to an $800 to $1,500 rebate you can spend at Costco.
Shaw custom flooring installations carry an even higher rebate at 15% back as a Shop Card. Flooring a few rooms or an entire home can easily cost several thousand dollars, making that 15% return a meaningful discount. These Shop Card values function like store credit and can be used on any Costco purchase, so the savings effectively reduce your total project cost.
Travel Package Perks
Costco Travel bundles flights, hotels, rental cars, and cruises at member prices, but the real value often comes from the extras packaged into each deal. Many vacation packages include digital Costco Shop Cards as a booking bonus. Select resort and cruise packages also come with credits and inclusions you wouldn’t get booking directly: resort credits ranging from $25 to $125 per day, waived mandatory daily resort fees, complimentary breakfast, private airport transfers, and kids-eat-free promotions.
Executive Members get additional travel perks on select packages. Examples include daily cabana credits of $60, hotel credits of $40 per day, bottles of Prosecco, and tour credits worth $400 or more on international packages. These extras vary by destination and change with available promotions, so the value depends on the specific trip you’re booking.
How Executive Membership Changes the Math
Executive Members earn a 2% annual reward on qualified Costco, Costco.com, and Costco Travel purchases, capped at $1,250 per year. That reward applies to travel booked directly through Costco Travel, credited after the trip is completed. On a $5,000 vacation package, that’s an extra $100 back.
However, the 2% reward has notable exclusions. It does not apply to most third-party services, including insurance, business services, and consumer services. For travel, taxes, fees, surcharges, gratuities, trip protection, rental car equipment, resort charges, and port charges are all excluded from the reward calculation. Reward certificates also cannot be redeemed toward services like travel or auto purchases. They’re only usable on regular Costco merchandise.
So while Executive Membership unlocks exclusive travel perks and the 2% reward on eligible purchases, don’t count on earning rewards from insurance premiums or other third-party service transactions. The extra benefits for Executive Members on services tend to come as standalone perks (like the lost pet benefit or resort credits) rather than through the rewards program.
What Makes These Discounts Different
Costco’s services program works differently from its warehouse pricing model. Instead of buying inventory at scale and marking it up slightly, Costco negotiates preferred rates with third-party companies who want access to its membership base. You’re dealing directly with the partner company for service delivery, warranties, and customer support. Costco’s role is securing the discount and, in many cases, vetting the provider.
The practical takeaway: always compare. The 15% pet insurance discount is easy to evaluate against competitors. Home installation rebates are straightforward to calculate. Insurance and travel savings require getting quotes from multiple sources to confirm the Costco partner rate is genuinely the best option for your situation. In many cases it will be, but the discount is only valuable if the underlying service and coverage match what you need.