I was wondering why people use their cibc costco card to pay at the costco as the reward rate is just 1% in their store. For the gas it is a no brainer as you get 3% reward but only 1% in their store. Some mastercard card offer more than 1% reward

We've rarely gone to Costco in the last 10 years and recently decided to finally get a membership. We went to the store and were surprised to learn you can't just buy a regular Costco membership without also applying for a CIBC credit card. This seems incredibly predator-like behaviour. Is this how Costco makes its money now? That they are guaranteeing CIBC account openings per membership?

It's one thing to offer the possibility of getting more cashback if you sign up with the credit card etc, but seems pretty crazy that you can't sign up for basic membership without opening a credit card with CIBC at the same time.

We were told if we get the business card, we don't have to get the credit card...but we don't have a business. Just regular people.

As a rule, I only keep two credit cards (my oldest ones from my teens from the big 3), and I never, ever apply for 'easy' credit cards like The Bay, or in this case, Costco Credit Card. We don't have bad credit (800+) but we really dislike this whole concept. Are we missing something here?

EDIT: Wow, thanks for all the quick and informative replies! To clarify here instead of the multiple threads: we asked two different reps at the same branch (got a hotdog in between to wait it out) and were told the same thing. They said either get business card or MAYBE online-only but otherwise, no can do. We are in Quebec, Canada. From your replies, we will try at another branch then in case it's an aggressive upselling branch :) thank you!