Costco Connection - December 2008

COSTCO SERVICES
Update
Current news for Costco members
Practical Tip
More savings
for Executive
Members

PHOTODISC

MAYBE YOU’VE already done the math and know how Executive Membership pays off. That’s the Costco membership that gets you an annual 2% Reward on most Costco purchases, sent to you attached to your annual renewal notice. It’s like being paid to buy stuff at Costco. What’s 2 percent, right? Well, that $3,000 big-screen TV you just bought would have earned you a $60 reward all by itself. And if you average $250 per month on groceries, in a year that would earn another $60 in your reward. Then there are all the different Executive Member savings incen tives in Costco services— everyday things such as insurance, car loans, mortgages and stock purchases. Most services allow Executive Members to pay a lower fee or provide an additional benefit of value to members. Executive Membership pays youbackinsomanywaysthat youmightevenearnbackyour membership fee. For more information about Executive Membership, visit costco.com and enter “2% reward” in the search box, or call toll-free 1-800-220-6000.

To learn more about the complete suite of Costco services,
click on the “Services” link at costco.com or call 1-800-220-6000.

TIMES MAY BE tough for business owners,

but Intuit is offering a very sweet, limited-time deal on its Online Payroll service. Now through January 16, 2009, rates have been reduced for new sign-ups. Executive Members will pay $6.99 per month (regularly $17.99), and Business and Gold Star members will pay $8.99 per month (regularly $19.99) for the online payroll service. In addition, Costco members get the first three months of service free. The discounted rates will stay grandfathered for new enrollees who sign up through January 16. This is an easy-to-use, comprehensive, do-it-yourself online payroll solution that Costco members can try for less than 50 percent of the regular Costco price. It features earnings and deductions calculations, prints paychecks, pays employees using direct deposits, pays federal and state payroll taxes electronically and automatically files federal and state taxes. For more information, call toll-free 1-888-448-3016, or visit costco.com and enter “Payroll 3” in the search box.

MEDIA BAKERY

Service Updates

Payroll service too affordable to ignore

New level of ID protection

COSTCO’S IDENTITY-protection service, provided by Identity Guard^®, is testing a new premium level of service called Total Protection.

Total Protection offers these features:

• Access to a conveniently organized summary of your personal publicly available information

• Daily surveillance of financial black markets on the Internet known to be frequented by identity thieves

• E-mail alerts to promptly notify you of changes in your credit files recorded every business day at the credit bureaus

• Patented Internet scanning technology to help alert you if your Social Security number, registered credit cards and bank account numbers are being traded, exchanged or sold by identity thieves

• Quarterly updates to your credit report with credit scores from all three credit bureaus

• Daily monitoring of all three credit bureaus for maximum credit-file security

• Daily scanning for credit applications fraudulently submitted in your name, including retail credit cards, cellphone accounts, new mortgages and loans

• Monitoring for changes to publicly available information, which, if inaccurate or compromised, can cause you to be denied credit or employment.

If all this sounds like a comprehensive program, that’s because it is. Identity Guard Total Protection costs Executive Members $9.99 per month, Gold Star and Business members $11.49 per month. For complete details, visit costco.com and enter “idpro- tect6” in the search box.