Sam's Club

[woeisme]

I just filed CH 13 in September, have my 341 meeting next week. I owed a small balance on my Sam's club line of credit when I filed ($200 or so) and they're going to get about 67% back or more, depending on how many creditors file claims.

My question is does anybody know if you can still use your Sam's club membership if your credit is cancelled? I know i can't use credit at Sam's, but can I still shop there using cash? I'd think yes, but I know they scan your membership card (which is the same piece of plastic as the credit line) when you check out, so I'm wondering if they'll tell me "no, your card is no good here now" because I filed BK??? I want to continue shopping there because of the good deals you can sometimes get there, which is even more important now that I'm living on the CH 13 budget, but am afraid to be embarassed by being refused at the cash register because of my BK.

Thanks!

[HHM]

I don't know the answer from personal experience, but honestly, I can't imagine they would cancel your membership because of a BK. As you said, you can still go in an pay cash. Frankly, if Sam's Club cancelled memberships of persons who filed BK, they would probably lose half their customers

You can try poking around their website and see if you can find any terms and conditions of membership and read it.

On the other hand, if part of that money owed was the "membership fee", that may cause a problem.

You can probably go down to the Sam's club and speak with customer service (or member services) before you actually shop to find out the status of your membership.

[vleisme]

Yes you can still use your Sam's Club credit card as an ID to get in and purchase items you just cannot put it on the credit card, obviously, use cash or a debit card. I do it all the time and it has never been a problem and I owed them over 3000.00

[CindyLou]

they are totally seperate! Your membership and credit are not connected in any way so you can continue to shop as you always have, except you just can't charge. I also included my sam's charge in my BK, but I have continued my membership without any problems.

[SinkingFast]

Even if you hadn't owed on your SAM's charge, they probably woulda cancelled your acct. GEMB backs the SAM's LOC. We didn't owe anything to them when we filed and GEMB closed our acct with them.

But, Yes, you can still shop.

[woeisme]

Thanks everybody!

Thanks to all you who replied. I haven't been on-line for a while, so just got back on the computer and saw all the responses. I sure am glad you took the time to let me know about your Sam's club experiences. I think my membership fee is due this month, and wasn't included in the bk, so I guess they'll send me a bill for the membership fee soon? I had paid the fee so it was just a few purchases that were on the card. Thanks again everyone, maybe I'll start shopping there again now that I'm not afraid of the embarassment factor!

[vleisme]

Your membership fee for Sam's is not a credit card annual fee it is totally seperate. If you don't receive a bill to renew your membership in the mail the next time you go to Sam's and purchase anything they will tell you at the register it has expired and you can renew right there at the register. Again, the membership is seperate from the credit card even though you still have the credit card and use it as ID to enter Sam's. I know that is a little confusing because it seems that you are using the credit card but unless you ask them to charge to it ,they won't ,and just tell them you want to pay with cash or debit card.

[totallyconfused]

I know this thread is old but I am hoping someone will tell me if they recently filed BK and included their Sam's credit balance. I have credit on my card = $500 and my husband has $250. I ask because he really does not want to lose his membership and my lawyer told me that we could pay off the balances and keep the membership but if they run our credit and find the BK we will probably still lose the membership. Has anyone discharged Sam's and keep their membership?

[gymbofreak]

Good credit is not required to have a sams club membership. I had crappy credit and had a sams card for years. I included a sams club card in my chapter 7 but have not went back to get a new card, I will though as their two different issues.

[Pizza]

[clb123]

I filed on Sept of 2005 and discharged in Jan of 2006. I had an acct with w/ Sams and owed almost 2000. They recently reopened my line of credit for 500 without my even knowing of it. When I went to shop at Sams my card had to be reissued. I do have my score up to 692 thru

[Cali]

I don't shop at Sams or Costco, but I can see how it can benefit some people. If you have a big family buying in bulk is a good thing.