Good Sam Club Membership?

[ArielRae]

DH is thinking of doing the Good Sam Membership (likes the discounted gas prices). We live in NJ and will be traveling down to WDW at least once a year hopefully more and was wondering if this club would be worth it for us. Also if anyone has joined let me know anything about it you would like to share thanks.

[anniemck]

I guess to answer that the follow up question would be... how much camping do you do other times of the year? How many of their other perks would you actually make use of? One year is $25 so if only using it for fuel savings it would take purchasing 500 gallons to even out the cost.
For me... it isn't worth it personally. We do camp but we have a slide in camper not an RV and we do not take it out of state anymore.

[TheRustyScupper]

Originally Posted by ArielRae

. . . was wondering if this club would be worth it for us . . .

1) Clubs are worth it for frequent campers.
2) To get best benefits, you need
. . . to buy a lot of gas
. . . to buy a lot of camping gear
3) Except for those on the road A LOT, it doesn't pay off.
4) But, as you guessed by now, it is up to the individual camper's needs.

[Barney Fife]

If you're looking to save a little on fuel from NJ to Disneyworld, get something like a FlyingJ RV card.

[North of Mouse]

Originally Posted by Barney Fife

If you're looking to save a little on fuel from NJ to Disneyworld, get something like a FlyingJ RV card.

This is what we have - not a huge amount in savings, but every little bit helps when you fill MH tanks They tend to (not always) have the best prices in fuel.

Clubs have never saved us money, instead have a tendency to *cost* us.

To save on campgrounds, it depends on how much you camp, also if you tend to stay at Good Sam Campgrounds. The one year we had it, didn't use it for campgrounds at all.

[jherauf]

I've been a member of the Good Sam's Club(GSC) for years. I buy the three year membership for $60. To me it's worth the cost just to get the magazine, alone. You also receive a discount now at Camping World, too; along with campgrounds that are GSC.

But main reason, the magazine!!!

[SeilerBird]

This summer I wanted to spend a week at a campground. The rates were $25 or if you had a GSC card it was $20. So it was obvious if I paid the $25 membership I would save more than enough to pay for it. So getting it is was a no brainer for me. I have used is three times since then so I have saved at least $50 with the card. I didn't even know about the gasoline price discount so I just Googled it. 3 cents a gallon for gas would save me between two and three dollars on a fill up.

So I suggest you get the card and if it doesn't work out for you then just don't renew it.

[sirenia88]

Originally Posted by ArielRae

DH is thinking of doing the Good Sam Membership (likes the discounted gas prices). We live in NJ and will be traveling down to WDW at least once a year hopefully more and was wondering if this club would be worth it for us. Also if anyone has joined let me know anything about it you would like to share thanks.

BTDT, Thought about when the family and I made the journey down. I found the easiest way to save was literally to pay in cash. I notice out of the 12 fuel stops that needed to be made, I at least 6 of them were had prepaid cash price. We budgeted $1200 for fuel since we didn't know what the cost was going to be at the time of travel. My wife and I discussed a camping world GSM however, in the end, the numbers for us didn't work out to make it worth it for the savings for the low price of membership. Since our trailer was pretty much complete be going down. No need to purchase more gear.

To give a quick idea on how our fuel costs went. We budgeted $1200 in the beginning. Going down we used a $100 bill for each of our 6 gas purchases. There was change each time. Average fueling was $75-80 for 22 gallons each time. Total cost was $460 down. Coming back. Same thing. Cost was around $440 up. So we spent around $900 for the trip in gas. Our budget was set at $4/ gallon for regular. I managed to get better mileage in the flat parts. The extra money in VA was worth the view. We saved around 20-25 bucks coming back since we came up 95 to DC then crossed up 270/70 to 81. Less hills to deal with. Overall gas mileage the truck did around 9.5 MPG which is go for a 99 F150 with TT.

Originally Posted by TheRustyScupper

1) Clubs are worth it for frequent campers.
2) To get best benefits, you need
. . . to buy a lot of gas
. . . to buy a lot of camping gear
3) Except for those on the road A LOT, it doesn't pay off.
4) But, as you guessed by now, it is up to the individual camper's needs.

+1 See my explanation above.

I noticed another member stated about a Flying J card. That maybe a good idea if you have a Flying J in your area or travel on roads with FJs. In my travels I didn't have a consistent gas station brand. I fueled up when I needed it. I think I was at a pilot twice. Once down and back up. Going down it had RV friendly pumps. The once coming back up which I saw " oh they have the RV friendly pumps!" Didn't.

[articfox676]

In the GS magazine there are good discount coupons for several items. We have purchased these items and saved a lot. These were things we were looking at for a while and waiting for a sale. I know many don't like CW but we find a sale and these coupons more than worth the GS fee.

[CamperMomma]

We had it, but the only thing we did was get a interstate guide deeply discounted (which has proved handy). Outside of that we live nowhere near a camping world, and they will let you stop there overnight regardless if you're a member or not, so we're cancelling.

[iuki]

Since 1992, I've been a lifetime member of Good Sam. We camped more back then, but I love their Road Assistance Membership available to Good Sam members. Experience has proven to me that AAA can't come close to what GS Road Assistance offers. However, Fort Wilderness offers a discount to AAA but not to Good Sam.

[~Kristina~]

I just joined an hour ago because three of the campgrounds we go to regularly have Good Sam discounts.

[5stljayhawks]

I am a costco fan- as much as disney.
If you are looking for a good discount gas card - check out costco Amex.

You get 3% back on up to $4000 in gas purchases = that's $120. plus you get 2% on travel and resturants. and 1 % on all other.

Disney Visa Premier card offers 2% on all gas , no limit. Regualar visa is 1%then you can use the earned disney dollars to pay for your campsite at for wilderness???.

[TOGA]

I've always heard good things about Good Sam Club. I'm not a member since the math doesn't add up for me, but it sounds like if it works out for you it would be a good deal.

[hoosll]

We have Good Sam which also owns Camping World so it helps when we need to pick up some things.

We really love having a KOA card. We have found all the campgrounds to be very good. You get points when you stay that then go towards free nights. There are many KOA campgrounds near 95 as you head south.