How To Cancel Sam’s Club Membership In 2026: Get A Full Refund
David Roberts
Founder and CEO
04.10.2026
Short answer: to stop the next charge, sign in at samsclub.com, open Account, then Auto-renew settings, and switch auto-renew off at least 24 hours before your renewal date. To end the membership and get this year’s fee back, go to the Member Services desk at any club or call Sam’s Club Member Care on 1-888-746-7726 and ask to cancel under the 100% satisfaction guarantee. Downgrading Plus to Club is an option if you only want to stop paying for Plus.
Sam’s Club is one of the few memberships where leaving can actually put money back in your pocket. Sam’s offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on the membership fee, so a cancellation is not just about avoiding next year’s charge. Done properly, it can refund the fee you already paid this year.
The catch is that “cancel” means two different things at Sam’s Club. Turning off auto-renew online stops the next charge but keeps you a member until your expiry date. Cancelling outright ends the membership and is the route to a refund. This guide covers both, plus the 2026 fees, downgrading Plus, add-on cards, the Sam’s Club Mastercard, Sam’s Cash, and what to sort out before you hand back the card.
First, Check Who Is Billing You
Almost every Sam’s Club membership is billed by Sam’s Club itself, even when you bought it somewhere else. What changes is where you go for a refund on the original purchase. Check the charge on your statement first.
What your statement says
Who bills you
Where to cancel
SAMS CLUB, SAMSCLUB.COM or a membership fee line
Sam’s Club directly
samsclub.com Account, any club’s Member Services desk, or 1-888-746-7726
A charge on your Sam’s Club Mastercard
Sam’s Club, paid with a Synchrony-issued card
Sam’s Club for the membership; Synchrony only if you want to close the card
GROUPON or another deal site
The deal site for year one, then Sam’s Club at renewal
Turn off auto-renew with Sam’s Club; ask the deal site about an unused voucher
Add-on member fee on your statement
Sam’s Club, billed to the primary member
The primary member removes the add-on in club or by phone
Charged by a business account
Sam’s Club Business membership
The account’s primary or business administrator, in club or by phone
Sam’s Club raised its fees on 1 May 2026, the first increase since 2022. A Club membership now costs $60 a year and Plus costs $120 a year, each up $10. Existing members move to the new price at their next renewal rather than mid-year, so if you joined or renewed before May, your next charge is the one that goes up.
Membership
US price from 1 May 2026
Before May 2026
Renews
Club
$60 a year
$50 a year
Yearly, if auto-renew is on
Plus
$120 a year
$110 a year
Yearly, if auto-renew is on
Upgrade from Club to Plus
The difference, based on what you paid
The difference
With your main membership
Add-on member card
An extra yearly fee per card; check the amount in your account
$45 a year
With the primary membership
Promotional prices are common. Sam’s Club and partners such as Groupon regularly sell first-year memberships well below list price, which matters later because a refund is based on what you actually paid, not on the $60 or $120 sticker price.
Sam’s Club Plus Membership: What The Extra $60 Buys
Sam’s Club lists these Plus benefits on its membership page: free shipping on most online items, free curbside pickup, early shopping hours, and 2% back in Sam’s Cash on qualifying purchases. From May 2026 the yearly Sam’s Cash cap for Plus rose from $500 to $750. Plus members also get extra savings on some pharmacy, optical and tire services. If the 2% back on your annual spend does not cover most of the $60 gap, Plus is the part worth dropping, and downgrading is covered below.
The 24 Hour Renewal Cutoff And The Refund Safety Net
Sam’s Club’s own offer terms say that if you do not want to renew, you must cancel at least 24 hours before your membership is due to renew to avoid being charged. Your renewal date is in your account on samsclub.com and in the app, so check it before you start.
Unlike most subscriptions, missing that window is not the end of the story. Sam’s Club’s satisfaction guarantee on the membership fee means you can still cancel after the renewal goes through and ask for the fee back. It is simply easier to switch auto-renew off in time than to chase a refund afterwards, especially if you have already used the membership since the charge.
How To Cancel Sam’s Club Membership Online
Online, the reliable control is auto-renew. Switching it off means your membership runs to its expiry date and then ends without another charge. For most people who just do not want to pay again, that is the whole job.
How To Cancel Sam’s Club Membership Auto Renewal
Sign in at samsclub.com. Use the email tied to your membership, not a different Sam’s or Walmart login.
Open Account. On desktop it is under your name at the top of the page.
Go to Membership, then Auto-renew settings. The wording can vary slightly between the website and the app.
Note your renewal date. If it is less than 24 hours away, the charge may already be queued; see the refund section.
Turn auto-renew off and confirm.
Screenshot the screen showing auto-renew off and the expiry date, and keep any confirmation email.
The same setting is available in the Sam’s Club app under Account. If you cannot find it, or it will not save, Member Care can switch it off by phone.
Can You Cancel And Get A Refund Online?
Sam’s Club’s offer terms say you can cancel your membership at any time in your Account, and some members do see a cancellation option there. But turning off auto-renew does not refund the year you have already paid for, and the online flow does not reliably offer the satisfaction guarantee refund. If getting money back is the point, use the club or the phone route below, and say clearly that you want to cancel and receive a refund of the membership fee.
How To Cancel Sam’s Club Membership In Club
This is the most dependable way to cancel outright and get the refund settled on the spot.
Spend any Sam’s Cash first, then take your membership card and photo ID to any Sam’s Club. It does not need to be the club where you joined.
Go to the Member Services desk, usually near the entrance.
Ask to cancel your membership under the satisfaction guarantee. Mention any add-on cards on the account, since they are tied to yours.
Ask how the refund will be paid. Request the original payment method if that matters to you.
Keep the receipt or cancellation printout. It is your proof if a renewal charge appears later.
How To Cancel Sam’s Club Membership By Phone
If there is no club near you, call Sam’s Club Member Care on 1-888-746-7726.
Have your membership number ready. It is on your card and in the app.
Ask to cancel the membership and refund the fee under the 100% satisfaction guarantee, or just to turn off auto-renew if you want to keep using it until expiry.
Ask how the refund will be issued. Members have reported phone refunds arriving as a Sam’s Club eGift Card rather than back on their card. If you want it on the original payment method, ask, and if that is not possible, consider doing it in club.
Write down the date, time and agent name, and ask for a confirmation email.
Downgrade Plus To Club Instead Of Cancelling
If you still shop at Sam’s but the Plus perks are not paying for themselves, you do not have to leave. You can drop from Plus back to Club and keep basic membership.
How: ask at Member Services or by phone. The downgrade is handled the same way as a cancellation.
What you get back: Sam’s Club’s fee FAQ says the refund on a downgrade is based on what you paid to upgrade, either the difference between Plus and Club if you joined as Plus, or the amount you paid for the upgrade, which may be prorated.
Limit: the same FAQ notes a limit of one refund per year on Plus downgrades, so do not upgrade and downgrade repeatedly.
What you lose: 2% Sam’s Cash on purchases, free shipping on most online items, free curbside pickup, early shopping hours and the Plus pharmacy and optical savings.
Add-On And Household Cards
Many memberships include a household card for someone at the same address, and some members pay for extra add-on cards on top. These cards hang off the primary membership, which affects how you cancel.
Cancelling the primary membership ends the add-on and household cards too. Tell the people using them before you do it.
Removing only an add-on is done by the primary member in club or by phone. Ask whether the add-on fee is refundable at the same time.
Add-on fees renew with the primary membership, so a forgotten add-on is a common reason the renewal charge is higher than expected.
Discounted, Groupon And Trial Memberships
Cheap first-year deals are how many people join, and they are the main source of surprise charges a year later. The discounted price is for year one only; after that the membership auto-renews at the full rate unless you switch it off.
Turn off auto-renew the day you activate a deal membership. You keep the full year you paid for.
Expect a refund to reflect what you paid, not the list price. A $15 or $20 promo year refunds, at most, the $15 or $20.
Bonus Sam’s Cash or gift cards that came with a deal may be deducted or forfeited if you cancel for a refund. Ask before you cancel.
Unredeemed Groupon vouchers are refunded under Groupon’s rules, not Sam’s Club’s.
Free trial offers come and go. If you joined on a trial, treat it like any other deal: find the renewal date and turn auto-renew off at least 24 hours before it.
Cancelling The Membership Versus The Sam’s Club Mastercard
The Sam’s Club Mastercard is issued by Synchrony Bank, and it doubles as your membership card. The membership and the credit card are still two separate accounts.
Cancelling the membership does not close the credit card. Your balance, payment due dates and credit line stay with Synchrony.
Closing the credit card does not cancel the membership. If your membership fee was charged to that card, update the payment method or turn off auto-renew first.
Card rewards are paid as Sam’s Cash, which you redeem through Sam’s Club. Use it before your membership ends; reviews of the card say Sam’s Cash must be used within about six months of a membership lapsing.
The card works anywhere Mastercard is accepted, so you can keep it as an ordinary credit card if you want to, but check the card terms for how Sam’s Cash earned after the membership ends is handled.
If you plan to close both, cancel the membership first and confirm the refund, then pay off the card balance and close the card with Synchrony.
Does Walmart+ Change Anything?
Sam’s Club is owned by Walmart, which leads plenty of people to assume the two memberships are linked. We could not find any current cross-benefit between them in 2026: Walmart+ does not include a Sam’s Club membership, and a Sam’s Club membership does not include Walmart+. They are billed and cancelled separately.
So cancelling Sam’s Club leaves a Walmart+ subscription untouched, and the reverse is also true. If you are trimming both, our guide on how to cancel Walmart+ covers that side. The one practical overlap is that Sam’s Club eGift Cards, which are sometimes used for phone refunds, can also be spent at Walmart.
Scan & Go, Pickup, Delivery And Instacart Orders
Sam’s Club’s own shopping tools are built around an active membership, so finish what you have in progress first.
Scan & Go in the Sam’s Club app uses your membership. Expect it to stop working once the membership is cancelled or expires.
Curbside pickup and delivery orders placed through Sam’s Club should be collected or delivered before you cancel. Plus members lose free curbside pickup and free shipping on most items the moment they downgrade or cancel.
Instacart orders from Sam’s Club run through your Instacart account and follow Instacart’s own pricing and membership rules. Cancelling Sam’s Club does not cancel an Instacart order or an Instacart+ subscription.
What Happens After You Cancel
What you had
If you only turned off auto-renew
If you cancelled for a refund
Member pricing and club entry
Continues until your expiry date
Ends straight away
Plus perks (2% Sam’s Cash, free shipping, curbside, early hours)
Continue until expiry
End straight away
Sam’s Cash balance
Usable while the membership is active
Spend it first; promo Sam’s Cash may be deducted
Add-on and household cards
Expire with the primary
End with the primary
Online account and order history
Stays
Stays
Sam’s Club Mastercard
Unaffected
Still open with Synchrony
You can rejoin later at the current price. New member promotions usually exclude people with a recent membership, so do not count on the cheapest deal coming back to you straight away.
Cancel Your Membership Or Delete Your Sam’s Club Account?
Your samsclub.com online account and your membership are related but not the same thing. Most people only need to deal with the membership.
Turn off auto-renew
Cancel membership
Delete online account
Stops future fees
Yes
Yes
Only if the membership is cancelled first
Refunds this year’s fee
No
Yes, under the satisfaction guarantee
No
Keeps member pricing until expiry
Yes
No
No
Keeps order history
Yes
Yes
No
Reversible
Yes, turn it back on
Yes, rejoin at current price
Usually no
Where to do it
Account, then Auto-renew settings
Member Services desk or 1-888-746-7726
A privacy request through Sam’s Club
Can You Get A Sam’s Club Membership Refund?
Yes, and this is where Sam’s Club is unusually generous. Its fee FAQ states: “We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on your membership or your money back.” In practice, that means you can cancel during your membership year and ask for the current year’s fee back. A few rules shape how much you get:
You get back what you paid. A discounted first year refunds the discounted price, not $60 or $120.
Plus downgrades refund the upgrade, based on what you paid for Plus, with one downgrade refund per year.
Deal extras may come off. Bonus Sam’s Cash or gift cards attached to a promotion can be deducted from the refund.
Turning off auto-renew is not a refund. You have to cancel and ask for the refund in club or by phone.
The payment method can vary. In club you can usually ask for the original payment method; by phone, refunds have been reported as eGift Cards.
If you were renewed without wanting to be, the guarantee is the quickest fix. Go to a club or call, cancel, and ask for the renewal fee back. A chargeback through your bank should be the last resort, since it is slower than the guarantee and can complicate rejoining later.
Charged After Cancelling? Troubleshooting
Symptom
Likely cause
Fix
Renewed even though you turned auto-renew off
The change was made inside 24 hours of renewal, or it did not save
Cancel in club or by phone and claim the fee back under the guarantee
Renewal charge higher than $60 or $120
An add-on card renewed with the primary membership
Remove the add-on and ask for that fee to be refunded
Charged at full price after a $15 or $20 deal
Promo year ended and auto-renew was still on
Cancel now and request a refund of the renewal
No cancel button in your online account
Online only offers auto-renew control for your membership type
Turn off auto-renew online, or cancel by phone or in club
Refund arrived as a gift card
Phone refunds are often issued as Sam’s Club eGift Cards
Use it at Sam’s Club or Walmart, or cancel in club next time
Still charged after closing your Sam’s Club Mastercard
Closing the card does not cancel the membership
Cancel the membership with Sam’s Club directly
If none of these fits, call Member Care on 1-888-746-7726 with your membership number, the charge date and amount, and any cancellation screenshot or receipt.
Is Sam’s Club Membership Worth Keeping?
For a Club membership, the question is simply whether member pricing saves you more than $60 a year. A household that does a regular bulk shop or buys fuel there usually clears that easily; someone who visits a few times a year usually does not. If you are weighing it against Costco, our guide on how to cancel a Costco membership explains how its refund rules differ.
Plus is easier to test. At 2% back, you need about $3,000 a year of qualifying spending just to earn the extra $60 back in Sam’s Cash, before counting free shipping and curbside pickup. Below that, a downgrade to Club usually beats both staying on Plus and cancelling altogether.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I cancel my Sam’s Club membership?
To stop future charges, turn off auto-renew in your samsclub.com account. To end the membership and get this year’s fee back, cancel at a club’s Member Services desk or call 1-888-746-7726.
Can I cancel my Sam’s Club membership online?
You can turn off auto-renew online, which ends the membership at expiry. For an immediate cancellation with a refund, use the club or the phone.
How much does a Sam’s Club membership cost?
From 1 May 2026, Club is $60 a year and Plus is $120 a year in the US. Existing members pay the new price from their next renewal.
Will Sam’s Club refund my membership fee?
Yes. Sam’s Club offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on the membership fee. You get back what you paid, minus any deal extras such as bonus Sam’s Cash.
How far before renewal should I turn off auto-renew?
At least 24 hours before your renewal date. If you miss it, you can still cancel and claim the fee back under the guarantee.
Can I downgrade from Plus to Club?
Yes, in club or by phone. The refund is based on what you paid for Plus, and there is one downgrade refund per year.
What happens to my Sam’s Cash when I cancel?
Spend it before you cancel. Promotional Sam’s Cash can be deducted from a refund, and reviews of the Sam’s Club Mastercard say a balance must be used within about six months of a membership lapsing.
Does cancelling Sam’s Club cancel my Sam’s Club Mastercard?
No. The card is a Synchrony Bank account and stays open until you close it with Synchrony.
Does Walmart+ include a Sam’s Club membership?
No. We found no cross-benefit between Walmart+ and Sam’s Club in 2026. They are separate memberships, billed and cancelled separately.
More Cancellation Guides
For a full walkthrough of finding and stopping recurring charges, see our guide on how to cancel subscriptions online. These guides cover the memberships people most often pay for alongside Sam’s Club:
