How to protect your REI rewards while you are alive
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on a REI account. Recreational Equipment allows no lifetime transfer of rewards; the account holder can only redeem them.
Because Recreational Equipment's terms forfeit REI rewards at death, anything preserved is moved or used while the account holder is alive. There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on a REI account. Recreational Equipment allows no lifetime transfer of rewards; the account holder can only redeem them.
How to protect your REI rewards
Naming who acts after a death
- Designation
There is no way to name a beneficiary or survivor for an REI Co-op membership: the member number is issued only in the member's name, and the membership cannot be transferred to someone else.1
What Recreational Equipment, Inc.'s terms say about sharing and transfers6
- Pooling with family
REI has no family-sharing, household or pooling mechanism for the Co-op Member Reward. Each membership is individual, and each household member who wants REI member benefits buys their own lifetime membership.2
- Authorized users and delegates
Only the primary member, "not spouse or other family member," may redeem Promotional Rewards, and only the member can redeem the Co-op Member Reward and vote for the REI board of directors.2, 1
- Transferring the account or registration
The Program Terms state that participation "may not be sold, transferred, or assigned to family, friends, or others," and REI states the membership cannot be transferred to someone else.2, 1
The Membership name change form corrects the existing member's own name and is handled by REI staff; it is not a transfer, and its page states "REI Co-op Memberships are non-transferable."3
- Gifting and purchases for others
REI states it is not currently possible to gift a membership, though a gift card of at least $30 can be used to buy one.2
- Expiry and activity requirements
The Co-op Member Reward is added to the account each March for the prior year, is redeemed at an REI store, on REI.com, at REI Outlet or in the REI app, and carries its own expiry date; REI states the 2025 reward expires February 27, 2027 at 11:59pm PT.4
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Sources
Data sourced from Recreational Equipment, Inc. primary sources (7 pages reviewed). How we research.
REI customer support
REI Co-op Customer Service
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