what credit score do i need to get the costco credit card
Costco Anywhere Visa Card past Citi Review: More Details
If you regularly shop for deals at Costco, you could potentially go even more than value from your membership – and put some money back into your pocket – past using a co-branded store card to pay for your Costco purchases. Capitalizing on Costco's reputation for offer cheaper gas than the average fuel provider, the Costco Anywhere Visa card offers one of the best bonuses yous can get on yr-round gas purchases. Information technology also offers a stiff cash-dorsum bonus on restaurant and travel spending and a decent bonus on other Costco purchases.
This card requires some patience, though, since it only lets you merits your earnings once a twelvemonth.
Earning greenbacks back
If you spend a lot on gas each month, you should get a pretty good return from this co-branded store carte du jour. You'll get 4 percent cash back on every dollar you spend filling up your tank. Information technology doesn't matter if you lot're braving the lines at Costco's fuel station or at some other qualifying station. The only merchants that are excluded are gas stations at another warehouse club, grocery store, superstore or convenience store. Gas also has to exist used to make full up a car to qualify for the bonus.
Tip: Though convenience store purchases are technically excluded from the Citi Costco card'south 4 percent gas bonus, most gas stations attached to convenience stores will still earn the bonus, since the Visa network codes these stations as gas stations rather than convenience stores. To run into whether a purchase at a particular station qualifies as a gas purchase, you should check the merchant's MCC code.
See related: FAQs on Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi
Citi caps bonus spending for gas purchases at $7,000 a year. But that nonetheless gives you just over $580 a month to earn 4 percent per dollar spent – allowing you lot to collect upwardly to $280 every year.
You'll also get three percent cash back on dining (including fast food and sit down down restaurants, bars, lounges and cafes) and select travel purchases, such every bit airfare, hotel bookings, car rental charges, travel agent expenses, cruise bookings and purchases you make on CostcoTravel.com.
In addition, y'all'll get 2 pct cash dorsum on purchases you make at Costco and Costco.com and 1 percent greenbacks dorsum on everything else.
The wide variety of bonus opportunities makes the Costco Anywhere Visa a good carte du jour for everyday purchases. We estimate that you'll earn roughly 1.91 cents for every dollar that you lot spend. That'due south significantly more generous than other pop cash dorsum cards, such every bit the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express and the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card – both of which earn, on average, just over 1.sixty cents per dollar spent. In fact, ane of the only cards without an annual fee that beats the Costco card's earning rate is the Citi Double Cash Bill of fare, which gives cardholders 2 cents dorsum for every dollar that's charged — 1 cent when you make a purchase and 1 cent when yous pay your bill on time.
See related: Best fixed bonus category cash dorsum cards
No sign-up bonus
The Costco card doesn't offer a sign-up bonus, though. So if y'all're looking for a quick cash infusion, you'd be improve off looking at another gas card, such as the Wells Fargo Propel American Express® carte du jour* or the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card – both of which offer generous bonuses to brand-new cardholders.
Costco membership fee
The Costco Anywhere Visa doesn't technically charge an almanac fee. However, you will have to pay a yearly $60 fee to Costco to remain a member. If you upgrade to executive status, your yearly membership will toll $120.
Redeeming cash dorsum
The biggest downside to the Costco Anywhere Visa is its highly restrictive redemption policy, which makes it a hurting to redeem the cash you lot earned. Rather than let yous to claim your greenbacks whenever you're ready for it (as about issuers do), Costco makes you lot await until the end of February for an almanac rewards certificate. The certificate just covers the cash you earned the previous year (between January and Dec), so you'll have to wait some other year to claim any cash you earned in January and February, merely earlier your certificate was issued. You volition then take until December 31 of that yr to redeem your quondam document at your local Costco for greenbacks or merchandise. If you lot fail to claim your cash before the December 31 deadline (or if your Costco membership expires before you've presented your certificate), you'll lose your rewards altogether.
Costco's restrictive policy essentially forces you to maintain your membership indefinitely in gild to redeem everything y'all've earned. And then you may desire to call back twice about this card if you don't plan on staying a Costco shopper forever.
No foreign transaction fee
Despite its restrictive redemption policies, the Costco Anywhere Visa is still an unusually generous carte for everyday purchases. Unlike many of its cash back competitors, for example, information technology doesn't charge a strange transaction fee, allowing yous to freely use your carte du jour abroad. Foreign transaction fees have go all-just-extinct on travel rewards credit cards. Still, many cash back cards nonetheless charge a minor fee for international purchases.
Other benefits
The Costco Anywhere Visa also offers some pretty good benefits for a cash back card, including:
- Purchase protection. Y'all may be reimbursed if your purchases are stolen or damaged within three to four months later on you bought them.
However, Citi has stopped advertising other valuable travel protections, such equally travel accident insurance, rental auto insurance and trip interruption and cancellation insurance. You may want to use a travel card with more robust protections when you're purchasing airfare or making other big ticket travel purchases.
Alternatives for Costco purchases
The Costco Anywhere Visa's two percentage cash back rate for Costco purchases is pretty good for a (technically) no annual fee card. But if you don't want to wait to receive your cash each year – or commit to an ongoing membership – there are some good alternatives that offer a similar return. For instance:
- The Citi Double Cash card offers up to 2 cents dorsum for every dollar that you spend — 1 cent when you make a purchase and another 1 cent when you pay your bill on time — including at Costco.
- Other apartment charge per unit cards, such as the American Limited Cash Magnet® Card*, offer a slightly lower rewards rate of 1.five percent back on every purchase. But since you can transfer your points to other airline loyalty programs when you own certain Hunt premium cards (thus increasing their value), you may really be able to become a higher rate of return with the Hunt Freedom Unlimited card.
- Y'all may also be able to temporarily get 5 pct cash back on up to $1,500 worth of Costco purchases using a menu with a rotating bonus category. These types of cards often include warehouse purchases every bit a quarterly bonus category. Yet, categories alter every year, so you can't count on the bonus returning.
Approving odds
Unlike many store cards that don't crave excellent credit, y'all'll need a pretty good credit score to become canonical for the Costco Anywhere Visa. CreditCards.com, for case, estimates that yous would demand a score of at to the lowest degree 740 to feel confident nearly your odds.
Customer service
Citi has a fairly good reputation for customer service. J.D. Power, for example, ranked Citi 6th for customer satisfaction in its Credit Card Satisfaction Study. Citi customers who log in to their online accounts can conversation directly with customer service or they can telephone call a customer service line for 24/7 support. The Citi mobile app also has pretty skilful online reviews. However, customers do complain nigh frequent mandatory updates and occasional glitches.
How does information technology compare to other cash back cards?
With an earning rate of nearly 2 cents for every dollar y'all spend, the Costco Anywhere Visa stands out equally one of the most lucrative no annual fee greenbacks back cards on the market place. But unlike many of its competitors, the Costco Anywhere card doesn't offer a promotional APR. It also doesn't offer as much flexibility.
 Depository financial institution of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card |  Chase Freedom Unlimited® |  Detect it® chrome |
Rewards charge per unit
| Rewards rate
| Rewards charge per unit
|
| Sign-upward bonus $200 if you spend $i,000 in the first 90 days | Sign-upwardly bonus Earn an additional 1.5% cash back on everything yous buy (on upward to $20,000 spent in the beginning yr) – worth up to $300 cash back | Sign-upward bonus 100% match of your first year's total earnings |
| Annual fee $0 | Almanac fee $0 | Annual fee $0 |
Other things to know
| Other things to know
| Other things to know
|
Banking company of America Customized Greenbacks Rewards credit menu
Like the Costco bill of fare, the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards menu offers 2 percent greenbacks back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. It also offers 3 percent cash back on the category of your choice, including gas.
Simply dissimilar the Costco card, the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards menu sharply limits how much you can earn. You lot can only get 2 to iii percent greenbacks back on a combined $2,500 in purchases per quarter — limiting y'all to a maximum of $300 worth of bonus earnings per yr. The Costco card, past contrast, limits bonus earnings on gas to $280 per year and doesn't limit bonus earnings on Costco at all.
Chase Freedom Unlimited card
The Chase Freedom Unlimited card lacks the Costco carte du jour'due south bonus rate on gas purchases, but matches its rate on dining purchases and can beat its rate on travel purchases if you book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. You'll also go at to the lowest degree 1.5% greenbacks back on all other purchases, regardless of what you buy.
Discover information technology chrome
The Notice it chrome doesn't offer the flashiest spending bonus: you'll get just 2 percentage greenbacks back on gas and restaurant spending (on upward to $1,000 in purchases per quarter) and 1 percent cash back on everything else. But Discover'due south Cash Back lucifer makes it a lot more than attractive in the showtime year. Since Discover will lucifer 100 percent of your earnings, yous'll essentially become 4 percent greenbacks back on restaurants and gas. Notice limits bonus spending to $ane,000 per quarter, though, so the most y'all could earn through bonuses lonely would be $160 in your first year.
Who should go the Costco Visa menu?
- You're a Costco member (or plan to become one) and don't plan on canceling your membership someday before long.
- You're a car owner and are looking for a gas bill of fare.
- Y'all don't mind waiting for your rewards document or driving to Costco to redeem it.
How to use the Costco Visa carte?
- Use this carte du jour for all your gas purchases and then that you can become up to four percent cash back on your first $seven,000 in purchases. However, exist enlightened that some gas stations, such equally gas stations tied to convenience or grocery stores, are excluded from the bonus.
- Volume travel and pay your bar and restaurant tabs with the Costco carte du jour in gild to get 3 percent cash back. However, use a different travel card for everyday travel purchases, such as tolls and public transportation, since those don't count toward the bonus.
- Bring this card with you when you shop at Costco in order to go a two percent bonus on your purchases.
- Redeem your rewards certificate on your next Costco shopping trip: Yous tin pay for your merchandise with the certificate and receive greenbacks dorsum for any earnings that remain.
Is the Costco Visa card worth information technology?
If yous're a regular Costco shopper and don't mind driving to your local Costco to option up your annual rewards certificate, and then the Costco Anywhere Visa is a bully bill of fare. Simply if in that location's a take a chance yous'll cancel your membership inside the next few years, it may non be worth the adventure of losing all or some of your rewards.
*All data nearly Wells Fargo Propel American Express card and American Express Cash Magnet® Carte has been collected independently past CreditCards.com and has not been reviewed by the issuer. The Wells Fargo Propel American Express is no longer bachelor.
Our reviews and best card recommendations are based on an objective rating procedure and are not driven by advertising dollars. Withal, we do receive compensation when yous click on links to products from our partners. Learn more than about our advertising policy
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Source: https://www.creditcards.com/reviews/costco-anywhere-visa-card-by-citi-review/
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