Citi is offering 5% cash back rewards on gas at Costco and earn 4% cash back on other eligible gas and electric vehicle (EV) charging purchases for the first $7,000 combined spend per year, and then 1% thereafter with the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi for Costco Members. No annual fee.
Details:
Discover one of Citi's best cash back rewards cards designed exclusively for Costco members
Earn 5% cash back rewards on gas at Costco and earn 4% cash back on other eligible gas and electric vehicle (EV) charging purchases for the first $7,000 combined spend per year, and then 1% thereafter.
3% cash back on restaurants and eligible travel purchases and eligible travel, including Costco Travel.
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com
1% cash back on all other purchases
No annual fee with your paid Costco membership and enjoy no foreign transaction fees on purchases
Receive an annual credit card reward certificate, which is redeemable for cash or merchandise at U.S. Costco warehouses, including Puerto Rico
Citi is offering 5% cash back rewards on gas at Costco and earn 4% cash back on other eligible gas and electric vehicle (EV) charging purchases for the first $7,000 combined spend per year, and then 1% thereafter with the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi for Costco Members. No annual fee.
Details:
Discover one of Citi's best cash back rewards cards designed exclusively for Costco members
Earn 5% cash back rewards on gas at Costco and earn 4% cash back on other eligible gas and electric vehicle (EV) charging purchases for the first $7,000 combined spend per year, and then 1% thereafter.
3% cash back on restaurants and eligible travel purchases and eligible travel, including Costco Travel.
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com
1% cash back on all other purchases
No annual fee with your paid Costco membership and enjoy no foreign transaction fees on purchases
Receive an annual credit card reward certificate, which is redeemable for cash or merchandise at U.S. Costco warehouses, including Puerto Rico
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Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser.
It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
I'm sure it's been mentioned and buried but extended warranty benefit goes away next month which sucks
Uhh yeah I have an Amex, this is not true lol
I'm sure citi fought hard in the bidding process to beat Amex to get the Costco account. Part of the terms were probably to offer better benefits for the customer....
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Can you give a few examples of over $0.02 redemption? I have a hard time getting more than $0.15 (transfer to Southwest) for my travel pattern, where I value higher frequency than comfort.
Is it no AF card if we don't subscribe to a Costco membership?
The wording says "will not have an annual fee with your paid Costco membership. So I would assume a fee for non Costco members. I remember the AmEx Costco card being the same way.
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from mjspam
:
anyone know if the cash back will be a statement credit or another lame check i have to take into costco to cash.
Same distribution: cash back rewards coupon in February.
That's one heck of a ignorant statement.... Amex has been outsourcing CS to India for years
Yep, and now that CS outsourcing has pretty much moved out of India to Philippines make his/her statement doubly ignorant. But what can I say, ignorance is bliss (no sarcasm intended).
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from vaulter1
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Or the profit from increased market presence and visibility - it's not like they've been a major player in the card space in recent years.
Also not to forget Costco's AMEX card customers will just "automatically" convert to Citi, giving Citi easy customers and arguably a lot of them.
Are you sure, your credit was not dinged? cuz I tried that and they keep coming back I need to open my credit file as it is frozen, so they are in fact trying to access my credit and it is stellar - no a single late payment with them.
I opened the AMEX Blue Cash in September 2015. Both of my TransUnion and Equifax credit reports show no inquiry from AMEX in the past 2 years. That's my case with the "pre-approved" offer from AMEX. Can't tell you why they want to access your credit file
So do you have the ink, preferred and Sapphire? If you could suggest one, which would it be? We probably spend $5k-$7K a month on our primary card. Nothing special in our spend profile.
I currently have freedom, Sapphire preferred, and Ink Plus (for the signup bonus)... before the year is up I'll downgrade the Ink Plus to an Ink Cash to avoid the $95 AF (and apart from the signup bonus there's little difference in benefits/rewards)
I wouldn't really suggest only having one- you need at LEAST the freedom and one of the 2 premium cards.
And really having all 4 covers just about everything....
Freedom for the 5x category for each quarter (about to be grocery stores)- up to $1500 spend per quarter. Max that and you've got 30,000 UR from just $6000 spend a year.
Ink (plus initially for the 60k UR sign up, then downgrade to the free version) for 5x on Cable, Internet, Phone- 2x on gas.... also 5x on office supply stores (where you can often get gift cards for groceries, amazon, gas, etc...)
CSP for 2x on most other travel items and restaurants
Freedom Unlimited for 1.5x on non-category spend
Yes you'd have to carry 4 cards, but based on your spending---
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from brimorga
:
Have a relatively short commute to work, spend about $200-$300 in groceries a week, have ATT wireless, directv, and comcast for internet ($250/month) and then typically take one blowout vacation to Hawaii a year (which is where the SPG card helps) and a couple of shorter weekend trips.
Ok so let's say you average 72k a year in spend (halfway between the 5-7k/mo you indicated) and you had all 4 cards.
$3000 is cell/tv/internet. That's all 5x, so 15000 UR a year.
$12000 is groceries. $1500 of that is 5x, the rest is 5x IF you can do grocery gift cards at office supply, 1.5x otherwise. Let's go with worst case of otherwise- so 7500 UR from 5x, and 15,750 from 1.5x (best case and you shop at whole foods or someplace else Staples sells cards to, you're looking an additional 36,750 UR)
Now we still have $57,000 to spend for the year and you already have 38,250 UR (or an mind blowing 75,000 on only 15k spend if you can do the office card trick)
Short drive you say, so let's say you only spend $125 a month on gas- thanks to the quarterly 5x on freedom letting you buy gas station gift cards you get 5x on ALL your gas- $1500x5 is another 7500 UR...
Now we've got $55,500 spend left.
Hotels (and other travel) and restaurants are 2x, let's say 10% of the remaining spend is that... $5500 for even numbers... so another 11k UR (and you can often get restaurants at 5x with the gift card trick)
And lets say you can max 3k in the 2 remaining Freedom 5x quarters so another 15k UR, and still 47k spend left.
Let's say that's all noncategory (though you can likely get some of it at 5x with the office gift card trick)- 47k times 1.5 is 70,500.
So let's add it all up using the worst-case assumptions.... brings you to 116,276 UR for the year. Worst case.
Let's take the lowest redemption I've personally done- 2.6 cents a point. That puts the "cash" value of your year at $3023.16 on 72k of spending... a cash back percentage of 4.2% on everything.
And again that's making the lowest-value assumptions on everything.
If you were doing higher-end redemption (often for business or first class level stuff) you could very easily get that in the 15-20% cash back range.
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from toxicfume
:
How *exactly* do you get more than 3% cashback with UR points? In my account, all I see is 1 UR point = $1. Even for travel. So can you explain how you end up with 3%? I have Chase Freedom.
You need one of the premium Chase cards (CSP or Ink Plus) to get the real value from UR- one you have that you can transfer to airline and hotel programs and get 2-5 cents per point pretty easily. (note the same is true for Amex MR points or Citi TU points, but of the 3 UR is generally considered the most valuable... SPG points are even more valuable but outside of signup bonuses there's no good way to acquire them in any large number for most people as the cards giving them have NO bonus categories apart from stays at Starwood hotels)
So something that gives you 2x UR for purchases would be the equivalent of 4-10% cash back... and in the 3x or 5x UR categories it gets even better
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from DDWRT
:
Can you give a few examples of over $0.02 redemption? I have a hard time getting more than $0.15 (transfer to Southwest) for my travel pattern, where I value higher frequency than comfort.
I recently booked Charlotte to Aruba with Avios at about 2.6 cents a point... (economy).... last year I booked Boston to Dublin with Avios at over 5 cents a point (business class).
How *exactly* do you get more than 3% cashback with UR points? In my account, all I see is 1 UR point = $1. Even for travel. So can you explain how you end up with 3%? I have Chase Freedom.
If you do the math in technical terms they have the potential to be worth 2 cents or more a point in certain circumstances, however in relative terms this does not apply to everyone and often times bottom line savings can be made other ways.
Except you get the same ability with the CSP. Which is also $95 and offers other benefits the Ink Plus does not.
So you're best off downgrading the Ink Plus to Ink Cash- since you get the same benefits with both cards (except a $25,000 5x bonus spending cap instead of 50k) and you save the $95.
Instead put the $95 toward CSP so you get to retain BOTH the Ink 5x categories and all the benefits the CSP gives you (including being able to transfer to airlines)
The only exception would be if you had a "real" business that genuinely spent more than $25,000 a year on the 5x bonus categories- then obviously the Ink Plus pays for itself compared to the CSP (though you might still benefit from paying for both).
Well, that is it, I charge my Cable/Internet bill and my cell phone bill on Ink. At close to $300/mo on Phone bill alone, it is about 18k points since phone bill is 5x category.
And I don't even have "Real" business. Many people have couple of hundreds of $$ of cable bill (it appears) and also phone bill as well monthly. Just charge those to Ink Bold/Plus and it pays for the yearly fee EASILY and MORE.
That said, you are correct CSP is outrageous card just in customer service. I NEVER had better service than CSR from CSP. Even Amex wasn't as good. I had multiple times the CSR guided me through the whole charges and verified it from his end that everything went through correctly and that took a LONG time (one time, I was buying $3000 worth of gift card and max was $100 card, every 3-4 card purchases, my account would be locked out, I just called CSP's CSR and she was on the phone through whole transaction so that she could unlock the account everytime it was locked due to fraud alert. It took VERY long time because after every card purchase, the store had to go through few other step to give me $25 in store gift card as well - main reason for me to get $3000 Lowes gift card from the store - got $3k Lowes gift card AND $750 worth of in store gift card).
they tarnished their name by being greedy ...
ohh wait this is exactly why Costco dropped them and it looks like wells Fargo might buy them. Amex will always be known as a business blunder
I don't think so, 3% is pretty high on restaurants, and 4% on gas. The cards with rotating categories will beat these for 1/4 of the year, for example Freedom offers 5% on gas right now until April 1, but I don't think there's a 4% yearly gas card for no fee.
Pretty good card, it looks like
Amex Blue Preferred is 6% on gas year round but it has a fee. It may also have some cashback benefit on grocery stores but I forget. I recently got the Chase Sapphire and Freedom and have been using them nearly exclusively. Thinking of switching to regular Blue so I do t have to pay the fee.
Amex Blue Preferred is 6% on gas year round but it has a fee. It may also have some cashback benefit on grocery stores but I forget. I recently got the Chase Sapphire and Freedom and have been using them nearly exclusively. Thinking of switching to regular Blue so I do t have to pay the fee.
where do you see 6% on gas? Its 6% groceries and 3% gas
4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide, including gas at Costco, for the first $7,000 per year and then 1% thereafter (Costco Amex is 3%) (don't buy Costco gas often cause it's a pain and I've been getting better deals with gas station gift cards at a discount coupled with ebay bucks and discounted ebay gift cards. I can also get 3% CB with the card below, so far all gas stations have accepted it, just not Costco gas. I can live with not getting that extra 1% when I pay for gas with a CC.)
3% cash back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide (Costco Amex is 2%) I have a JCB credit card that gives you 3% back on all purchases, the only problem with JCB is it is on the discover network and is not accepted everywhere, but most large establishments take it
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com (Costco Amex is 1%) Citi double cash card is going to give you 2% back everywhere you shop and will be used anywhere JCB is not accepted. I'm assuming there should not be a problem using this at Coscto since you can get it as a Visa card
edit- another member pointed out this is a MC, not Visa. Any suggestions on a high CB visa card for all purchases? Or is this Costco card the best deal?
1% cash back on all other purchases Why bother when you are getting 2%-3% with the above cards
Are there any other benefits I may be missing? Agree the downside is I have to carry 2 cards, but slickdealers will put if with carrying more cards then that to maximize savings. For me, 2 cards is no big deal.
A straight 4% back on gas seems like less of a hassle than gift cards and ebay bucks. I think Costco gas is really only a pain if you go when everyone is getting off of work.
3% back on all purchases sounds nice, but a quick search says JCB is a japanese card, is that correct? It doesn't seem like that would be an option for most people.
I opened the AMEX Blue Cash in September 2015. Both of my TransUnion and Equifax credit reports show no inquiry from AMEX in the past 2 years. That's my case with the "pre-approved" offer from AMEX. Can't tell you why they want to access your credit file
Now, that makes sense. Back is Sept. 2015, I called CS for some issue and they offered to give me a new Blue Cash without a credit check, I declined at the time thinking that the offer will always be there. I was wrong, after Sept. 2015, they are forcing all the new card holders to go through new application route. The only reason I need Amex is for Amex offers.
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I wouldn't really suggest only having one- you need at LEAST the freedom and one of the 2 premium cards.
And really having all 4 covers just about everything....
Freedom for the 5x category for each quarter (about to be grocery stores)- up to $1500 spend per quarter. Max that and you've got 30,000 UR from just $6000 spend a year.
Ink (plus initially for the 60k UR sign up, then downgrade to the free version) for 5x on Cable, Internet, Phone- 2x on gas.... also 5x on office supply stores (where you can often get gift cards for groceries, amazon, gas, etc...)
CSP for 2x on most other travel items and restaurants
Freedom Unlimited for 1.5x on non-category spend
Yes you'd have to carry 4 cards, but based on your spending---
$3000 is cell/tv/internet. That's all 5x, so 15000 UR a year.
$12000 is groceries. $1500 of that is 5x, the rest is 5x IF you can do grocery gift cards at office supply, 1.5x otherwise. Let's go with worst case of otherwise- so 7500 UR from 5x, and 15,750 from 1.5x (best case and you shop at whole foods or someplace else Staples sells cards to, you're looking an additional 36,750 UR)
Now we still have $57,000 to spend for the year and you already have 38,250 UR (or an mind blowing 75,000 on only 15k spend if you can do the office card trick)
Short drive you say, so let's say you only spend $125 a month on gas- thanks to the quarterly 5x on freedom letting you buy gas station gift cards you get 5x on ALL your gas- $1500x5 is another 7500 UR...
Now we've got $55,500 spend left.
Hotels (and other travel) and restaurants are 2x, let's say 10% of the remaining spend is that... $5500 for even numbers... so another 11k UR (and you can often get restaurants at 5x with the gift card trick)
And lets say you can max 3k in the 2 remaining Freedom 5x quarters so another 15k UR, and still 47k spend left.
Let's say that's all noncategory (though you can likely get some of it at 5x with the office gift card trick)- 47k times 1.5 is 70,500.
So let's add it all up using the worst-case assumptions.... brings you to 116,276 UR for the year. Worst case.
Let's take the lowest redemption I've personally done- 2.6 cents a point. That puts the "cash" value of your year at $3023.16 on 72k of spending... a cash back percentage of 4.2% on everything.
And again that's making the lowest-value assumptions on everything.
If you were doing higher-end redemption (often for business or first class level stuff) you could very easily get that in the 15-20% cash back range.
So something that gives you 2x UR for purchases would be the equivalent of 4-10% cash back... and in the 3x or 5x UR categories it gets even better
I recently booked Charlotte to Aruba with Avios at about 2.6 cents a point... (economy).... last year I booked Boston to Dublin with Avios at over 5 cents a point (business class).
That's 2 examples
Plenty more (not even requiring avios) out there
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So you're best off downgrading the Ink Plus to Ink Cash- since you get the same benefits with both cards (except a $25,000 5x bonus spending cap instead of 50k) and you save the $95.
Instead put the $95 toward CSP so you get to retain BOTH the Ink 5x categories and all the benefits the CSP gives you (including being able to transfer to airlines)
The only exception would be if you had a "real" business that genuinely spent more than $25,000 a year on the 5x bonus categories- then obviously the Ink Plus pays for itself compared to the CSP (though you might still benefit from paying for both).
And I don't even have "Real" business. Many people have couple of hundreds of $$ of cable bill (it appears) and also phone bill as well monthly. Just charge those to Ink Bold/Plus and it pays for the yearly fee EASILY and MORE.
That said, you are correct CSP is outrageous card just in customer service. I NEVER had better service than CSR from CSP. Even Amex wasn't as good. I had multiple times the CSR guided me through the whole charges and verified it from his end that everything went through correctly and that took a LONG time (one time, I was buying $3000 worth of gift card and max was $100 card, every 3-4 card purchases, my account would be locked out, I just called CSP's CSR and she was on the phone through whole transaction so that she could unlock the account everytime it was locked due to fraud alert. It took VERY long time because after every card purchase, the store had to go through few other step to give me $25 in store gift card as well - main reason for me to get $3000 Lowes gift card from the store - got $3k Lowes gift card AND $750 worth of in store gift card).
ohh wait this is exactly why Costco dropped them and it looks like wells Fargo might buy them. Amex will always be known as a business blunder
I hope you have the patience to read but the article explains why Amex is POS
http://www.bloomberg.c
Pretty good card, it looks like
Amex Blue Preferred is 6% on gas year round but it has a fee. It may also have some cashback benefit on grocery stores but I forget. I recently got the Chase Sapphire and Freedom and have been using them nearly exclusively. Thinking of switching to regular Blue so I do t have to pay the fee.
4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide, including gas at Costco, for the first $7,000 per year and then 1% thereafter (Costco Amex is 3%) (don't buy Costco gas often cause it's a pain and I've been getting better deals with gas station gift cards at a discount coupled with ebay bucks and discounted ebay gift cards. I can also get 3% CB with the card below, so far all gas stations have accepted it, just not Costco gas. I can live with not getting that extra 1% when I pay for gas with a CC.)
3% cash back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide (Costco Amex is 2%) I have a JCB credit card that gives you 3% back on all purchases, the only problem with JCB is it is on the discover network and is not accepted everywhere, but most large establishments take it
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com (Costco Amex is 1%) Citi double cash card is going to give you 2% back everywhere you shop and will be used anywhere JCB is not accepted. I'm assuming there should not be a problem using this at Coscto since you can get it as a Visa card
edit- another member pointed out this is a MC, not Visa. Any suggestions on a high CB visa card for all purchases? Or is this Costco card the best deal?
1% cash back on all other purchases Why bother when you are getting 2%-3% with the above cards
Are there any other benefits I may be missing? Agree the downside is I have to carry 2 cards, but slickdealers will put if with carrying more cards then that to maximize savings. For me, 2 cards is no big deal.
3% back on all purchases sounds nice, but a quick search says JCB is a japanese card, is that correct? It doesn't seem like that would be an option for most people.
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BTW, they pull experian, check that out.