[UPDATE: Some offers mentioned below have expired and/or are no longer available on our site. You can view the current offers from our partners in our credit card marketplace. DISCLOSURE: Cards from our partners are mentioned below.]
If you’re a Costco fanatic (and who isn’t?) you know the one “catch” to shopping in the wholesale club for the past few years has been the inability to use a non-American Express credit card at checkout. Costco’s long-time exclusive deal with American Express officially ended in March 2016 and, ahead of that change, the wholesaler announced it would begin accepting Visa credit cards in all of its stores. Along with this change came a new co-branded credit card as well, the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi. (Full Disclosure: Citibank, as well as Chase, advertise on Credit.com, but that results in no preferential editorial treatment.)
The Scoop on the Costco Anywhere Visa Card
The new Costco rewards credit card has a few features Costco fans will love.
First, the Costco rewards program is easy to remember and optimize. It follows a 4-3-2-1 cash back model. Cardholders earn:
- 4% cash back on all gas purchases (including Costco gas) on up to $7,000 each year and 1% cash back after that.
- 3% cash back on all restaurant spending and qualified travel purchases.
- 2% cash back on Costco and Costco.com spending.
- 1% cash back on all other purchases.
The Costco Visa card is available exclusively to Costco members and there is $0 annual fee with your paid Costco membership. Basic Gold Star Costco membership costs $60 a year, while an upgrade to executive membership, with additional benefits and discounts, will set you back $120.
One downside to the Costco Anywhere Visa Card vs. other Visa rewards cards you can use at Costco is that the Anywhere Visa rewards are dispersed once a year — with your February billing statement as a rewards certificate — and can only be used at Costco. So, essentially, you accrue rewards with your purchases from January through December, then get a certificate with that total in February. The certificate is redeemable in a single transaction through December 31 of the year it was issued. If you cancel your membership, you forfeit those rewards you have yet to redeem. If you don’t use all of the Costco rewards in one purchase, you’ll be given cash for the remainder at the Costco register.
The card has a standard APR of 16.74% (as of 12/18/2019) for purchases and balance transfers. Those rates are on-par with similar rewards cards in the category. It’s a good idea to read the finer print on this (or any) card, to make sure you know all the finer details.
The Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi is best suited for those with excellent credit scores. You can see where your credit scores stand for free here on Credit.com.
Some Alternatives to the Costco Anywhere Visa Card
Once Costco began accepting Visa credit cards in its stores, other Visa cards upped their warehouse club and Costco rewards opportunities in an effort to snag some of that Costco spending. Here are some of the other rewards credit cards you can use at Costco.
Upgrade Triple Cash Rewards Visa®
- $200 bonus after opening a Rewards Checking Plus account and making 3 debit card transactions*
- 3% unlimited cash back on every purchase in Home, Health, and Auto categories
- No annual fee
- Enjoy Visa Signature benefits, like Roadside Dispatch, Price Protection, Extended Warranty and more
- Up to 10% cash back from your favorite brands with Upgrade Shopping
- No touch payments with contactless technology built in
- See if you qualify in seconds with no impact to your credit score
- Great for large purchases with predictable payments you can budget for
- Mobile app to access your account anytime, anywhere
- *To qualify for the welcome bonus, you must open and fund a new Rewards Checking Plus account through Upgrade and make 3 qualifying debit card transactions from your Rewards Checking Plus account within 60 days of the date the Rewards Checking Plus account is opened. If you have previously opened a checking account through Upgrade or do not open a Rewards Checking Plus account as part of this application process, you are not eligible for this welcome bonus offer. Your Upgrade Card and Rewards Checking Plus account must be open and in good standing to receive a bonus. To qualify, debit card transactions must have settled and exclude ATM transactions. Please refer to the applicable Upgrade Visa® Debit Card Agreement and Disclosures for more information. Welcome bonus offers cannot be combined, substituted, or applied retroactively. The bonus will be applied to your Rewards Checking Plus account as a one-time payout credit within 60 days after meeting the conditions.
At publishing time, the Upgrade Triple Cash Rewards Visa® is offered through Credit.com product pages, and Credit.com is compensated if our users apply and ultimately sign up for these cards. However, these relationships do not result in any preferential editorial treatment. This content is not provided by the card issuer(s). Any opinions expressed are those of Credit.com alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer(s).
Note: It’s important to remember that interest rates, fees and terms for credit cards, loans and other financial products frequently change. As a result, rates, fees and terms for credit cards, loans and other financial products cited in these articles may have changed since the date of publication. Please be sure to verify current rates, fees and terms with credit card issuers, banks or other financial institutions directly.
