I think this might be a unique problem. Maybe not. Very interested in your ideas

[Turbobuick]

Costco Canada and Amex recently divorced. Canada is going to Capital One MC. Perhaps the honeymoon is over in the US too when it comes time for a new contract. I don't know when that is, but I don't see Costco bending to anyone.

[Dw4250]

Have you thought about the Fidelity AMEX? 2% on everything including ALL Costco purchases. I shop at Costco a lot and IMHO the Fidelity beats the true earnings card by a mile.

FYI it is a BOA/FIA product.

[tavalon]

Hi Turbobuick, I have the Cap 1 MC so that would be awesome. I'm going to have to check with Costco on that. I would hate to get the AMEX and then not have a use for it, I mean, besides burning it.

[Turbobuick]

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@Dw4250 wrote:
Have you thought about the Fidelity AMEX? 2% on everything including ALL Costco purchases. I shop at Costco a lot and IMHO the Fidelity beats the true earnings card by a mile.

FYI it is a BOA/FIA product.

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I thought the Fidelity card required you to own a Fidelity brokerage account? That could be a deal killer for many. I also heard excellent credit was required. I do agree 2% on everything with no cap is a great deal, but can you pocket the rebate or does it have to go back into an investment account? I really am in the dark and asking our of curiosity.

The Amex TE card provides 3% for Costco gas and 2% dining/fast food. If we were to combine the gas rebate and grocery rebate, the average likely would hover around 2% depending on your grocery and gas budget. Costco gasoline is already the least expensive in So California. No other stations even close to them in price will take a CC. Cheaper gas here usually means cash only. We joined Costco/Amex mostly for the gasoline/pharmacy/optics.

Because there are just the two of us now, we do most of our grocery shopping away from Costco and get 5% from Sallie Mae.

[Anonymous]

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@tavalon wrote:

Hi Turbobuick, I have the Cap 1 MC so that would be awesome. I'm going to have to check with Costco on that. I would hate to get the AMEX and then not have a use for it, I mean, besides burning it.

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Doesn't seem likely to happen here in the US.

[tavalon]

Turbobuick, I wouldn't be using the AMEX for Costco gas as I shop for regular groceries at Fred Meyer and their rewards card gives me between 30- 80 cents off per gallon. And having a Prius, I only fill up once a month. I want it for the 1% off groceries at Costco, since the Barclaycard doesn't consider Costco a grocery store (Silly really and besides Costco only takes that damn AMEX).  I just prefer to use cards with rewards rather than a debit card with no rewards, except the joy of banking with a Credit Union, which isn't insubstantial.

Yeah, I'm a liberal hippie who uses credit cards to her benefit. A woman of contradictions, I suppose.     tav

[nightglider]

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@Turbobuick wrote:

I thought the Fidelity card required you to own a Fidelity brokerage account? That could be a deal killer for many. I also heard excellent credit was required. I do agree 2% on everything with no cap is a great deal, but can you pocket the rebate or does it have to go back into an investment account? I really am in the dark and asking our of curiosity.

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The Fidelity card requires you to deposit the rewards into an "eligible Fidelity account" in order to receive the full 2%. eg: Cash Management, Brokerage, 529, Retirement.

[SunriseEarth]

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@tavalon wrote:

Turbobuick, I wouldn't be using the AMEX for Costco gas as I shop for regular groceries at Fred Meyer and their rewards card gives me between 30- 80 cents off per gallon. And having a Prius, I only fill up once a month. I want it for the 1% off groceries at Costco, since the Barclaycard doesn't consider Costco a grocery store (Silly really and besides Costco only takes that damn AMEX).  I just prefer to use cards with rewards rather than a debit card with no rewards, except the joy of banking with a Credit Union, which isn't insubstantial.

Yeah, I'm a liberal hippie who uses credit cards to her benefit. A woman of contradictions, I suppose.     tav

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If you're only using it for in-store purchases, then I think you need to consider any cards that use the AMEX network with issuers other than Centurion Bank.   For the right consumer, the Macy's AMEX might even make the most sense there.  

http://www1.amexnetwork.com/cardresources/

[Anonymous]

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@SunriseEarth wrote:

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@tavalon wrote:

Turbobuick, I wouldn't be using the AMEX for Costco gas as I shop for regular groceries at Fred Meyer and their rewards card gives me between 30- 80 cents off per gallon. And having a Prius, I only fill up once a month. I want it for the 1% off groceries at Costco, since the Barclaycard doesn't consider Costco a grocery store (Silly really and besides Costco only takes that damn AMEX).  I just prefer to use cards with rewards rather than a debit card with no rewards, except the joy of banking with a Credit Union, which isn't insubstantial.

Yeah, I'm a liberal hippie who uses credit cards to her benefit. A woman of contradictions, I suppose.     tav

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If you're only using it for in-store purchases, then I think you need to consider any cards that use the AMEX network with issuers other than Centurion Bank.   For the right consumer, the Macy's AMEX might even make the most sense there.  

http://www1.amexnetwork.com/cardresources/

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Or a Dillards Amex. Quick though, It's about to be absorbed by Wells Fargo from GE/Synch

[takeshi74]

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@tavalon wrote:

The card I want is the true earnings Costco/amex marriage card. I dislike Amex with a passion but this one would be very useful to me. I applied for it twice and was turned down.

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Regardless of creditor if you want the best possible odds then optimize your utilization and ensure that the updated balances have reported before applying.

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@tavalon wrote:

When I was young and stupid, AMEX took me to the cleaners. 

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So you're blaming them for your actions?  I'd suggest reconsidering AmEx as backdating and the 3x CLI can be beneficial to leverage.

In any case, as pointed out above there are plenty of AmEx cards that are not issued by Centurion bank that you can consider if you don't want to do business with AmEx (though AmEx will still make money off of cards using its payment network).  See also:

http://www1.amexnetwork.com/cardresources/

http://www.nerdwallet.com/credit-card/category/american-express

If you want rewards for Costco shopping then the TrueEarnings doesn't have the best rewards anyway since only gas is 3% at Costco and travel at Costco is 2%.  All else is 1%.  I'd suggest doing some more research on the options.

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@tavalon wrote:

Actually, I used "me" when it should have been "my first husband". It was a combination of his happy spending on business trips and his company's slow reimbursement. They showed no interest in working with us and destroyed our credit rating. I was very young and watching from the sidelines but I learned that they were not interested in keeping our patronage and I never forgot that.

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I see now.  You won't have much in the way of creditors to use if you use that as your basis for determining who to do business with.  Many creditors are going to be inflexible.

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@tavalon wrote:

I thought this might be different, seeing as they were courting me. But that's Amex for you.

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It's not an AmEx thing.  All creditors send out such offers and the offers really don't mean anything.  They're just marketing.

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@Turbobuick wrote:

I thought the Fidelity card required you to own a Fidelity brokerage account?

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https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/american-express-cards

Deposit 2% of your purchases into the eligible Fidelity account1 of your choice, including your:

• Fidelity® Cash Management Account
• Brokerage account
• Fidelity-managed 529 account
• Retirement account