topic Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points... in Credit Cards

Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

RSCo — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 23:01:28 GMT

Just wondering if anyone has used their Amex on large purchases at Costco in order to hit spending requirements for points, then returns an item. For some reason Costco only gives you cash back and won't credit your cc.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Open123 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:23:53 GMT

@RSCo wrote:
Just wondering if anyone has used their Amex on large purchases at Costco in order to hit spending requirements for points, then returns an item. For some reason Costco only gives you cash back and won't credit your cc.

Just saw your thread, and replied on your other one! LOL

The Costco Amex is far and away one of the most popular Amex cards. I never understood why. People think it's no annual fee, but you have to pay the Costco membership. Even a cashback card is better, since at least you can use the cash elsewhere and not just at Costco. 2% dining, tons of cards offer this that are again better than Costco points. Gas? 5% gas cards all over the place.

I really don't get the appeal of this card.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:28:34 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
@RSCo wrote:
Just wondering if anyone has used their Amex on large purchases at Costco in order to hit spending requirements for points, then returns an item. For some reason Costco only gives you cash back and won't credit your cc.
Just saw your thread, and replied on your other one! LOL

The Costco Amex is far and away one of the most popular Amex cards. I never understood why. People think it's no annual fee, but you have to pay the Costco membership. Even a cashback card is better, since at least you can use the cash elsewhere and not just at Costco. 2% dining, tons of cards offer this that are again better than Costco points. Gas? 5% gas cards all over the place.

I really don't get the appeal of this card.

doesn't costco only take AMEX? I wouldn't know since we only have sams club around here...

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

LS2982 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:30:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Open123 wrote:
@RSCo wrote:
Just wondering if anyone has used their Amex on large purchases at Costco in order to hit spending requirements for points, then returns an item. For some reason Costco only gives you cash back and won't credit your cc.
Just saw your thread, and replied on your other one! LOL

The Costco Amex is far and away one of the most popular Amex cards. I never understood why. People think it's no annual fee, but you have to pay the Costco membership. Even a cashback card is better, since at least you can use the cash elsewhere and not just at Costco. 2% dining, tons of cards offer this that are again better than Costco points. Gas? 5% gas cards all over the place.

I really don't get the appeal of this card.
doesn't costco only take AMEX? I wouldn't know since we only have sams club around here...

Yes Costco is AMEX exclusive.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:39:05 GMT

I think there is sometimes confusion over exactly which Amex cards you can use at Costco.

Some people think you can only use the Costco Amex at Costco. Others think that you can only use Amex cards issued by Amex at Costco. The truth is that you can use any card that has an Amex logo on it at Costco, including ones issued by other banks (e.g. BofA, Citi, Chase, etc.)

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

nada9188 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:53:19 GMT

To answer the op's question, yes I am sure people do this often. One could really rake in the points doing this. Some people question the integrity of this action, but I'm sure Costco doesn't pay much of anything to process Amex cards given their partner ship.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Open123 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:55:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I think there is sometimes confusion over exactly which Amex cards you can use at Costco.

Some people think you can only use the Costco Amex at Costco. Others think that you can only use Amex cards issued by Amex at Costco. The truth is that you can use any card that has an Amex logo on it at Costco, including ones issued by other banks (e.g. BofA, Citi, Chase, etc.)

It's just astounding to me that they came up with a "Costco Amex" where it's better to use any other card than this one at Costco and have a successful launch. Not only is it only 1% at Costco, it isn't even really cash, since either I have to use it Costco, or suffer the incovenience of going there to cash it once a year in August.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Open123 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 01:09:48 GMT

@nada9188 wrote:
To answer the op's question, yes I am sure people do this often. One could really rake in the points doing this. Some people question the integrity of this action, but I'm sure Costco doesn't pay much of anything to process Amex cards given their partner ship.

Integrity of using a better rewarding "Amex" network card than the Costco one? Are you serious? (Edit - My apologies, misread what you were referencing on the "integrity" relating to)

Edit - I do agree with you however on the "returning" stuff for the spending requirement. This is...well...questionable.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

RSCo — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 01:24:54 GMT

@nada9188 wrote:
That was not the op's question at all. This thread has nothing to do with the fact that there are better cards to use at Costco than the TE card.

The op is asking say for example, he gets a SPG card that has a 5k spend within xx months for 25k points within x months. He wants to know if he can buy things and return them to make the spend without it being returned to the card.

Yes I am serious. I was answering the op not discussing the TE card.

Correct in theory.. So, here's a real life example of what happened to me, hence the question..

I purchased a laptop there for $1,300.00.. The laptop would not power up when I got it home so I took it back to exchange it for the same exact model. I simply wanted to swap it out for a new working one.. The customer service person said that I had to do a complete return, refund and repurchase.. They would not put the money back on my card and they instead gave me back cash or a store credit, but I opted for the cash.. So, that lead me to think about how much I just spent toward the spending limit for the 30k points. Would it be 1,300.00 or 2,600.00 toward the 5k spending requirement.. I thought surely Amex must be tracking this somehow and would they only count the original 1,300.00..

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

nutsaboutrewards — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 01:34:17 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
@RSCo wrote:
Just wondering if anyone has used their Amex on large purchases at Costco in order to hit spending requirements for points, then returns an item. For some reason Costco only gives you cash back and won't credit your cc.
Just saw your thread, and replied on your other one! LOL

The Costco Amex is far and away one of the most popular Amex cards. I never understood why. People think it's no annual fee, but you have to pay the Costco membership. Even a cashback card is better, since at least you can use the cash elsewhere and not just at Costco. 2% dining, tons of cards offer this that are again better than Costco points. Gas? 5% gas cards all over the place.

I really don't get the appeal of this card.

First, most people who have this card are already paying for a costco membership. Therefore, the marginal cost for the card is $0. No AF.

Second, you get the rebate in the form of a check that can either be used to purchase merchanidse at Costco, or exchanged for cash at costco, or both (buy merchandise and received the difference in cash.)

It used to a great card when restaurants were at 3% for all around card. I ended up closing mine as I generally get better rebates on most categories using other cards, and I use the Fidelity Amex at 2% flat for everywhere else including costco. You can also redeem rewards on the Fidelity card monthly, whereas the costco card is yearly.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Epcot — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:02:36 GMT

That's strange as I have had about two returns and one exchange in my many years as a member at Costco. Both times I was able to get the refund paid back to my CC, while the exchange was a simple: walk in, get the item I wanted to exchange for and take it back to the customer service desk for them to exchange (same item). Nothing more than a new receipt.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

RSCo — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:07:20 GMT

@Epcot wrote:
That's strange as I have had about two returns and one exchange in my many years as a member at Costco. Both times I was able to get the refund paid back to my CC, while the exchange was a simple: walk in, get the item I wanted to exchange for and take it back to the customer service desk for them to exchange (same item). Nothing more than a new receipt.

I was shocked.. I asked her why and the only thing she said was that they couldn't credit it back to my original form of payment.. The seemed to be handing out cash to everyone doing returns.. I was shocked by this..

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

Revelate — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:13:34 GMT

Beyond the questionable ethics, this may indeed be viewed as fraud, and possibly as supicious activity and I think Amex can submit a SAR.

i.e. run screaming from this as an idea in my opinion. There are certain things which are never worth the cost, and meeting a spend requirement at the expense of getting potentially getting close and personal with a Federal agency, is not my idea of a good time and I would suggest as something to be avoided. Expect AA if Amex catches you regardless.

The Costco transactional cost is non-zero as well. I'm not a lawyer, and I could be wrong about the SAR as I have no experience in financial crimes enforcement, but this strikes me as an incredibly bad idea.

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

webhopper — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 05:09:24 GMT

Something like this surely cannot be considered ethical behavior...

Buying goods to return for cashback to meet a spend requirement seems dishonest...

Re: Using Costco To Qualify For Points...

cashnocredit — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 05:37:05 GMT

@webhopper wrote:
Something like this surely cannot be considered ethical behavior...
Buying goods to return for cashback to meet a spend requirement seems dishonest...

Yeah, purchasing something with the intent to return it is dishonest. It's not a harmless thing either. A store cannot sell a returned item as new if it has been opened even if never used. There are databases that collect information about freq of returns. It's playing with fire.