Citi Costco card comparison

[xenon3030]

Here is the summary of Citi Costco Visa card:

• 4% on gas (7k/year).
• 3% on dining/travel.
• 2% on purchases at Costco.
• 1% on the other purchases.
• No SUB. Needs Costco membership (fee) and no Costco AF waiver in the first year.

Here are my reviews on each cashback cateogry vs other cards in the market:

• 4% cashback on gas is nice but if you have EV, it cannot get used.
• 4% dining is available via other cards (e.g. US Bank Altitude Go). 3% travel is available via BOA Custumized Cash Rewards. Other travel cards (w/ and w/o AF) can also provide better cashback or MR.
• 2% cashback is limited to Costco purchases while the Citi double cashback can get used everywhere. There are plenty of Visa cards with 2-5% cashback.

Therefore, if you have some cards mentioned above, there might be no need to get this Costco card. Please provide your experiences on shopping at Costco.

[KJinNC]

This is all accurate information, but the main reason to have this card is because you want 4% on gas, and you are, or want to be, a Costco member anyway. If those things are not true, it may not be the card for you. If they are true, then the card is pretty awesome IMO.

[show_hell]

---

@xenon3030 wrote:

Here is the summary of Citi Costco Visa card:

• 4% on gas (7k/year).
• 3% on dining/travel.
• 2% on purchases at Costco.
• 1% on the other purchases.
• No SUB. Needs Costco membership (fee) and no Costco AF waiver in the first year.

---

You can open a card with high SUB (Citi Premier/Citi AA Platinum) and then product change to Citi Costco in
the 2nd year. This change is one-way i.e. Costco cards cannot be converted to another Citi card.

[Crowhelm]

---

@KJinNC wrote:

This is all accurate information, but the main reason to have this card is because you want 4% on gas, and you are, or want to be, a Costco member anyway. If those things are not true, it may not be the card for you. If they are true, then the card is pretty awesome IMO.

---

Agreed. My wife and I are executive members so we are already getting our member fee back or almost back every year. So the membership fee should never be an issue since you are already being a member anyway and in our case pretty much for free or maybe $10 a year What I dislike about this card is that they are giving you the cashback only once a year. That kinda sucks. I plan to just use my new Evergreen card at Costco, 2% back for being an executive member and 2% back on the card. Nice 4% back for unlimited purchases

[uoyankee]

I use the Bank of America cash rewards card.  It's 2% base back at Costco but with preferred rewards you can get 2.5%/3%/3.5% back consistently.  As long as I'm not going above the $2500 quarterly cap it's not a problem.  

[Anonymous]

The Citi Costco card is my primary foreign travel cash back card, with no annual fee, no FTF, 3% on travel and dining, it ticks most of the boxes for me. It is also a Visa, so it is accepted just about everywhere. Citi has yet to flag a purchase for fraud, so it is reliable. The annual redemption is a pain, but I can live with it. It is kind of sad that between Chase and Discover warehouse 5% quarters this year and multiple accounts, I have covered much of my Costco spend with Shop Cards.

[ChargedUp]

Executive member + AOD Sig Visa = 5% cash back at Costco and no FTF so 3% everywhere. 3% back every statement vs. once a year.

PNC Cash Rewards Visa = 4% Gas up to $8K

No AF sans the Costco membership itself.

[xenon3030]

It looks like this combination is the best so far (excliding GC purchase method by quarterly 5% cards):

• Executive member 2% + BOA Customized Cash Rewards 3.5% (assuming Plat honor, 2.5k/quarter cap) --> 5.5%.

[GrainFan]

Also worth mentioning: a 2-year extended warranty tacked on to everything you buy with the card. And it's +2 years for everything, not just matching manufacturer warranty up to two years. Not sure any other card has extended warranty as generous... but feel free to correct me 

[rgd51]

Don't mean to be a buzzkill but I have mixed feelings on costco. They have great hot dogs, ribs, chicken, and great deals on products. Super cheap gas too.

What I don't like is the shopping experience which is very unpleasant. Difficult to find parking. Always long lines to check out, they don't give you bags. Navigating through the parking lot as a driver or pedestrian is a nightmare. I also don't like that you have to pay a membership fee to be allowed to shop there. That bothers me a lot which is why I don't shop there because I feel that you shouldn't have to pay for the privilege of shopping at a place.