@kdm31091 wrote:
An extra 1 percent on that spend level is 35 dollars in a year, or roughly 3 bucks a month. Whether that is worth the hassle and Costco card drawbacks is a preference. To me there are many quicker ways to save that amount of money or more, so I wouldn’t rush to app for that extra 1 percent.
I'm curious what drawbacks you see with the Costco Visa. I find it hassle-free.
Between a flat 2% card and the Costco card, I'd unequivocally choose the Costco card for 3%.
YMMV, of course. If you shop at Costco, you'll want to carry a membership card anyway, so it might as well be the Costco Visa. And it's not a big deal to stop by the customer service desk once a year to cash the reward check (heck, I'm at the desk about once a week to return something anyway).
If you don't already have the Costco Visa, and especially if you don't usually shop at Costco, then it's certainly not worth the application just for an extra $35 off restaurant purchases.
But if you already have the Costco Visa (which I assume is the OP's situation), I'd say use it for the 3% over the 2% card.
All that said, the Costco Visa is pretty far down the list of preference for restaurants for me.
First off, any quarter there's a card that can give 5% CB on restaurants, that card takes precedence. This quarter, the first choice will be Chase Freedom via Android Pay, wherever that's available, for 5 URP/$. Otherwise, while we have CSR, we'll use that for restaurants for 3 URP/$. After the year is up on DW's CSR, we've got an old Chase Ink card that still gives 3 URP/$ on restaurants, and we could potentially transfer those URP to a premium card for better earnings (until Chase closes that avenue). Failing that, thru April I have my Alliant CC that gives me 3% CB on everything, which I redeem pretty much every month. Only after exhausting all of those options would I resort to using the Costco card for restaurants.
Chris.
