Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi review: A good value for Costco members

Bulk shopping enthusiasts rejoice; the CardName is a cash-back credit card designed to reward your love of giant jars of pickles and enough paper towels to last a year as well as your everyday needs like a tank of gas. Exclusively for Costco members, Costco Visa® cardholders earn cash rewards at Costco, as you'd expect, but on other purchases as well making it a solid everday card. Citi is a CardRatings advertiser.

COSTCO CITI CARD BENEFITS

Here's how the rewards categories break down with the CardName:

• Gas and EV charging purchases: Earn 4% cash back on eligible gas and EV charging purchases, including gas at Costco, for up to the first $7,000 per year in spending (1% after that).
• Restaurants and travel: Earn 3% cash back on restaurant purchases and eligible travel purchases worldwide, including airfare, hotels, car rentals, travel agencies, cruise lines and Costco Travel.
• Costco: Earn 2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com.
• All other purchases: Earn 1% back on all other purchases.

There is no annual fee with your paid Costco membership, and you'll receive your cash-back reward annually in the form of a reward certificate mailed to your home with your February billing statement. The reward certificate, which will include all your eligible cash back on purchases made from January through December of the previous year, can be redeemed for purchases at Costco or Costco.com through December of the year in which it is issued. You can redeem your certificate in entirety to cover a Costco purchase (think of it almost like a gift card in this case) or you can use it for a small purchase and receive the remaining balance in cash at a Costco checkout. It's an extra step beyond simply requesting cash back, but it is possible to get cash back in your wallet with this card.

FEATURED CARD

 

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

• Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months.
• $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
• Buy Now, Pay Later: Enjoy $0 intro plan fees when you use Plan It® to split up large purchases into monthly installments. Pay $0 intro plan fees on plans created during the first 12 months from the date of account opening. Plans created after that will have a monthly plan fee up to 1.33% of each eligible purchase amount moved into a plan based on the plan duration, the APR that would otherwise apply to the purchase, and other factors.
• Low Intro APR: 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months from the date of account opening. After that, your APR will be a variable APR of 19.24% - 29.99%. Variable APRs will not exceed 29.99%.
• 6% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%).
• 6% Cash Back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions.
• 3% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations.
• 3% Cash Back on transit (including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more).
• 1% Cash Back on other purchases.
• Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit.
• Get up to $120 in statement credits annually when you pay for an auto-renewing subscription to Equinox+ at equinoxplus.com with your Blue Cash Preferred® Card. That's $10 in statement credits each month. Enrollment required.
• Thinking about getting the Disney Bundle which can include Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+? Your decision made easy with $7/month back in the form of a statement credit after you spend $9.99 or more each month on an eligible subscription (subject to auto renewal) with your Blue Cash Preferred® Card. Enrollment required.
• Terms Apply.

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CAN YOU USE COSTCO CREDIT CARD ANYWHERE?

The CardName certainly lives up to its name; you really can earn cash-back rewards anywhere with this card. And those rewards aren't skimpy. Earning 4% cash back on eligible gas and EV charging purchases, up to $7,000 annually, including gas at Costco, is a great deal for families driving all over town for after-school activities or individuals who commute long distances for work. And because it covers international locations, even family members away on business trips or vacations can earn rewards when filling the tank.

This card is actually among the best rewards levels out there when it comes to gas. And with 3% cash back earned at restaurants and hotels and on airfare, car rentals, travel agencies, cruises, and Costco Travel, the CardName has the rest of your family vacation or business travel expenses covered as well.

COSTCO CITI CARD FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE

Speaking of travel, the CardName does not charge foreign transaction fees so it's great for using both near and far.

The average foreign transaction fee for many cash-back cards is 3%, so think of things this way: If your family takes a vacation to the Caribbean and spends $5,000 with this card instead of a card that charges fees, that's $150 saved. Who knew Costco could help you save on both your groceries and your vacations?

COSTCO CITI CARD DRAWBACKS

Perhaps the greatest drawback is the lack of flexibility when it comes to redeeming your rewards. You'll need to wait until February of each year to redeem your cash rewards from the previous year's purchases and the only way to redeem that cash back is through the aforementioned rewards certificate you'll receive in the mail. Card customers looking for a speedier, more efficient way to redeem cash rewards may want to consider other cash-back cards that allow ongoing rewards redemption or redemption directly into a checking or savings account. And, while the card doesn't technically have an annual fee of its own you do need to be a Costco member to apply for the card, which means that you'll pay the warehouse membership fee annually.

COSTCO ANYWHERE VISA® CARDHOLDER SCORES

CardRatings conducts a survey annually to learn what actual cardholders think of their cards. Here are the results:

HOW THE COSTCO ANYWHERE VISA® COMPARES TO OTHER CARDS

Citi Costco Card vs. CardName

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The CardName offers a competitive five points per dollar spent (the equivalent of 5% cash back) on gas purchases at the pump and at electric vehicle charging stations as well as three points per dollar spent on supermarket purchases, at restaurants and on cable, satellite and other pay television/radio/streaming services and one point on all other purchases.

The PenFed card does not charge an annual fee, or foreign transaction fees. As an added bonus, it also offers new cardholders an opportunity to earn 15,000 points after spending $1,500 in purchases within the first three months of account opening.

If the majority of your spending is at Costco and in other categories such as restaurants and travel, you will likely earn more with the Costco credit card. Plus, you will need to be sure you can qualify for the Penfed card with membership.

Citi Costco Card vs. CardName

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The CardName features no annual fee and the opportunity to take advantage of a new offer: Maximize your cash back in the category of your choice: gas/EVC, online shopping (including cable, streaming, internet, and phone services), dining, travel, drug stores, or home improvement/furnishing. You can now earn 3% cash back in your choice category and 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs (up to $2,500 in combined choice category/grocery store/wholesale club quarterly purchases), and unlimited 1% on all other purchases. You can update your choice category for future purchases once each calendar month using the mobile banking app or online banking, or do nothing and it stays the same.

Your rewards are higher on your gas and EV charging purchases with the Costco card (4% on up to $7,000 spent annually) and you can be rewarded with 3% cash back for eating at restaurants or traveling, which may be a the same or a lower reward rate than you'd earn with the Bank of America card, depending on which category you prioritize. Still, the CardName offers flexibility when it comes to when and how to redeem your rewards and you can use the card to earn bonus rewards at other wholesale clubs as well as on your everyday grocery purchases.

This decision likely comes down to your loyalty to Costco and whether you're comfortable redeeming rewards only annually.

IS THE COSTCO ANYWHERE CARD THE BEST CREDIT CARD FOR COSTCO

The best candidates for the CardName are people who are already familiar with wandering the aisles of Costco, munching on samples and looking for 30-pound bags of rice. Additionally, you'll need to be ready to use the card thoughtfully at gas stations, restaurants and on travel as well if you want to fully realize the rewards potential. If you're someone, however, who spends in a wide variety of categories and not necessarily all that often at Costco, you're likely better off with a flat-rate rewards card instead.

Survey Methodology: CardRatings commissioned Op4G in September and October 2022 to conduct surveys among 1,554 cardholders nationwide. CardRatings website analytics from Jan. 1, 2022-Aug. 31, 2022 were used to determine a selection of the most popular cards and additional cards were included to add survey breadth. Responses to each of nine questions were given on a scale of 1-10 and respondents' scores were then averaged under broad topics. To determine the overall score, responses from questions 1-8 were summed and the answer to "How likely are you to recommend this card to a friend, coworker or family member?" was double weighted. "Current Scores" reflect scores from the most recent survey (2022); "Past Scores" reflect scores from the 2021 survey.