Costco shoppers, it’s time to take a look in your wallet. Do you have a Visa credit card in there?
As you may have heard, the wholesale club is breaking up with American Express and starting a new relationship with Visa on June 20. Starting that day, if you want to put a year’s worth of paper towels on your credit card, you’ll need a Visa. You’ll be able to use any Visa card — along with debit cards, cash, checks, EBT and Costco Cash Cards.
Don’t have a Visa?
Many loyal Costco members will opt for the new Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi. But if you’d rather not get the co-branded Costco card, or are trying to decide whether you could do better with a different Visa, there are plenty of cards to choose from. Here are a few the Nerds like best.
Chase Sapphire Preferred®: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is one of the top Visa cards available. It gives you 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar on every other purchase. Points can be transferred on a 1:1 basis to many airline and loyalty programs, or you can use them to book travel through Chase at a value of 1.25 cents per point. It also has one of the best sign-up bonuses around: Earn 50,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Chase Freedom®: The Chase Freedom® is another great option for people seeking a Visa credit card to use at Costco. It offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in spending each quarter in rotating bonus categories. In 2016, warehouse clubs are a bonus category during the second quarter. You won’t have much time to take advantage of it this year, since the Amex-Visa changeover happens only 10 days before the quarter ends. But the next time the Chase Freedom® offers warehouse clubs as one of its bonus categories, you’ll walk away with 5% back on your Costco purchases. In addition, 5% categories commonly include groceries, gas and restaurant spending, which are also bonus categories on the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi.
Capital One® Quicksilver® Cash Rewards Credit Card: The Capital One® Quicksilver® Cash Rewards Credit Card is a great flat-rate rewards card. It pays 1.5% back on every purchase, with no limits. You can redeem your rewards for a statement credit or a check at any time; there’s no minimum redemption amount. And if you’re making a big purchase — big-screen TV at Costco? — and you need more time to pay it off, the card offers an introductory APR: 0% intro on purchases until February 2017 and 0% intro on balance transfers until February 2017, and then the ongoing APR of 13.24% - 23.24% (Variable).
Wells Fargo Secured Visa Card: Like all secured credit cards, the Wells Fargo Secured Visa Card requires cardholders to put down a security deposit as collateral. But it’s a good option for people with bad credit or a short credit history, and because it’s a Visa, you’ll be good to go at Costco. The Wells Fargo Secured Visa Card allows for an unusually high credit limit for a secured card. Cardholders can put down a deposit of up to $10,000 for a credit limit of the same amount.
What the Costco Visa offers
If you’re a frequent Costco shopper, you may want to consider the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi. This card is being automatically issued to holders of the old TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express. New applicants will have to wait until after the switch to apply.
The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi’s rewards are very tempting indeed:
- 4% back on up to $7,000 a year in gas purchases at Costco and other gas stations.
- 3% back at restaurants and on some travel purchases.
- 2% back at Costco and Costco.com.
- 1% back on everything else.
The cash back on this card is redeemable only at Costco.
Whether you plan to carry the new Costco card or you’d rather get a Visa not affiliated with Costco, the change should have a minimal effect on most consumers.
Want more info about the transition? Check out the links below.
Read more
- New Visa is a big step up for Costco cardholders
- Costco cardholders likely to get a new card number from Citi linked to same account
- NerdWallet’s best store credit cards
- Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi: Frequently Asked Questions
Virginia C. McGuire is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: virginia@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @vcmcguire.
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