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CostCo USA dropping Amex for Citigroup VISA

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allisolm said:
"We were unable to reach terms that would have made economic sense for our company and shareholders," American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault said in a statement.

Hard to imagine terms that would have made less economic sense than
1. loss of 8 pct ($80 billion) of of the worldwide annual spending on its card
2. hit to earnings for the next 2 years
3. shares down as much as 7 percent
4. loss of bout $6 billion of market value
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add: work asses off just to break even with losing the exclusive rights to the #2 retailer (by revenue).

edit: this is one of those "STEP BACK AND LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE, YOU IDIOT" situations
 
Xonim said:
Don't really care all that much, though I'll miss racking up the Starpoints by using my SPG AmEx there. Hopefully whoever takes over follows the same kind of deal where ANY Visa/Mastercard is accepted and not just the co-branded one.
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Love my Starwood AMEX as well. Gonna suck not being able to rack up my hotel points.
 
Hopefully AmEx gives cardholders a choice of which AmEx card when transitioning from the Costco True Rewards card.
 
Amex and Discover are my longest held cards, save for some super shitty Capital One Visa cards I just keep open to pump up my average account length on my credit report. I used to use my Amex exclusively, but for the past few years I've been using my Chase Freedom due to the 1% constant CB, quarterly 5% CB in certain categories, and since I'm way too lazy to use different cards for different things. My Amex is an old blue with 1% CB on everything. Also, Amex did away with statement credit for my CB, which sucks.

Amex has great customer service, though, and they occasionally have some decent deals on their card member exclusive statement credits. Shit, right now they have a $5 back on $25 or more at Papa John's, which is pretty useful IMO; since they are statement credits, they just stack with everything. I also had them lower my interest from like 19.99% to 13.24% in like a 2 minute phone call without any issues a few years ago after I hadn't even been using the card for a while. I'll probably snag another card with them in the future or convert my existing to something else.

Discover also has awesome customer service. I use my Discover as a balance transfer card, and they regularly seem to run 0% for 18 months with a 3% transfer fee. Pretty handy since all of my other cards are 0% for 12 months with a 5% transfer fee. I am confident that once I get all of my old college CC debt finally paid off, I am going to start using my Discover for purchases since it also has rolling 5% categories.

Most of my experiences with Visa cards has been mediocre, save for the Chase card I use every day. Ranging from membership fees, to shitty rewards programs, to higher rates, more fees, automatically closing accounts due to inactivity, and CS that flat out lies. Granted this is probably due to them farming out their brand to anyone that wants to offer a card and those specific companies, it's still their fault for having a hands-off approach to their brands.

BTW Capital One sucks balls. I am probably closing out my two old ass cards with them in a year or so when my average credit length gets a touch higher. Good thing there is no Costco in my area.
 
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mrjminer said:
BTW Capital One sucks balls. I am probably closing out my two old ass cards with them in a year or so when my average credit length gets a touch higher. Good thing there is no Costco in my area.
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That would be a bad move on your part. Doing this will hurt your credit score. Keep them, and just don't use them.
 
mrjminer said:
BTW Capital One sucks balls. I am probably closing out my two old ass cards with them in a year or so when my average credit length gets a touch higher. Good thing there is no Costco in my area.
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I have a rule about never doing business with companies that so clearly spend the vast majority of their costs on advertising. Tells me they have shit service and a shit product.

Capitol One and Geico are at the top of that list.
 
This is excellent news! Costco is already the only reason I even have an Amex (seeing as how they are not accepted at about 99% of other places where I live). De-coupling it from Amex to ANYTHING else would be a convenient solution to this admittedly first-world problem of carrying an extra card in my wallet.
 
zinfamous said:
oh snap--I may just have to cancel current AmEx and get this thing.

Though I recall that credit "duration"/membership length--whatever people call it, is pretty important. I've had my AmEx for more than 10 years now, so should I be all that concerned about closing it?
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Don't close it. Just leave it at home.
 
Wow, I didn't see this thread back in November, but I can say I like my Amex more than almost all other cards. The only exception, which still might not be on equal playing fields, is my Barclay card. If it were not for the need for a non-Amex card for those very few places I do business with, I wouldn't have any other cards other than Amex.

But I do understand that maybe a business needs to cater to those that don't have the credit to get an Amex in the first place. But if Costco here in the states does away with the Amex on the Executive membership then what benefit is there to the Executive membership?

I'll always have Amex in my wallet (have three different accounts), and losing one is no big deal. It is just the loss of the Executive membership benefit that I thought was tied to Amex.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
Wow, I didn't see this thread back in November, but I can say I like my Amex more than almost all other cards. The only exception, which still might not be on equal playing fields, is my Barclay card. If it were not for the need for a non-Amex card for those very few places I do business with, I wouldn't have any other cards other than Amex.

But I do understand that maybe a business needs to cater to those that don't have the credit to get an Amex in the first place. But if Costco here in the states does away with the Amex on the Executive membership then what benefit is there to the Executive membership?

I'll always have Amex in my wallet (have three different accounts), and losing one is no big deal. It is just the loss of the Executive membership benefit that I thought was tied to Amex.
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Yup. I think I plan on keeping whatever Amex wants to move me to and getting one of these cards.

https://creditcards.chase.com/ink-business-credit-cards/ink-plus-card?CELL=63WS&jp_ltg=card_topnav
 
I'm long time Costco and have their Amex card. I got a Capital One Quicksilver VISA card last year. It has the highest rebate of any of my credit cards, 1.5% for all transactions. Very simple, by far the simplest scheme. All my other credit cards, there's rules, hoops, categories, gotchas, needs to confirm enrollment, yada yada.

One of my cards has 5% off gas right now but I can't use it at Costco pumps. Can only pay with their Amex there. 😡
 
dawheat said:
AFAIK, the Costco AMEX has pretty mediocre rewards. Not sure why anyone would be sad if Costco moves away from AMEX.

It's pretty safe to assume if they move to another network, you can use any card on that network. So MC or Visa would be great for consumers since they have far more cards and if you don't have one, it's trivial to get one. The Capital One angle is for card issuance - who is going to issue the Costco MasterCard or Visa, similar to the Costco AMEX.

I'd be happy to be able to use my standard 2% cash back card at Costco.
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What card do you have that has a standard 2% cash back? 😕
 
I never switched to the new Costco Amex card.. I was better to stay with the old Costo 2% on everything card instead of the 3/2/1% tier or whatever they have now.
 
2/12/2015 update. Kudos to JEDI for bumping this thread with confirmation.

I would also recommend reading this SD thread with 400+ posts that offers alternative cc suggestions.

The big question is which credit card will replace the CostCo Amex, any guesses?
 
If Costco goes with MC then I'll just say fuck'it and use my BarclayCard MC at Costco.

BTW, IIRC the Costco Amex annual membership fee replaced the yearly Executive membership fee. It isn't like you pay both annually. That was one of the attractions.

Also, I will not entertain Capital One in my household again. Years ago following the subprime mess they raised out interest rates. We never maintain balances on our cards, but that didn't stop Capital One from dramatically increasing the rate on us.

When we asked it to be lowered back down since we were not one of their bad customers holding large balances, they refused and we terminated the relationship immediately.

BTW, has anyone considered this as a move in order for Cost to grab a larger market share of those customers that use CC regularly as a preferred method of payment but with credit not good enough to acquire a Costco Amex?
 
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