If you are a Costco member, the times they are a-changing! It’s goodbye American Express and hello VISA, more specifically, Citibank VISA. That’s the new official credit card for purchases at their stores and website and it comes with a different rewards program. You can see a summary in the screenshot below:

You get the usual 2% cashback for purchases at Costco, except for Gas prices that earn 4% at Costsco but also at other gas stations. Restaurants and travel earn 3%, while everything else that doesn’t fall into the above categories gets the usual 1% default. The gas purchases have an annual cap of $7,000 per year at 4%, and then the usual 1%.

Strategically, you can do better in each of these categories if you participate in the quarterly credit card bonus rewards from Chase, Discover and Citibank. However, those are quarterly and you rarely get enough overlap between them in the various categories to carry you throughout the year. So when you can’t a favorable 5%, Costco’s numbers (on Gas, Restaurants, Travel) are better than a 2% default credit card (eg the Citi Dividend that pays you on the payment end of things).

Remember that Citi Forward has pulled the plug on their generous 5% on Amazon and Restaurants/Entertainment, so the options are more limited now.