Costco Credit Card Review: Rewards, Fees, Benefits & Drawbacks

Terms verified October 28, 2026 on Citi's and Costco's official pages and cross-checked against independent reviews. This is editorial research. We have not used the card ourselves.

The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi is worth having if you are already a Costco member who buys a lot of gas, EV charging, restaurant meals or travel. For nearly everyone else, a flat-rate Visa card is likely to earn as much or more. Most reviews bury the reason: at Costco itself this card earns 2%, exactly what a flat 2% Visa earns. Its advantage comes from gas (5% at Costco, 4% elsewhere) and from restaurants and travel (3%). Everything else earns 1%, and your rewards arrive once a year as a certificate.

This review covers the personal card only. If you want the bigger picture of how store-branded cards differ from ordinary rewards cards, our guide to the best store credit cards explains closed-loop and open-loop cards and compares seven of them. Here we stay on the Costco card and answer one question: does it earn enough, for your spending, to be worth using?

We reviewed the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, a personal credit card issued by Citi on the Visa network. Citi also offers a separate Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi, which has its own application and is not covered here. We do not blend the two products' terms. Citi's product page, read October 28, 2026, shows the personal card open to new applicants.

Two facts about the card shape everything that follows. It is a Visa, which matters because Costco warehouses accept only Visa credit cards at the register. And it is exclusively for Costco members: Citi says you need a current membership in your name to apply.

The card pays cash back in five tiers. Citi states there is no limit on the total cash back you can earn, but one limit applies inside the gas tiers: the 5% Costco gas rate and the 4% rate on other eligible gas and EV charging share a single $7,000 yearly cap, and gas spending above it earns 1%.

Three details trip people up.

Merchant coding decides the tier. Citi lists specific merchants that earn only 1% even though they feel like dining or travel, including certain bakeries, department-store restaurants, grocery or warehouse clubs, timeshares, campgrounds, bed & breakfasts, and train and commuter travel. If your usual coffee spot or commuter pass is coded differently than you expect, you will not get 3%.

Groceries are not a bonus category. Grocery stores and other warehouse clubs earn 1%. If groceries are a big part of your budget outside Costco, see our comparison of credit cards that reward grocery spending for cards built for that.

The gas cap has no published ordering. Citi does not say whether Costco gas or other gas uses the $7,000 first. When combined gas spending is above the cap, our calculator splits it in proportion to your two inputs, and labels that as an assumption.

A list of percentages does not tell you what the card is worth, so here is the arithmetic. For each category: yearly spending × rate = estimated rewards. Add them up, then compare with what a flat 2% Visa card (no annual fee, no membership requirement) would earn on the same spending.

Take Scenario A in the table below: $2,400 of Costco gas (5% = $120), $1,200 of other gas (4% = $48), $4,000 of restaurants and travel (3% = $120), $7,200 of other Costco purchases (2% = $144), and $6,000 of everything else (1% = $60). Rewards total $492. A flat 2% card on the same $20,800 would earn $416. The Costco card is ahead by $76, and the lead comes almost entirely from gas and dining/travel.

Scenarios B and E show the other side. With modest Costco spending and most dollars landing in the 1% tier, the Costco card earns less than a flat 2% Visa. These are illustrative households, not customers, and your numbers will differ. Put your own into the calculator below.

There is no annual fee on the card itself, but "no annual fee" is not the same as "no cost." Table 4 lists what can affect the card's value.

Two points matter most. First, there is no introductory 0% APR and no welcome bonus in the sources we read, so the card does not help you finance a purchase or earn a one-time payout. Second, the variable APR, 18.99%–26.99% according to Costco's page, is high enough that a carried balance can erase a year of rewards quickly. Pay in full, or see how credit card interest compounds and use the credit card payoff calculator to plan a payoff.

A note on conflicting APR figures. We found two ranges: 18.99%–26.99% on Costco's page and in CNBC Select's current review, and 18.74%–26.74% in an August 2026 reading of the issuer's disclosure. Variable APRs follow a benchmark rate, so the difference is likely timing, not an error. The rate that applies to you is shown by Citi at application.

Yes. To apply you must have a current Costco membership in your name, and Citi says it may cancel the account if you do not maintain the membership. A Gold Star or Business membership costs $65 a year and Executive costs $130, plus tax where applicable.

Do not automatically blame the card for the membership fee. If you would keep your membership anyway, the incremental cost of the card is zero. If you would buy a membership only to get the card, the $65 has to be earned back first. In Table 3, the last column shows that: Scenarios A, C and D stay ahead after $65, but they clear the bar by only $11, $29 and $50 a year, and Scenarios B and E are well behind. Most people who join Costco for the warehouse prices should treat the card as a free add-on and not as a reason to join.

The card's edge over a flat 2% Visa, by category: Costco gas +3 points, other gas and EV charging +2 points, restaurants and travel +1 point, other Costco purchases 0 points, everything else −1 point. That means each $1,000 of Costco gas adds $30 a year, and each $1,000 of non-bonus spending costs you $10.

So if you buy a $65 membership only for the card and everything else is equal, you would need roughly $2,167 of Costco gas a year ($65 ÷ 3%) just to cover the membership. The tool below handles your actual mix.

Executive members earn an annual 2% Reward from Costco, up to $1,250 a year, on qualified Costco, Costco.com and Costco Travel purchases. That reward is a membership benefit calculated by Costco, separate from the card's cash back. Reports describe the two stacking when you pay with the Costco Visa, but the Executive reward is based on qualified purchases, so it should not depend on which Visa you use. It is an argument for the Executive tier if you spend heavily at Costco, not an argument for this card over another Visa. Check Costco's terms for exclusions before counting on it.

This is the card's most-cited drawback. You do not get monthly statement credits. Citi issues one reward certificate a year after your February billing statement closes.

In practice, Citi describes no interim payouts: rewards are paid when the February statement closes, so money earned after that statement generally waits for the next February, and you then have until December 31 to spend the certificate. If you shop at Costco regularly, that is easy. If you do not, or if you might leave Costco, the timing can cost you the rewards. The $300 direct-deposit option helps larger spenders, but it only appears for certificates of $300 or more.

Citi does not publish a minimum credit score, so we will not invent one. Third-party reviews, including U.S. News and WalletHub, describe good-to-excellent credit as typical for approval, but that is an editorial estimate and not a requirement, and no score guarantees approval. We did not find a prequalification tool on the Citi and Costco pages we read, so we cannot tell you whether applying involves a soft or hard inquiry. If you are weighing your odds first, our guides to what credit score you need for a credit card and to credit cards with preapproval tools explain how to check where you stand with less risk to your score.

Citi's benefits article (dated November 20, 2025) lists Damage & Theft Purchase Protection (for purchases made with the card, 120 days, or 90 days for New York residents), Worldwide Car Rental Insurance, Worldwide Travel Accident Insurance, travel and emergency assistance, roadside assistance dispatch, Citi Entertainment ticket access, free FICO® Score access, and Citi Flex Pay. NerdWallet reports that the business version's protections were scaled back in recent years, so read the Guide to Benefits you receive with the consumer card to confirm what applies to you.

If your spending is concentrated in restaurants, you may also want to see how dedicated dining cards compare in our guide to the best credit cards for restaurants. If you are considering a second card, our explainer on how many credit cards you should have covers when a second account is worth managing.

Answer eight short questions to see which features of the card matter most for your situation.

Because Costco warehouses accept only Visa credit cards, any alternative for in-store spending must be a Visa. Per CNBC Select, Mastercard and Discover cards work only online at Costco.com, and American Express is not accepted at the warehouses. Table 7 lists realistic options, not a ranking.

For a broader look at simple flat-rate options, see our comparison of credit cards with no annual fee. Many shoppers do best with the Costco card for gas, dining and Costco purchases, and a 2% card for everything else, which is the two-card pairing the break-even tool above is built to test.

If the numbers still make sense, review Citi's current terms directly on the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi page at Citi.com. Check the APR, the fee table and the application disclosures shown at application, because those, not any review, are the terms that bind you.

It is worth it for a specific kind of Costco member and not for everyone. If you already pay for membership, fill up at Costco, buy other gas or charge EV, or spend heavily on restaurants and travel, the card earns more than a flat 2% Visa and costs nothing extra. If your spending is mostly everyday purchases outside those categories, if you would join Costco just for the card, or if you want flexible cash back and not an annual certificate, a no-fee flat-rate Visa is likely to earn as much with less friction. The honest test is to run your own yearly numbers through the calculator and the break-even tool, then compare the result with what you would earn on a 2% Visa.