Shopping at Costco? Remember to switch your cards

Costco has finally ended its exclusive deal with American Express and will accept Visa cards at its stores.

Your Costco Visa card should already have been mailed to you.

Costco is switching its credit card provider to Visa. All your remaining cash back rewards from your Costco Amex will transfer to your new Citi Visa Costco card. Even if a limit existed on the old American Express card, it will have to be reset on the new Costco Anywhere Visas. With that in mind, customers need to make sure they aren’t making automatic payments with the AmEx card. Loyal Costco customers will have to shift to Visa cards if they now don’t have one. The warehouse club also accepts cash, checks, debit and ATM cards, Costco Cash Cards and Electronic Benefits Transfer cards for in-store purchases.

In a $12 billion portfolio, Costco’s 11 million customers were 10% of AMEX’s customers and 20% of its loans.

What’s interesting is that Bank of America is now offering 2% rewards for purchases at warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club.

Once you receive your new Visa, follow the instructions on it to activate it, and keep in mind to sign the back. (COST), known as a place for bulk buying in super-sized shopping carts, accepted only credit cards with the American Express label.

What are the benefits for this new Visa card?

Costco first announced it decided not to renew its partnership with AMEX past year. Visa and Citigroup will also give 2% cash back in all Costco purchases, higher than AMEX’s 1% and on all other purchases, Visa and Citigroup will give 1% back whereas AMEX gave nothing back, according to CNBC. With generous cash back opportunities and benefits, the new cards enable cardmembers to earn cash back rewards on all purchases. Those cards have been sent to TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express cardholders.

You’ll get 4% cash back on eligible gasoline purchases, including gas at Costco, for the first $7,000 in purchases a per year. “Since Costco has opened its cash registers to all Visa cards, now all Visa-issuing banks can compete to offer better rewards at wholesale retailers”.

Restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide also get a bump.

The new cards offer slightly better cash-back perks than the co-branded American Express cards. If that includes you, you can do so at Costco.com, or by calling 1-800-324-3098. A telephone service rep said Sunday that Citi has had some issues with people not receiving their cards. There is one, and that’s the lack of a roadside assistance hotline.

Costco.com – all Visa cards, MasterCard, Discover, debit/ATM cards and Costco Cash Cards.