One feature not mentioned about the Citi Costco Visa card is the 3% foreign exchange fee charged by Citi. One might earn a good 3% travel rebate but the foreign exchange fee wipes out any advantage to using it overseas. Having recently been in Europe, I used Chase Sapphire card as it doesn’t have foreign exchange fees.
There are no foreign transaction fees with the Costco Visa. There are transaction fees on cash advances charged against the card.
You are correct. When I opened the Citi Costco Visa Card after Amex departed, there was a 3% foreign transaction fee. Glad to know that the fee is no longer.
That’s not the only little glitch. Citi bank offers a virtual card facility, which I wanted after BoA dumped theirs. Well you don’t get that with a Costco card.
Instead you need to take out a Citi card that provides it. Fortunately they have a few.
One other thing I noticed recently about this card. Clark complains about it frequently, that you cannot just get a check or cash with the reward certificate (you can’t use it on Costco.com, but you can use it in store, buy the cheapest thing, and cash it out). The thing with cashing it out in store, is that, I’m embarrassed to say, I almost always approach the $1k reward limit, and getting change from one register is not only embarrassing, but usually they will not have enough cash.
So a couple months ago, I got an email that let me know they now have a direct deposit option. They use Plaid to link your bank account, which I am not a fan of them having direct access to my bank account, so I used my PayPal/Venmo/eBay small balance bank account for this reason. One other gotcha, is that you have to have made at least 2 payments to your account with this bank account, before you can add it. I had no problem doing that, I just scheduled two small payments, and then about a week later, was able to add the account and do a direct deposit of my reward certificate.
No need to do that. You can just take the reward certificate the customer service desk and get cash for the entire thing. The customer service desk has plenty of cash. I’ve done that for years. It’s more of a pain than a real check, but you absolutely can get cash with it.
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I tried that the last two years, and they have always had me go to a register for some reason, even had me talk to the manager. Just makes no sense…hold up a line, fluster a cashier, and also let people around you know you’re carrying a large sum of cash. It’s really annoying.
Recently I had a $300+ check and was checking out. The cashier asked if I wanted to use my card for the purchase and then cashed my check fully. I didn’t have to ask.
Also note that if your site has self-checkouts you cannot use your check there as no change or payouts happen at self-checkout. I don’t know if a Costco Cash card works there.
That surprises me. The first few times I cashed it at the service desk, I told them I wasn’t going to spend the whole thing that day and wanted the cash anyway. They seemed to understand. Now I just say I want to cash my rewards, and they quickly hop to it, no questions, no fuss. Like they’ve done the same thing for others five times already that day.
Yes, it did me too. Seems unorganized to me, but I didn’t ask this year because I didn’t want to go though the same experience again.
Direct deposit seems to be working, should have it today/tomorrow, so not too bad. Saves me a trip to the bank, anyway.
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I just found out that Costco Citi Visa is elminatinug its extended waranty coverage. To me that is/was one of the most important featues of the card, Poof: Gone ! Just lke Citi elmiartned the "Price Rewind: feature shorlty after they (Citi) landed the Costco account.
I think the name was “Price Rewind”; it benefited me once: I bought a washter at Best Buy with the Costco Citi Visa; the Visa computer found a better price than what i had paid; it wasd not much, but Costco Citi Visa refunded me $31.00; I think that tthe Citi computer would searxh for 60 daysfor a better prixe; that feature is gone; now an even more valuabvle featurre (extended warranty coverage is gone)…
I would like to see Costco dump Citi bank and go back and negotiate a better deal with American Express. In any event, they need to find a card issuer that will add back extended warranty coverage.
I saved hundreds with Price Rewind during my kitchen renovation, where I had to buy new appliances.
There is still a Costco extended warranty on many major appliances and electronic items bought at Costco. That warranty is not through Visa, but from Costco.
That is true, but you are missing the point.
I think that if you buy a TV at Costco, instead of a standard one year manufacturer’s warrantty, you get the equivalent of a two years manufacturer’s warranty. This is great; but if you paid for that TV with a Costco CIti Visa, then you would get an additonal two year of warranty (extended warranty from the Citi Card). i.e., you would get a four year manfacturer’s warranty for FREE.
CIti offeredx more card benefits back in 2015/2016 than American Expess was willing to offer; …Bingo, AE loses. But now, little by little, CIt bank is eliminatinug features that made them stand out from American Express/ back in 2015/16, Bate and Switch over a six year period.
CIti offered a two year extended warranty, instead of the one year extended warranty offered by AE; Citi offered Price Rewind (then elijminated it after they won the Costco contract), Costco’s executivsa were hood-winked, out negotioated, suckered by CIti. My humble opinion.
I wish that Costco would fire CIti and go back to Amerian Express,
The following was lifted from The Motley Fool. Six years ago The Motley Food touted the Costco move to Citi Visa. I was against it then and i am even more against it now.
What does this mean for cardholders?
The extended warranty protections on the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi will end for new purchases made on or after Jan. 22, 2023.
This means if you purchase any items on your card before this date, the extended warranty will still apply and you will benefit from the coverage you have always enjoyed as a cardmember.
The two-year extended warranty period will still apply in full to all of these previous purchases before the deadline date. So, for example, if you purchased an item with a two-year manufacturer warranty in 2021, you will have your Costco warranty in place for 24 months after that two years expires – so, until 2025. Your claims process will not be affected in any way by the change.
All purchases made starting Jan. 22, 2023, however, will not have this warranty protection in place any longer. This applies to both the standard Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi as well as to the business version of this card.
While the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi may still deserve a place in your wallet due to the other benefits it offers, you must remember you can’t count on warranty protection for any purchases starting early next year – so if this feature is important to you, you may need to shop around for a different card that offers it.
I also had this problem. Recently I heard that people had a lot of complains on different costco products and now I realize why. I found this article about different situations and was shocked as I thought it’s really reliable store.
Complaints for some of the topics are quantified as “several”. So how many complaints vs number of sales? Can’t see how you can infer anything from that article let alone enough to be shocked or to consider Costco an unreliable store.
The B/A shop safe card was the greatest safe way to shop and they killed it. Called b/a rep to ask why, and she said that was by far the #1 customer complaint–dropping shop safe.
The party line from b/a is because “their security is so good” Yes, they actually said that.
I recently cashed mine out at the customer service desk. I’ve done it other years also. Maybe it varies from location to location. Who knows.
Generally speaking the executive membership credit has to be spent. The Citi credit can be cashed in at either the register or customer service depending on the amount. No purchase necessary. The executive credit can be used for a purchase under the amount and you will get change equal to the remaining balance.