Costco Anywhere Visa Business Card by Citi review: Earn up to 4% back – Business Insider
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Bottom line: Even for those that aren’t loyal Costco shoppers, the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi
The Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi is one of those rare store credit cards that you can use at locations other than the merchant printed on its face. To boot, this no-annual-fee credit card comes with some of the best return rates in its class. It earns:
A big downside is that there’s no publicly available sign-up bonus — but you may be able to get one anyway (I’ll explain).
This is a small-business credit card, meaning you won’t qualify unless you have a for-profit venture. Things like freelance writing, tutoring, and driving for a rideshare company can count, however. You don’t need a proper LLC to open a business credit card.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi
Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi
Citi® Double Cash Card
Annual fee
$0
$0
$0
Rewards rate
4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide*
3% cash back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com
1% cash back on all other purchases
4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide*
3% cash back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com
1% cash back on all other purchases
1% cash back when you buy, plus 1% cash back when you pay your bill
Welcome bonus
N/A
N/A
N/A
Benefits
No foreign transaction fees
Can be used as your Costco membership card
No foreign transaction fees
Access to Citi Entertainment
Review
Costco Anywhere Visa Card review
Citi Double Cash Card review
Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Spark 1.5% Cash Select for Excellent Credit
Annual fee
$0
$0
None
Rewards rate
4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide*
3% cash back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases worldwide
2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com
1% cash back on all other purchases
1.5% cash back (1.5x points) on all purchases
1.5% cash back on all purchases
Welcome bonus
N/A
$750 bonus cash back after you spend $7,500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
$500 cash bonus after spending $4,500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Benefits
No foreign transaction fees
Can be used as your Costco membership card
Primary car rental insurance (when renting for business purposes)
Extended warranty
Purchase protection
Travel and emergency assistance services
Roadside dispatch
Car rental insurance
Extended warranty
Roadside assistance
Review
Ink Business Unlimited card review
Spark 1.5% Cash Select for Excellent Credit review
The Costco Anywhere Business Card isn’t captive to Costco stores and Costco.com. It’s a Visa card that you can use anywhere — and its incentives are strong for a few everyday purchases.
The card unfortunately does not offer a welcome bonus publicly, but Costco members are occasionally targeted for a bonus when opening a Costco membership. If you begin to apply for the Costco Anywhere Business Card online and see no indication of a bonus, it could be worth heading to a Costco warehouse and inquiring.
You’ll receive 4% cash back on gas purchases with this card on up to $7,000 in spending per year (then 1%). That earning rate tops the list in our guide to the best credit cards for gas purchases. If your primary motivation is cash back, this no-annual-fee card is difficult to beat.
If you purchase gas at any superstore, supermarket, convenience store, or warehouse club other than Costco — or if you purchase fuel used for non-automobile purchases — you’ll only earn 1% back (instead of 4%).
The card also accrues 3% cash back at restaurants and on eligible travel purchases. Again, these are some of the best returns among no-annual-fee credit cards — though you can receive significantly more value from your spending if you’re willing to open a proper travel credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card; it earns 3 points per dollar at restaurants, which translates to an effective 5.4% back in travel (per Insider’s estimations).
Eligible 3% travel purchases for the Costco Anywhere Business Card are limited to the following:
The Costco Anywhere Business Card earns 2% cash back for Costco purchases. This combines with the earning rate you receive from a Costco Executive membership ($120 each year) which also earns 2% cash back on Costco purchases. In other words, Costco Executive members can earn 4% back with Costco if they have this card — or 5% back if they’re making a purchase through Costco Travel.
A Costco Executive membership does not earn 2% at Costco gas stations or on an assortment of other products such as alcohol, tobacco, prescriptions, and Costco food courts.
Read more: How to book discounted travel with your Costco membership
The Costco Anywhere Business Card earns 1% on any other purchase that doesn’t fall into the above categories, with no cap.
Here’s are a couple of slight “gotchas” with this card:
Neither of these qualities is normal for a cash-back credit card, and they’re quite inconvenient
In short, your rewards become available to you each year after your February billing statement closes. You’ll receive a “reward certificate” valid for the amount of cash back you earned during the previous year. You can redeem this for either cash back or merchandise at a Costco warehouse.
If you redeem for merchandise amounting to less than the cash back you’ve earned, you’ll receive the difference in cash at checkout. We recommend requesting cash back and then using your Costco card to purchase the merchandise you want, then and using the cash back to pay off your bill. You’ll earn more rewards this way.
Also, if you’ve earned more than $10,000 in cash back, you may receive your reward in the form of a check or electronic transfer.
If you’re looking for a benefits-rich credit card, this isn’t it. However, its earning rates are complemented by a few useful benefits, such as:
If you’re looking to make an expensive Costco purchase, such as a new TV or computer, you want to use a card that offers these purchase protections. The fact that the card will also offer a 2% return on these purchases is just icing on the cake.
The card also comes with peripheral benefits, such as:
Authorized user cards are free with this no-annual-fee card — however, anyone who makes a Costco purchase must have a valid Costco membership. Costco membership starts at $60 per year.
The Costco Anywhere Business Card doesn’t add foreign transaction fees, so it’s a safe card to spend on when you’re out of the country.
Again, this card incurs no annual fee or foreign transaction fees. However, you will be charged an APR of 15.24% (Variable) if you carry a balance.
You’ll also be charged for cash advance fees, late payments, and returned payments. Interestingly, this card does not seem to offer the option for balance transfers — so there are no balance transfer fees to speak of.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, please click here.
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Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they’re subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
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