The Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi is often labeled as one of the higher tier business credit cards on the market. While it lacks in some categories, in others, it outperforms the best business credit cards available. Is it worth owning? Let’s find out.
If you’re a business owner that frequently buy in bulk, you’re going to enjoy the Costco Anywhere Visa Business card’s substantial rewards. If you prefer a flexible business card that you can enjoy anywhere, you may want to consider other cards.
We’re breaking down the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi. Let’s get started!
Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card Overview
Credit Card Type: Business Credit Card
Annual Fee: No annual fee with your paid Costco membership ($60)
Sign-Up Bonus/Offer: None
Recommended Credit Score: 670 or higher
Foreign Transaction Fee: None
Balance Transfer Fee: N/A
Rewards
- 4% cash back eligible gas purchases (first $7,000 in purchases, 1% thereafter)
- 3% cash back restaurant and eligible travel purchases
- 2% cash back Costco purchases
- 1% cash back general purchases
Redemption Options: Cash back can be redeemed once a year in February
Interest rate: 16.74% Variable; Depends on creditworthiness
Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card Benefits
No Limit On Cash You Can Earn: One of the best benefits of the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card is the fact that there are no limits on the cash you can earn. You’re free to earn as much cash back as you want.
Love The Rewards: I do love the earnings scheme the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi has. You can earn 4% cash back eligible gas purchases (first $7,000 in purchases, 1% thereafter). If you’re spending a lot of money on gas for your business, this can add up. Now, do keep in mind, this is going to be not only for Costco gas. Hopefully, there’s a lot of them where you travel so you can take advantage of the bonus.
You can earn 3% cash back restaurant and eligible travel purchases, 2% cash back Costco purchases, and 1% cash back general purchases.
Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card Downfalls
Long Wait To Redeem Cash: One of the biggest drawbacks for the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card is the amount of time you have to wait to redeem your cash back. Cash rewards are only redeemed once a year during February. Personally, I like getting my cash back when I want. I’m not sure what it would feel like to have to wait until a specific date, once a year. Sorry, I don’t like it, do you?
Certificates Only Redeemable At Costco: Another huge downfall is that certificates are only redeemable at Costco. Should you only use a portion of the certificate to pay for merchandise, you’ll get the rest in cash at the register upon checkout. But if you want the option to redeem cash back for a statement credit or to make purchases anywhere other than Costco, this may not be the card for you.
No Sign-Up Bonus: While it does have a strong earnings rate, the Costco Anywhere Visa Business card doesn’t have a sign-up bonus, which is disappointing because other business rewards cards have good bonuses. Take the Chase Ink Business Preferred card for example, which gives you 80,000 bonus points on new cardholders who spend $5,000 in the first three months. That’s what I call an awesome bonus.
How Cashback Is Rewarded
I wanted to clarify a few things about earning cashback.
Just like the consumer version of this card, the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi gives cardholders a credit card reward certificate once the cardholder’s February billing statement closes.
Now, you can then redeem this for cash or merchandise at any U.S. Costco Warehouse. Once you receive your reward certificate, you will have until December 31 of the year it’s issued to use it. If you close your account before the February billing statement, any rewards you earned up to that point will be gone forever.
If you do plan on closing that account, be sure you take care of your rewards prior to closing the account.
How Does It Compare To Other Business Cards
The Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card has some great rewards, but you have to spend it at Costco stores. There’s a number of different business cards out there that allow you to spend money anywhere you want. If you want spending freedom, you may want to consider choosing another credit card.
Furthermore, many business credit cards come with a great sign-up bonus or offer.
The Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card is a great cash back credit card for business owners.
The Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card gives 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year at office supply stores and cellular phone, landline, internet and cable services. Users also get 2% back on the first $25k spent each year at gas stations and restaurants. In those two categories in particular, the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi could be the better option. However, the Costco card can’t match the 5% rewards.
The Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business maintains a steady 2% rewards rate on all purchases, among other perks. If you’re looking for a business credit card, I’d recommend exploring the options from these 2 other cards.
Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card In Closing
If you’re going to be spending a lot of money at Costco, you can rack up the rewards. For the business owner that uses Costco all the time, this card makes perfect sense.
However, if you want to shop where you want and cash in when you want, you better off with other rewards cards.
Personally speaking, I wouldn’t choose this card for 3 reasons;
- I don’t shop at Costco much
- I hate waiting forever on my cash back
- I want to spend my cash back anywhere I want
Again, that’s just me but I feel a lot of readers would feel the same.
The Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card has some great rewards and I can see why someone who shops Costco would want it. However, since I don’t and for other reasons listed just above, the card wouldn’t be for me. I’ve given the good and bad for both sides, hopefully, you can now make the best choice for your specific scenario.
