The Costco Anywhere card is a no annual fee card. It’s also a decent workhorse card, and a good card to downgrade to if you’re paying an annual fee. There isn’t signup bonus which makes it the ideal card to downgrade to as you do not have to waste a hard inquiry.
The Breakdown
Signup Bonus: N/A
Valuation:N/A
Annual Fee: $0
Perks: None
Return on Signup Spend: N/A
Competing Cards
Amex Blue Cash Everyday
Chase Freedom
Chase Freedom Unlimited
Citi Double Cash
Bank of America Cash Rewards
Capital One SavorOne
Discover It
Uber Visa Card
Reward Categories
Gas worldwide ($7,000 annual cap): 4%
Restaurants worldwide: 3%
Travel purchases worldwide: 3%
Costco and Costco.com: 2%
Everything else: 1%
Maximizing Cash Back
As stated above, since there is no signup bonus with this card, it is best to go for a Citi card that has a signup bonus to take advantage of it, then downgrade to this one to take advantage of the high cash back categories.
Final Comments
Annual fee cards such as the Citi AAdvantage Platinum or the Citi Premier may have no utility after using the sign up bonus which makes the Costco Anywhere the perfect card to downgrade to. The 4% and 3% cash back are relatively high compared to other cash back cards. Also noteworthy is cash back is not limited to only the US, but includes all foreign countries which is rather uncommon.
Glossary
Workhorse card - One of your main cards that you keep in your wallet to use for everyday spending due to the high rewards
Downgrade - Switching your credit card from an annual fee card to something cheaper or free. For example, the Citi Premier card has a $95 annual fee. If it provides no utility for you after you get the signup bonus, you can downgrade to the Costco card and save $95 a year whilst keeping your credit card so that it doesn't impact your credit score.
Hard inquiry - When applying for a credit card or a loan, the creditor inquires your credit. There are 2 kinds of inquiries; soft and hard inquiries. Soft inquiries do not affect your score. Hard inquiries do, and they are only done after submitting an application for credit.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask below and I will get back to you with an answer.