rgAAFT

I don't know about insurance benefits, however Chase disputes department is utterly useless

garykung

Personally - my concerns are:

a. Maximum # of cards you can have with Citi.

I have an old Citi Simplicity Cash (true 5% grandfathered) and a Citi Forward (non-student). As I frequently churn Citi's cards (like AA), Citi Costco Visa will be a keeper.

So having a Costco Visa mean no more churning with Citi?

b. APR

I earned my AMEX Costco APR (8.74%) in a hard way. Will I be able to keep it?

Definitely cash back.

Cap 1 tells us that nothing much will be changed.

Well, regardless if this U.S.-Canada dispute is going to continue or not, Visa instead of MC will not stop them. Costco co-brand card only earns 1% anyway. So it virtually has no difference using other non-Costco card. Canadians simply need a Visa card without FTF to invade the Costco at Bellingham, WA.

If they are Executive members, they will still earn 2% bonus still.

$50 statement credit is what you can expect, like now.

Don't worry. It will be similar. Butthe bonus categories may be changed
based on Cap 1 in Canada.

eajusa

There is a total credit limit Citi applies to your file. You then have the opportunity to move credit around once you apply for a card and have already reached that limit. So, there is no set number of cards that I know.

All my Citi cards are 15.24%. Of course that doesn't necessarily apply here.

shopperholic

This will definitely help. Visa has better tiesups

ericdabbs

Good. Screw Amex and their Nazi slashing of OBC cardholders the last few months. I am glad Visa is taking over at Costco so that now I can use any of my Visa CCs.

MASTERNC

Given Visa has quite a wider range of rewards programs (including Capital One's Quicksilver and its 1.5% cash back), Citi will have to make this card competitive enough to be the one members will pull out of their wallets first.

My hope would be that Citi matches Sam's Club and Synchrony Bank's 5/3/1 structure (5% on gas, 3% on travel & dining, 1% elsewhere).

However, when BJ's said they were going to offer "industry leading" rewards on their new Comenity-issued card last fall, it turned out to be a disappointing 2% on gas & dining (for BJ's gas, the discount is a flat 10 cents) and 3% at BJ's (good only if you are a huge spender there).

mia

VISA doesn't have any rewards programs. Citi already competes with banks which issue American Express, MasterCard and VISA cards with a wide range of rewards programs. How does Costco change this?

Citi's advantage will be that their card will function both as a Costco membership card and as a payment card. A substantial number of people will use the Citi card, if it is substantially similar to the American Express card it replaces, simply because they do not want to carry another card, pay another bill, etc.

If you look at the new Costco card issued in Canada, you will see that it is essentially the same as the card it replaced. I would expect the same in the USA.

AAdmiral

I think VISA long term goal is to have Citi rebrand it's cards from MC to VISA. For example Citi Prestige is a VISA in Australia and India so it won't be to far-fetched that Citi USA rebrand the Prestige Card in the USA from MC to VISA. They could even offer either a free membership or discounted membership to card holders as a benefit. I don't care about having a Citi VISA/Costco card in one product. If Citi doesn't change or offer a current product but with a VISA brand, I have no problem using one of my many JPM Chase cards which are all VISA.

mia

Apparently Citi didn't get the memo:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...consumer-cards

ocdb8r

I think MASTERNC had a valid point. Currently at Costco AMEX has a captive audience, no matter which card they use. AMEX always gets a cut. Additionally they also control 99% of any reward program linked to an Amex card (there are a couple of exceptions).

Citi on the other hand will not have a captive audience as they will compete with a variety of other Visa issuers at Costco. Theoretically that should compel them to make sure their offering is competitive.

Practically, I agree, one of the main targets will be people who just don't want to carry another card and will naturally whip out a single card to get in and pay. I will personally be using whatever gives me the best return. I could care less if I have to carry an extra card.

yugi

I disputed one of my foreign transactions on CSP recently, and they refunded it immediately with minimum questions asked.

cbn42

It really depends on how the deal is structured. It's possible that Visa is paying Costco a lot more for the network exclusivity than Citi is for being the issuer. Citi probably sees this as just another of the several co-branding partnerships they have. They put Costco's logo on the card, hawk them in the warehouse, and pay out rewards in the forms of Costco rebate checks, just like they put the AAdvantage logo on their AA cards, hawk them on the plane, and pay out rewards in the form of miles. Citi is invested in both Visa and Mastercard, so network exclusivity does not benefit them.

garykung

Due to costs associated with disputes, many issuers in fact have internal policies to automatically credit disputes if it is under certain amount.

Was the transaction under USD$50 equivalent?

eajusa

This is correct and should end all discussion on said subject.

yugi

It was around $100.