Costco locations in Canada drop American Express eff Jan 1, 2015
 

Still accepted at Costco locations in USA.
<sigh> What's new ... Amex USA seems barely related to Amex Canada.


Costco Wholesale Corp said it will stop accepting American Express Co cards in Canada from next year as it will not be renewing its credit card relationship, which expires on Dec. 31
"Costco warehouses and gas stations in the United States will continue to accept American Express Cards after Jan. 1, 2015, with the exception of TrueEarnings and American Express Platinum Cash Rebate cards issued in Canada," Costco said in an email to customers


https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/co...6--sector.html

These early announcements are often part of the negotiating process. See, for example:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ting-amex.html

...but it may well be that the number of Canadian households with an American Express card is insufficient to support an exclusive agreement at Costco.

Or Costco may want to accept all credit cards including Visa and Master Cards?

Cap One Mastercard inks deal w/ Costco Canada
 

AMEX created this shiny target with an exclusive agreement at Costco ... they need to defend it or lose it

I assume Costco has them at a very low margin on the transactions, and the real value in the relationship, from the credit card side, is in getting upper income customers to sign up for the credit card

I seriously doubt that, they have had an exclusive agreement with Amex since the early 90`s at least. This is apparently because of an argument about margins and processing fees. When you piss off Costco, no soup for you! :D

You can see this but the fact that they will not even accept Amex after this date, instead of just losing exclusivity. Someone screwed up at Amex, or they do not care for the Costco business in Canada anymore.

Not early at all. Costco has already mailed all Costco AE members letter saying their card will no longer work after Dec 31.

New replacement card for AE holders is the new SimplyCash card. But after Dec 31, AE would not be accepted as payment in store.

Thank you for the additional information.

Do you know when this mailing is expected to arrive? My other half has a Costco AMEX and we have not received a letter as of yet.

You can refer to this one in the mean time:
https://email.online.costco.com/cost...Letter-en.html

I'm really disappointed, that was something that I liked about Costco, the fact that they accept American Express.

It looks like it is a done deal with CapitalOne set to release a CostCo-branded Mastercard and Mastercard entering into an exclusivity agreement with CostCo Canada:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/costc...ards-1.2013249

This is no small loss for American Express in Canada, no matter how they try to spin it.

Things must've been extremely bitter if it resulted in this:

"Costco Canada spokesman Ron Damiani said the retailer's U.S. stores have a different contract with American Express and will generally continue to accept its cards, but not the co-branded Costco Amex cards issued in Canada."

Which is basically saying, "We'll accept every Amex card on the planet, but not those ones because f--k those guys."

I believe this is because those cards will not exist. An earlier post mentioned that they will be converted to SimplyCash.

Costco needs to get into the 20th century (at least) and accept all major credit cards. I'm not ending my affiliation with Amex and I'm certainly not getting a MasterCard. Costco will be the one to lose out on our several thousand dollars of business each year.

I know this is the Amex forum but what are you guys going to use at Costco now?

What's the best Mastercard to use at Costco? or are you guys going to sever your relationship with Costco entirely because of the loss of Amex as a partner.