Let me put in a vote for the AMEX Costco True Earnings credit card.

It pays 3% for meals, 3% for gas and 2% for travel (plane, car rental, etc).
You have to be a Costco member to get it ($50/year). Once a year (Feb for me), they send a check for your total rewards with your regular statement. The check is good for cash or merchandise at your Costco store.

In two years of using the card mostly for T&E, I've received approx $300.
Plus the AMEX CS team is always available, very responsvie and polite and
helpful.

Note that you can quit your Costco membership and get a full refund anytime, but if you do so, your accumulated reward disappear, and eventually AMEX will actually close that account. This did happen to me one year, but I got AMEX to reinstate the card and the points by rejoining Costco.

Scott

Yes, I'm familiar w/the Costco AMEX. My ex has that card & I still share Costco membership w/him, but not the AMEX (already have AMEX Plat & now SPG AMEX). I agree that the fact that there is no annual fee (except for Costco membership) is a good thing, aside from the rebates. Sounds like you get a lot out of it, in terms of rebates, since you use it for T & E.

The rebate checks are great -- you can actually take it to Costco, then buy only a few things & get the rest back in cash. I only go to Costco occasionally as I have both a BJ's warehse (get rebates on membership & can use AMEX, MC/Visa, etc.) & Sam's club (use Discover there) memberships.

I've never looked closely at the Amex Costco True Earnings card but it does seem appealing for frequent Costco shoppers that charge a relatively small amount on their credit cards in general.

If you charge more than about $600/month on your card, you are WAY better off going with the Amex Citi Platinum unless you seek absolute simplicity in award redemption. In short, you get 5 TY points for gas, groceries, drug stores and 3 TY points for everything else. With a tiny bit of work, you can redeem for $0.01 per TY point. Only drawback is the $125/year fee after the first year. Hence the $600/month minimum to break even...although you also get 15,000 TY points for signing up which would offset the $125 fee the second year. See for a lengthy discussion of the card: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...-upgraded.html

I actually have two of these cards (one work, one personal). Let me add that on the business version, the gas rebate is 5%.

But there are two reasons I dislike this card:

1 - Being an Amex, it takes a larger bite from retailers. I hate giving Amex the retailers' money.

2 - The main reason I use it is for the 3% at restaurants - that's why I got both. The problem here is what Amex considers to be a restaurant. As far as I can figure out, if the business signed up as anything vaguely not 100% restaurant, you're back down to 1%. So I ate an expensive dinner at a restaurant that also sells prepared foods to go, and I got 1% (on a $400 meal).

I'm switching all of this nonsense over to my Schwab Visa with 2% flat cash back on everything, no fees. It's simpler, overall better, and no catches. And retailers (who may still lose since it's an affinity card) have a better chance of keeping their share.

Just keep in mind, Costco True Earnings card earns you cash, which is now, after Citi Reward program devaluation is a much better value. Then, there is no cap on cash earned. Citi Amex is capped at 150k TYP total per calendar year.

Clearly 1:1 cash vs. TYP is a better value. However, even after the TYP devaluation, I would argue the 5/3 reward structure is still a much better value then the 3/2/1 Costco True Earnings Card. You can still cash out your TYP using Expedia online which allows you get a full $0.01 per TYP redemption. This is after all FT, so I'm guessing most folks have use for flights.

As for your second point about the 150k TYP cap. Very few people are going to hit the 150,000 TYP annual limit and if they do, just open another Citi Plat Amex account and earn another 15,000 signup points!

You will be suprised on how many people meet 150k cap per card. With 3 TYP at least per dollar spend it will take the most $50k to accomplish this.

However, I still believe Costco True earnings business card is a better deal for gas purchases and restaurants. For everything else I might agree with you, but it does depend a lot on your personal preferences and what you are planning to achieve.

I also have the Amex Costco True Earnings. I use it for domestic travel and meals only. Except for gas at Costco, I use the Penfed Visa for the 5% cashback for gas pumps everywhere else and 1.25% for most everything else, including all foreign travel. Penfed pays the earned credit monthly, instead of waiting to February each year for the AMEX Costco check which BTW can be exhanged for 100% cash with no purchase at any Costco. Penfed also has the 1% conversion fee for foreign charges, which I take advantage of almost every month. I earned about $700 back the last two years on Costco, prior to that it was $1000 per year until I got the Penfed. I'm getting about $40 a month from Penfed. This month it was $67. I started buying airline tickets last month on the Costco card (employer travel policy change) so I expect to get back to over $1000 rebate again from Costco Amex.

Penfed and Costco Amex have become my main two cards and have idled my AA Citi MC, United Visa, Marriott Visa, Amex Gold Delta, Amex Hilton, NWA Visa and Barclays MC (USAIR again). I still use the AMEX SimplyCash OPEN Plat card for the 5% back at Marriott properties. I canceled my AMEX SGP, BOA USAirways Visa and will cancel NWA Visa to cut down my CC exposure.

I used to have the predecessor to the Citi TYP card which offered 5% back for gas, but dropped it when they went to TYP. I dropped the Chase Rewards Visa when they also dropped the 5% back for gas.

Trying to keep up with the best reward program is kind of dizzying, but I'm a flavor of the day kind of guy.

-outoftown

It's exhausting just reading about all the cards you've had!
Good for you that you're able to benefit from charging employer travel on the Costco AMEX!

Don't forget about 3% (5% for Small Business) on gasoline and 1% on everything else!

And if you spend a lot at costco, there's also the executive membership for $100 that grants an extra 2% on all costco purchases (for a total of 3%). It's not a bad card if you're already drinking the costco juice.

I have to agree with there.
I've also experienced some retailers not taking the AMEX cc, probably because the fee to the retailer is higher than a VISA or MC.

Scott

I recently did switch to the Schwab 2% Visa cc, and now look forward to getting cash rewards every month, mto spend (or save) as I wish -- no more waiting for an annual reward, no more trying to figure out how to spend (or earn) those airline miles. With the Schwab VISA, I find it quite liberating!

But I do still want to carry an AMEX -- if nothing else, as a back up card. AMEX also has pretty darn good CS; and I may find myself buying gas or other stuff at Costco, which only accepts AMEX.

Scott

I'm doing the same thing. For gas, I've got to use it, even though it squeezes the stations. And, as a backup card, it's free, and I've got a huge credit limit (that hasn't been cut yet . . .).

I don't feel guilty -- I assume they've decided that it's better to take Amex than not. If they've decided to accept it, I'm fine with using it with them.

If it's overall a negative, they shouldn't take the cards. ARCO doesn't take credit cards at all and charges a fee for debit cards.

For the Schwab 2% card, don't you have to have a brokerage account, and what are the conditions? (Minimum balance, fees, etc.?)

You need to open an account with them to redeem the money. It gets deposited in that account. But the rebate can just accrue for up to five years before being deposited.

They normally have a $1000 minimum to open an account, but it's waived with the card.

I really don't get their motivation. I guess they're trying to get new money-wise customers this way. But they're almost making it too easy.