Credit card experience/advice

[Jerry1]

I have a Fido credit card but I’m planning on moving out of Fido and need a new credit card. I thought I’d go with the Costco credit card, but the reviews are not very good. Customer support seems to be bad and the reviews seem to indicate that they shut off your card frequently (excessive fraud alerts).

What experience have you had with the Costco card?

What othe card might you recommend? My main goal is cash back rewards. I don’t want to play the initial reward game or have several credit cards. I’d probably get the double cash back card, but that’s still Citi and doesn’t have some of the other benefits the Costco card has.

 

[gerntz]

Whatever it is, pay it/them off fully each month.

Citi MC is 2% on everything.

Amex Preferred Blue is 6% off non-mass/club groceries, 3% on gas at non-grocery/club stations, & 1% on everything else. So if you spend a lot there, it should be worth the
~$100 yearly fee.

Lot a people like Capital One cards for whatever reasons, but I have no experience.

 

[audreyh1]

My experience with the Costco VISA card is excellent. I have not had to deal with customer service. My bank accepts the ebill from Citi and automatically pays it.

1. You can set up an instant text alert on any charge to the card - something I really like.
2. The travel rewards are great - 3% for dining, hotel, travel/transportation. This doesn't seem to include entrance fees to tourist sites.
3. 2% on Costco including Costco online purchases and 4% on gas including Costco gas.

I don't use it for everything. I use the Fidelity VISA for most other charges. Any reason you must close your Fido account? You could move most assets out but still maintain an account for the card. I also use the Fido ATM/debit card when traveling overseas as it charges no foreign exchange fees for ATM use overseas and reimburses ATM fees charged by any bank.

In terms of cash back - you only get it back once a year and have to go to Costco to cash in the reward - this is a little inconvenient. We've got a large award coming next year and I'm going to have to deposit most of into my bank account. Fortunately I have a branch in the same shopping center.

The Cash Reward can be used at checkout against purchases, but I usually take it in cash and charge all purchases.

I have never experienced a fraud alert, even though I use it extensively. I always go to citi.com and put in a travel notice. This has always worked.

They dropped the foreign exchange fee last year, so I used it for all hotels and dining in Europe last year and it worked perfectly. Because of this trip and the 3% reward, I have a very large reward accumulated.

If your spouse also gets a card, the number is different, so even if one card were blocked you should be able to use the other.

 

[flintnational]

We primarily use three credit cards, Amazon Visa, Costco Visa and the Citi Double MC (2% on everything). We have not had any trouble with the Costco card. In fact, it was our primary card while in Europe this summer, no international transaction fees.

We split the card use as follows:

Amazon Visa
Amazon purchases (5% prime members?)

Costco Visa
Costco
Restaurants (3%)
International

Citi Double
Everything else (2%)

 

[Jerry1]

Any reason you must close your Fido account? You could move most assets out but still maintain an account for the card. I also use the Fido ATM/debit card when traveling overseas as it charges no foreign exchange fees for ATM use overseas and reimburses ATM fees charged by any bank.

I’m consolidating my finances and only want one brokerage and one bank (credit union) account. Fido didn’t get the nod in my evaluation for going forward. I could leave some money in there, but I feel I want simplicity more than I need their card - though I have been very happy with their card.

 

[Chuckanut]

No problems whatsoever with my Costco CC. 4% back on gasoline and 3% on travel adds up in my life.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I’m consolidating my finances and only want one brokerage and one bank (credit union) account. Fido didn’t get the nod in my evaluation for going forward. I could leave some money in there, but I feel I want simplicity more than I need their card - though I have been very happy with their card.

I recommend you keep more than one credit card just for safetys sake. It gets monopolized and you have to wait for a new one to ship. You have to canx it bc you get really POed one day. Good to keep an extra locked away IMHO. I had friends get in a bind bc they ahd all their banking and credit at one institution, there was fraud and everything had to be cancelled at once. Grown folks scrambling for money for a few days til new cards came in the mail.

 

[TrvlBug]

Our main cards are the Fido and Costco cards. We also have an airline and hotel card.

We use our Capital One cards (separate cards; pre-marriage for both) for mainly internet orders. Both of our cards were compromised within the last 3 weeks (inside job). We discovered that CO will issue new card immediately, but WILL NOT ALLOW CHARGES ON THE NEW CARD until their investigation is complete. This can take up to 30 days as that's how long they give the merchant to respond. We had, in the meantime, placed a couple of orders on Amazon under the new card, all of them were declined. Will never take this card on travel.

 

[Another Reader]

Fido, Costco, and a Bank of America Cash Rewards card. I get extra cash back from B of A because I have other accounts there.

Right now, I'm not too happy with Elan. My card was compromised and a small charge made on October 31. I noticed it immediately on the morning of November 1st. I called immediately, and it took awhile to get to a person to dispute the charge. At first she did not understand what I was saying and implied I made the charge. No, I did not make a small donation of an odd amount to a European charity. I finally had to say, look someone is setting you up to commit a large fraud on this account. I'm reporting the problem now so you can deactivate the card and send me another one. She then trotted out the fraud speech and said I would get a new card overnighted to me. Haven't seen the new card yet. Chase and others are more proactive than these folks are when fraud is reported and I always got the card on the promised delivery date. So, not exactly happy with Elan right now.

 

[Dtail]

If you have 100k with BOA/ML, then the rewards are quite good with their Premier and Cash Rewards cards.

 

[Another Reader]

If you have 100k with BOA/ML, then the rewards are quite good with their Premier and Cash Rewards cards.

Even $50k offers good rewards.

 

[Bamaman]

In ER, we just use a Capital One that pays back 2% on everything--going to travel. I know what day of the month payments are due, and that's all I care to keep up with.

We never pay a credit card with an automatic chargeback on our checking account. I have to watch my charges religiously in this day of erroneous charges and the internet based charges.

We do have other credit cards, however we don't ever use'em. I like keeping life as simple as possible. And I like one free flight to Europe every year from Capital One.

 

[Walt34]

I have several, one with my former employer's credit union, a Sears card that morphed into a M/C along the way, and more recently a Capital One M/C, 2% back on everything, and a Chase Sapphire Reserve $95/year fee and 1.5% back on everything. The rewards points cover the annual fee and then some, so that's the only reason I have it. It also doubles the warranty on stuff I buy with it like the washing machine and snow thrower.

 

[grasshopper]

Never have had a problem with our Costco Visa use it for gas, restaurants both 3% and travel 4%. Out of the country no foreign transaction fees, accepted every time in Italy, but signature required.

 

[audreyh1]

I’m consolidating my finances and only want one brokerage and one bank (credit union) account. Fido didn’t get the nod in my evaluation for going forward. I could leave some money in there, but I feel I want simplicity more than I need their card - though I have been very happy with their card.

I agree with others that having only one credit card leaves you vulnerable if a card gets compromised. It's always a good idea to have a backup.

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

Southwest 99% of the time! Free flights back and forth to Florida.

 

[cathy63]

We have a Costco Visa and two other Visa cards. The nice thing about the Costco Visa is that if you have two authorized users, they each have their own card number. If one card is compromised the other one keeps working, and you can easily see which person made each charge.

Our cards have each been compromised once and we didn't have any problems dealing with support. They did insist on speaking with DH when it was his card that had an issue though. The new cards were sent overnight both times.

 

[Scuba]

I use the Fido card as our primary card, but the Amazon Prime VISA offers 5% off Amazon purchases and 2% off others. However I agree with others that cutting down to one card is something I wouldn’t do. If you have a fraud situation with only one card, you’re screwed.

 

[SumDay]

Love our Costco card. No problems at all with customer service. I really like how they handle disputes - money goes back in your account instantly.

 

[bada bing]

With credit cards, there is a trade off between simplification and optimization. I
personally am willing to deal with 3 cards to get a bit better total reward. I use:

AMEX Blue Cash Preferred - 6% on first $6K in grocery + 3% on gas
Alaska Air Visa (BoA): Alaska Air miles,1 per $1. An AK mile is worth 2.5 cents to me
Citi double cash.

If I was going to limit myself to 1 card, I'd get a Citi double cash, or a BoA premium
rewards if I was willing to park $100K at Merrill Lynch. I've had card accounts
with both Citi and BoA for years and haven't had any over the top problems with
either. IME you're going to have an occasional inconvenience with any issuer,
nature of the beast and a reason to have more than one card.

I tend to buy gift cards at a grocery store for gas, Ebay and Amazon to make sure I
get all of the $6K annual 6% reward limit on my AMEX blue cash. That is an important
trick to getting full value from an AMEX blue cash preferred. AMEX is the premier card
issuer as far as service in my experience, and that makes an AMEX BCP a natural
choice for a second card.

 

[Amethyst]

We've been using Barclay's Uber Visa to get 4% back on dining and apply the proceeds to Uber trips.

 

[Dtail]

Even $50k offers good rewards.

The tiers for the extra rewards are 20k, 50k, 75k, 100k.

 

[Jerry1]

Thanks for the feedback. I do have another CC that we’ve had for decades. It’s s GM card. We’ll keep it, but the rewards are not very useful now that we won’t be leasing/buying new cars frequently. On issue is that it’s a master card so cannot use at Costco. But, it would work in a pinch. Maybe we’ll trade that one off for something with better, more relevant rewards.

 

[calmloki]

I had multiple issues with Citi and various Citi card/savings accounts. Real leery when Costco went with them as their card provider. That said, I've had zero problems with our Costco card since conversion.
I really like and use as a primary card the Fidelity Visa - have it set up so rewards just plunk into the Fidelity Cash Management account. It just builds up there until I get a wild hair to transfer it somewhere else once/year or so. Their 2% on everything is just S I M P L E. Other than the Fidelity Visa and cash account I have no other Fidelity relationship.
I find American Express problematic: many of the places I charge don't accept it, while Visa is pretty universal.

 

[gwraigty]

Right now, I'm not too happy with Elan. My card was compromised and a small charge made on October 31. I noticed it immediately on the morning of November 1st. I called immediately, and it took awhile to get to a person to dispute the charge. At first she did not understand what I was saying and implied I made the charge. No, I did not make a small donation of an odd amount to a European charity. I finally had to say, look someone is setting you up to commit a large fraud on this account. I'm reporting the problem now so you can deactivate the card and send me another one. She then trotted out the fraud speech and said I would get a new card overnighted to me. Haven't seen the new card yet. Chase and others are more proactive than these folks are when fraud is reported and I always got the card on the promised delivery date. So, not exactly happy with Elan right now.

My Fidelity VISA was compromised in Sept. I got a new card in 2 days, which is better than the week it took when the card was compromised under FIA Card Services. Although I am mystified as to why my Fidelity VISA has been hit with fraud 3 times, once under FIA, twice now under Elan. I also agree with having more than one credit card and financial account.