CIBC picks up Costco credit card business | Page 3 | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

Getting gas at Costco is a pain. Often a 15 min. to 30 min. wait. So the increase in that category is not to my liking.

The caps on some reward categories is also not great news.

The card is also out classed in terms of its biggest selling feature the rewards for restaurant purchases by the Simplii credit card.

The 1% on all purchases makes it a average to below average card.

The insurances taken away were not replaced by something better.

Redemption has not changed it seems and it was a pain to redeem before as I do not shop at Costco every month. I shop about every 2 months.

I think this is a bad offering by CIBC and Costco for me. I do not see this as being an attractive card for others either.

The 1% return will allow some people to make this card there primary card. As the 0.5% that was offered with the previous version of this card caused the card to fall into a complementary card category only, for reward aware users. The 1% return on purchases is the bare minimum for a primary card in the current credit card market.

And my 2 cents:
Update your pre-authorized credit card info on web sites that have Capital One info stored such as Bill Payments at your Bank, Amazon , Telco's, Cable co's, etc, after receiving the new CIBC card.
It's not going to pretty when your accounts go into arrears and your credit score takes a hit !!

Cheers B

From CIBC FAQ:
Your credit card details are not changing. Your existing Costco Mastercard 16-digit credit card number, expiration date, CVV and PIN will be transferred to CIBC. That way, you can use your card without any interruptions to your transactions, and updates to your merchant pre-authorized payments will not be required.

Bill said
I asked my wife why she uses her Costco credit card for her other Costco purchases aside from her early morning pre-lineup gas purchases. She said her annual membership fee can be paid out of her rewards money balance and she likes that, though then she said she wasn't sure if that's the case, she can't really remember from year to year how that works - ?! She didn't seem to really know much about the card except it gave her money off the gas, and she flashes it to get in and to pay, and so she's in the habit of using it there. (Apparently she also pays a higher level of membership than the basic and explained that based on her spending level they told her somehow she gets more money back that way though she really had no idea how that worked either.) Sounds like the kind of customer both Costco and the credit card companies are quite happy to have, though I do have to give her credit for paying off her balance in full every month!  

There are two separate cashback offers being referred to here.
One is the credit card cashback which can be applied against any credit card purchases. The cashback earned is based on what is being purchased, eg. gas, groceries, and everything else are the usual categories. Cashback could be .5%, 1.0%, 2% or 3% of the purchase. Usually the credit card company sets a minimum credit accumulation amount to be applied to balances owing.

The other cash rebate is applicable to the Costco Executive membership, which costs $120.00, $60.00 more than the regular one. The rebate is 2% of all net purchases except, I believe, gas and prescriptions. You have to purchase at least $3000 worth of products at Costco in a year to break even (2% of $3000 = $60) on the Executive membership. The cashback voucher for this is only good at Costco and is payable to you once annually. Executive members also get bonus discount coupons throughout the year that the regular members do not.

These two rebates are totally independant of each other.

I have had serious allergies to American Express and Capital One. I use PC MC World Elite or BMO MC World Elite at Costco. I get the 2% Exec rebate from Costco and better Cash Back from these MC cards ...

Thank you for the clarification, gicjunkie. My wife seems to think the credit card cashback comes as a "cheque" in the mail once a year, I checked their site and they call it a cashback coupon that is mailed out. I was surprised that they actually mail something out.

I also noticed the new CIBC Costco card cashback will be issued via a "gift certificate", not sure if the change in wording has any implication.

Thanks, Norman1.

My wife tells me the executive membership rebate can be taken as cash at the store, though she never does.

She's not sure if that option's available for the credit card cashback "cheque", again she said she doesn't take that as cash either. I just looked at the Jan/21 statement where the 2020 cashback rewards amount shows as being redeemed but there's no credit amount on the statement indicating that, so the evidence seems to indicate she did take it as cash - ? I'll have to try to jog her memory when she get back from Costco.

cgouimet said

Actually, if the value of your Costco "Rebate Cheque" exceeds the value of your purchase, you get the balance in cash.

Since I never use cash, I wait until I have a purchase that exceeds the value of my "Rebate Cheque" and pay the balance with my CC ...  

If our purchases were less than the value of the voucher, they carried the balance forward to the next purchase. We were not offered cash for the difference.

You have to purchase at least $3000 worth of products at Costco in a year to break even (2% of $3000 = $60) on the Executive membership

Slightly more than that, since the 2% is not on tax, using ON as an example, the Executive membership is actually $67.80 so you'd need to spend $3390 pre-tax to get $67.80 back at 2%. They'll refund your Executive upcharge if you downgrade before renewal (on the basis you're returning it as not worth it), but they deduct the value of the cashback you received (no option to return it uncashed to get full refund).

BTW we use the cashback cheque on the smallest single item in the order, get the refund in cash, then pay for the rest of the order with CC, to get cashback for that.

Best CC for us (at Costco and other non-targetted categories) is the Rogers World Elite MC, $0 AF and 1.5% CB. Combined with a Tangerine card to get 2% on 3 categories.