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Costco's change from AMEX to CitiVISA not going well

azstonie

Ideal_Rock
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I read the link.

Citi and Costco sent out clear instructions several times about how to transition the AmEx to the new Costco branded Visa. I had NO problems. If you didn't read the material where it said to keep the AmEx open until June 20 and instead closed it, yep, problem.

AmEx lied to me (and others) prior to the swap, offering a preapproved AmEx Blue Card and a $450 credit. I clicked okay to that offer and AmEx called me,saying my credit was frozen and they wanted to run a credit check. I pointed out they said I was preapproved to roll my Costco AmEx into their Blue card, so how do they get away with a hard credit pull? Crickets is what I heard from their off-shored employee, crickets in the night. I had that card for 10 years, never a late payment and never ran a balance.

I let their card lapse, I don't need them now that they aren't linked to Costco.

It takes almost a year for a hard credit pull to go off your credit. This is but one reason I put a freeze on it. I control my credit, not liars like American Express.
 

asscherisme

Ideal_Rock
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Mar 6, 2006
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2,950
I absolutely hate american express. I had a non costco one I got 10 years ago when I jointed Costco only so I could shop there with a credit card. I don't plan on getting the Costco Visa because I have 3 other visa cards. Today, I happily cancelled my american express card making sure to specify closed at consumer's request. I have a high credit score, long history and plenty of other credit so it won't affect my score. Good riddance american express. I am very happy Costco dumped them.
 

cflutist

Ideal_Rock
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I didn't have any trouble at all.

Activated the new Costco VISA cards in May.

On Monday, setup my online account with Citi, and setup Auto Pay, and Alerts. As promised, they transferred our entire credit line to Citi.
Both hubby and I used our cards at Costco, then I logged onto Citi and saw the pending purchases. They have since posted to our account.

Tested a linked payment accout with a $5 payment (wanted to do $1 but they have a $5 minimum) and got immediate credit to my available credit. Tested alerts by using the card to pay for my skinny mocha at Starbucks today (and will get 3% cashback) and I got an immediate email informing me that my card was used for $4.25 (they will also text but I have texting blocked on my phone).

I actually like the VISA better than AMEX because I found that many merchants did not accept AMEX due to the higher fees.
The 3% cash back for travel and restaurants works well for us because we cruise several times a year. Plus the 4% on gasoline and 2% at Costco is nice too.

However, our BofA VISAs give us a better deal for some categories. With the bonus because of our balances at BofA/Merrill Lynch, we get 5.25% back on gas, 3.5% back at Costco, Sams Club, supermarkets, and 1.75% on everything else. So we can now use our 4 different VISA cards for different purposes. We also have 2 MC and a Discover too that we use only once a year to keep them active.

With my background managing multi-million dollar software development projects I was also proactive. I knew that the conversion would occur on 6/19 so I made an extra payment ahead of time which zeroed out my account on 6/12 so that my last AMEX 6/15 statement balance was zero. It made for a cleaner transition.

Still need to test VISA at the Costco gas pumps though.
 

cflutist

Ideal_Rock
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The other thing I read is that there were 11 million Costco AMEX cards in the portfoilio.

I received multiple mailings from Costco, AMEX, and Citi about what was happening.
Our local Costco also had a booth with information on the Conversion.

If I had not received our cards by the end of May, I would have been on the phone to Citi trying to find out were the cards were. (E.g. lost in the mail, or sent an old address).

I saw what was posted on Facebook and the volume was not that high, maybe about several hundred complaining out of 11 million.

Oh, and we must have got 6 different mailings from AMEX saying that we were pre-approved for a Business AMEX. I didn't bite.
 

rainwood

Brilliant_Rock
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The transition was smooth for me as well. Got the card in plenty of time, activated it but haven't used it yet. I got lots of AmEx offers as well, both in the mail and by e-mail, but didn't bite either. I had an AmEx for business a long time ago, closed it then went back to AmEx when Costco started its relationship with them. I didn't have a reason to stay with AmEx once Costco decided to go with Visa.
 

cflutist

Ideal_Rock
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rainwood|1466749931|4047439 said:
The transition was smooth for me as well. Got the card in plenty of time, activated it but haven't used it yet. I got lots of AmEx offers as well, both in the mail and by e-mail, but didn't bite either. I had an AmEx for business a long time ago, closed it then went back to AmEx when Costco started its relationship with them. I didn't have a reason to stay with AmEx once Costco decided to go with Visa.

AMEX knew that they were losing out big time when they lost the Costco portfolio, I read somewhere that it was 10% of their cardholders.
So of course they were trying to get cardholders in good standing (we had Auto Pay setup to pay off our entire balance each month) to stay with them by offering pre-approved cards.

Just checked and that $5 payment posted to our Citi account, and the payment account went from "unconfirmed" to Active. I didn't want any surprises when Auto Pay is in effect for our 7/14 statement which will be due 8/10. I am going to test another payment from a different checking account tomorrow.
 

missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
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We got our Costco Visa months ago with no problem but have not yet visited Costco.

Today is the day so I shall see if there is a problem for us. I have always enjoyed our Am Ex and they have always been super professional with us and always caught fraudulent charges before anything happened (which was a number of times so not insignificant) so I am torn whether to keep Am Ex (customer for 30 years plus) or not.

I understand the Visa Card for Costco has a number of benefits the Am Ex did not but I don't know what they are right now. My dh has researched it so he is more knowledgable about which card to use for which transaction.

Fingers crossed today goes smoothly there. We don't have extra time to waste today.
 

missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Went to Costco yesterday late afternoon and it was a breeze. Checked out just quickly and just fine. Relief.

Now just have to figure out which card is better to use when. Costco Visa vs our AM Ex. Costco Visa gives you different percentage back depending on item and location i.e. Selected gas stations give you 4% cash back if using the Costco Visa but which are the chosen gas stations (if not attached to Costco that is as many Costco locations have no gas station)...Not so easy to find out.
 

cflutist

Ideal_Rock
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missy|1466857493|4048144 said:
Went to Costco yesterday late afternoon and it was a breeze. Checked out just quickly and just fine. Relief.

Now just have to figure out which card is better to use when. Costco Visa vs our AM Ex. Costco Visa gives you different percentage back depending on item and location i.e. Selected gas stations give you 4% cash back if using the Costco Visa but which are the chosen gas stations (if not attached to Costco that is as many Costco locations have no gas station)...Not so easy to find out.

The fine print says: 4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide, including gas at Costco, for the first $7000 per year in gas purchases, then 1% thereafter.

Certain Non-Qualifying Purchases You will only earn 1% cash back, not 4%, for gas purchased at superstores, supermarkets, convenience stores and warehouse clubs other than Costco, or for fuel used for non-automobile purposes.

Each VISA transaction contains a a MCC or Merchant Category Code based on the code assigned to the merchant. So if their primary business is a warehouse club (e.g. Sam's Club sells gas), or supermarket (Safeway sells gas), then you would get the 1%. But if it were a Union 76, Shell, Valero, Chevron, ARCO etc. gas station, then you should get the 4%. If you pay at the pump, definitely, if you pay inside which is also a convenience store, then maybe not.

Hope this helps.
 
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