(This feature is a duplicate from the main the Rewards Canada site)
Now
that we are in 2015, American Express is gone from Costco Canada stores
and MasterCard is in. While Capital One® took the
co-branded card away from American Express with essentially the same
offering on their Capital
One® Platinum MasterCard® it does not mean you have to have
that card to shop at Costco. In fact any MasterCard card is accepted at
Costco locations across Canada and with so many MasterCard cards to
choose from here in the Great White North we thought it would be best to
pass along our picks for the five best cards to use at Costco.
1. BMO Rewards World Elite MasterCard
Ranked the #2 Travel Points Credit Card
with an annual fee on Rewards Canada for the past two, its no wonder
this card is our top pick for travellers who shop a lot at Costco. The
card awards two BMO Rewads Points for every dollar spent at Costco and
everywhere else. The card also comes with a great insurance package,
first year free (no annual fee) and access to airport business class
lounges.
2. Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard
If you have knowledge of the travel rewards
credit card industry in Canada you may wonder why we rank this card
number two for use at Costco. The simply fact is that even though the
card is not available for new applications there are thousands of
Canadians who do hold the card and continue to use it. For years BMO has
hinted at bringing it back for Canadians and we believe that will be
sooner than later since they relaunched the cards south of the border in
2014.
Why does the card rank so high. Pretty simple. It offers the
ecquivelant of a 1.7% cashback return on any travel that you book
yourself. Called a Tailored Travel credit you can go to any travel
provider, book the travel and once the charge shows up on your account
you call up Diners Club and redeem your points against the charge. Over
and above that you can also convert Club Rewards points to over 20
airline, hotel and rail loyalty programs plus it comes with access to
over 450 business class lounges Worldwide. We here at Rewards Canada
love this card in our wallet and hopefully those of you who don’t have
it will have a chance to get it sometime soon!
3. BMO World Air Miles MasterCard
This card ranks pretty high more so for its
popularity than its true earning potential. Granted 1 Air Miles Reward
Miles for every $15 spent is a great earn ratio for the Air Miles
program it somewhat weaker than the other cards in this ranking. However
add in the 25% discount on Air Miles reward flights the card offers
and you further enhance the earn ratio the card has.
Finally,
Air Miles is a mainstay in Canada and because of that this card can
makes sense for lots of Costco purchases as you can pool all the Air
Miles you earn from so many partners into one account and achieve travel
or other rewards quicker.
4. mbna Rewards World Elite MasterCard / CUETS Choice Rewards World Elite MasterCard
These two cards are featured together as they have the
same earn rates and very similiar benefits packages. Why are they good
for Costco purchases? Both are essentially 2% cash back cards in the
form of travel rewards. This is the same earn ratio as the BMO Rewards
World Elite MasterCard but they fall a bit short in certain aspects
when compared to the number one card. They don’t have lounge access and
the CUETS card doesn’t waive the first year annual fee. That doesn’t
make them bad cards however! They wouldn’t be on this list if they were.
For some of you one of these two cards would be the best option of the
bunch.
5. WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard
The earn ratio goes down as we get through this list,
the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard earns 1.5% WestJet Dollars for
every dollar spent which means it is a 1.5% cash back card and that is
the return you’ll get on your Costco purchases. Add in the $99 annual
companion fare, the $250 sign bonus, first bag free on WestJet flights
is why this card makes this list. The main drawback of this card is that
you are limited in your travel reward redemption options. You can only
redeem for WestJet flights or vacation packages which means you won’t
use these rewards for flights to Australia yet. Nonetheless this is
still a great MasterCard option and we know lots of you will choose this
card for your Costco purchases to boost up your WestJet Rewards
balance.
What about the Capital
One® Platinum MasterCard® – Exclusively for Costco members
Although it isn’t travel rewards related, the new
Capital One® Platinum MasterCard® – Exclusively for Costco members is a
essentially a cash back card that replaced the True Earnings Card from
Costco and American Express. While it has some great cash back earnings
for non Costco purchases, you will in fact only earn 0.5% to 1% back on
your actual spending at Costco which is less than other cash back or
travel rewards credit cards so that is why this card doesn’t factor in
as one of the best MasterCard cards to use at Costco.
Even if you have a MasterCard card that is not on this list
but it earns rewards you are ahead of the game, it doesn’t mean that
your card is bad. It could very well be the right card for you or
perhaps it is just OK and one of these will work better for you
especially if you spend a lot at Costco stores. You should also take
into account all your other purchasing and loyalty program miles/points
accumulation before applying for a new card or jumping ship from the
card you currently have.
What do you think of this list? Are any of these cards in
your wallet? If not are you apt to choose one of them or will you go
with another MasterCard card?
Care to comment on the
Top 5 MasterCard Cards to use at Costco? Which of these cards do you use yourself? Do you have any other tips for our readers? Share you
views and experiences below or on Facebook and Twitter!
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“The interest rates, fees, rewards details,
benefits and other details of the Capital One product(s) described in
the article may have changed since the time of publication. Please
consult the product information pages on the Capital One website for
accurate product details. In the event of any conflict between the
product details in this article and the Capital One website, the
details on the Capital One website shall prevail.”