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Costco Credit Card & Rebate Calculator
By JD Bluefield | April 14, 2008
As I’ve said before, I love multi-taskers. When I comes to my wallet, I’ve said that I use a Costco credit card as a my membership card and main charge card. What I forgot to mention is that this is also a Cash-back rebate card.
The current cash rebate rates are: 0.25% on the first $2,000, 0.5% on the next $3,000, and 1.5% on everything above $5,000. I made a graphic to demonstrate how this rebate accrues.
Hack your Cash Rebate: Last year I got a very nice rebate, which the give you in the form of a check, redeemable only at Costco. The best thing to do with this rebate is not spending it directly, but get the cash, then charge as you would normally. The reason being that the rebate, if spent does not count towards cash back.
So what’s new? Well, if you like this Costco Rebate Credit Card, it gets better. Costco now has a new credit card, the TrueEarnings Business Card from Costco and American Express.
The advertised cash back rates stand at :
- 5% cash back on gasoline (any, including Costco gas)
- 3% cash back at all restaurants
- 2% cash back on travel (airline, lodging, car rental, cruise line, travel agency and tour operators)
- 1% cash back on everything else, including Costco
This is great, as you get a higher cash back rebate rate on your most common purchases (i.e. gasoline and food). Although the 1% cash back on all other purchases is it is less than the 1.5% maximum rebate rate on the previous card, the 1% begins immediately. They state that you can separate business and personal expenses. This is a great feature that my current card does not feature.
They’re also offering a personal card called the TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express. The only difference being a 3% cash back on gasoline, versus 5% for the Business card.
So being the Engineer I am, I had to chart my rebate last year then compare it to what I would have gotten with this TrueEarnings card. Below is the comparison of the three cards, click to enlarge.
So obviously this card would have benefited me last year, and hypothetically should be good in the future. This won’t be the case for everyone, so click on the link below to download the Excel spreadsheet and see if this new card will work for you.
Download Costco Credit Card Calculator
How to use the Costco Credit Card Calculator:
- Click on the CashBack tab.
- Enter your total charges each month. If you’ve used my other calculators, you’ll notice the other blocks containing equations have been locked to prevent accidental deletion.
- Enter your gasoline, eat-out and travel charges for each month, respectively.
- Everything else is automatically calculated. The three bold numbers at the bottom right are the hypothetical rebates you would have received on each new card or the current card.
- Click on the Comparison Chart to see how the rebates accrue, it should automatically recalculate with changes.
- If your spending has changed or expect it to, you can also put in what you expect to spend for the coming year.
Now this card may not be for everyone. To show how this may be true, I entered numbers that show if the higher rebated items don’t make up most of your bills, it may be better to stick with what you got. Enjoy!
Topics: Calculators, Credit Cards |
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