Costco's American Express card ?

[NewMom04]

Last yr. we opened up our 1st AE / Executive card at Costco and it's due to be renewed soon. So 2 questions:

1. Whether or not you shop at Costco, which AE card is most "rewarding" in your opinion?

2. Since we don't go there to shop often maybe 1x/month for soymilk for my milk allergic DD, and for food and misc. is it worth it to stay at that level? Don't they pay you the difference bw executive and basic if the reward is less than the membership amt. or some other amt? Last yr's membership prices were $100 or $50 [basic].


We just got a reward check for $21.
TIA for any advice!

[jiggaman]

1. We like the Costco Amex b/c it gives 3% back on gas and Costco gas is already cheaper than other gas stations. 2% restaurants and travel also, 1% on everything else. It fits our needs but there may be other Amex cards with rewards better suited to you depending on your purchase habits. I used to have an Amex Blue card which had good rewards. The Costco Amex also has no annual fee.

2. It sounds like you don't shop there enough to make Executive membership worth it. You can downgrade to Basic membership and still keep the Amex. If your annual award is less than the difference between Executive and Basic (so $50) they will give you the difference, basically refund your Executive membership cost but you are back at Basic membership so it's not like they do this every year.

So if you want to keep the Costco membership I think Basic suits you fine.

[waver]

Is the soy milk sweetened? And is it refrigerated?

(sorry to be off topic!)

I do like the AE card, mainly for Gas, even if we don't go to Costco for gas (too far). Also, since it is a business card, our credit limit is very high...though not sure that is altogether a good thing sometimes!

We also visit Costco maybe 1/month or less. Our reward was 86$.

[sewarsh]

I use my Costco Amex for EVERYTHING possible including some recurring utility bills. I shop at Costco and probably spend about $300 a month there. IMO this card is definitely worth it for me since we have a few grand a month charged on it and the cash back is excellent. Each year my husband and I get about $600 total back in "Costco" dollars which can be exchanged for cash from Costco.

[NewMom04]

Thank you all for your advice. I wish I had Costco gas around here but we don't. I should transfer what few bills we have charged on cc to this one to make it more rewarding. Thanks.

Re: the soymilk, they have Silk vanilla in a 3 pack [half gallons] that are slightly cheaper than the supermarkets around here. Maybe about $2.33 / half gallon if my memory serves me correctly. When they're finally on sale they're about $2.50/ half gallon in our supermarkets. But since they hardly go on sale here, I get that from the refrigerated section. Mostly, I get their Kirland brand which is also organic, fortified and vanilla. But their's comes in a case with 8? quarts that can be stored in the pantry then require refrigeration when opened. It's cheaper and more convenient to always have milk around, esp. during snowstorms/ long power outages in the summer like this past yr. Their's used to be less sweeter [which I prefer, actually I prefer plain which they don't have] but now I'll have to compare them again. HTH.

For a treat, if you have one near you, Stop and Shop, has chocolate soymilk with peppermint flavor [quart, shelf stable, Westsoy? quart] on sale around Christmas time. It's in the organic food section. I'll have to look for them tomorrow to see if they have any left on clearance.

[nupe]

Is the soy milk sweetened? And is it refrigerated?

(sorry to be off topic!)

I do like the AE card, mainly for Gas, even if we don't go to Costco for gas (too far). Also, since it is a business card, our credit limit is very high...though not sure that is altogether a good thing sometimes!

We also visit Costco maybe 1/month or less. Our reward was 86$.

My costco has Silk ORGANIC vanilla soy milk in the refrigerated section. It comes in a green package. It's a 3 pack. I haven't checked for other soy milk options there.

[connor_mommy]

My costco has Silk ORGANIC vanilla soy milk in the refrigerated section. It comes in a green package. It's a 3 pack. I haven't checked for other soy milk options there.

They also have the unrefrigerated type, too. Oh, and they recently added Kirkland brand rice milk.

[waver]

Thank you for the soy answers. So many options. It's nice to know what's there!