Is the Costco Anywhere Visa worth it for members?

MoneyRoom Card Score

9.0/ 10

Usable value10.0

Effort10.0

Earning6.7

For a Costco member, easily: 4% on gas, 3% on restaurants and travel, no card fee and nothing to manage. If you're not a member, the membership is the real annual fee — and the score panel says so.

Requires a paid Costco membership, which this score does not count as a cost.

How the 0–10 Card Score works

Data: MoneyRoom card catalog (details pending verification are flagged) · scores update daily · catalog data as of 2026-09-30 (source: www.citi.com) · How we verify

As a card on its own, it's a strong no-fee card with bonus categories: 4% on gas, 3% on dining and travel booked directly, and about 2.0% back on a typical year of spending. It gets top marks on value and effort.

The catch is the membership. You can't have this card without a Costco membership, and our math scores the card as free — so the panel above carries the same note we gave the Prime Visa. If your household renews Costco every year anyway, you pay for it regardless and this score is your score. For anyone else, it isn't.

Credits vs. fee

No annual fee to cover.

Typical value applies our published discounts for what makes credits easy to miss: deadlines, limits on where you can use them, enrollment (switching a credit on once), and waiting to be paid back.

This card has no recurring statement credits. There's nothing to enroll in, track, or lose — the list is empty by design.

The fine print that matters

Why is typical value less than face value?

Two quirks matter. Rewards arrive once a year as a certificate you spend at Costco — fine if you shop there anyway, annoying if not, though you won't lose them the way you can lose credits that expire. And the top rates have the usual category limits in the fine print; our math already includes those in the 2.0% figure instead of quoting the advertised rates.

Earning

What does everyday spending actually earn?

Rewards come as cash back, worth exactly what it says. On our published mix of everyday spending, that works out to 2.0% back.

Category	Rate	After spending caps	Note
Dining	3%	3.00%
Groceries	1%	1.00%	Base rate
Gas	4%	4.00%
Flights booked direct	3%	3.00%
Hotels booked direct	3%	3.00%
Everything else	1%	1.00%

Not in the score

What does the score leave out?

The Costco membership. The cost that decides everything, and the one our fee math can't see — which is why it's on the score panel, not in a footnote.
Costco's prices. The savings that make Costco worth it are in your cart, not the card; mixing the two up flatters both.
No welcome bonus. This card relies on its rates, not a sign-up bonus — so there's nothing for our year-two rule to leave out.

Your own numbers

See if it pays for itself for you.

The score assumes a typical cardholder. The free Annual Fee Calculator loads this card's real credits and fee and lets you enter what you'd actually use — no account needed.

Run this card in the calculator Track your own cards free

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Questions

Common questions before you apply.

What does the Costco Anywhere Visa score?
9.0 out of 10: value 10.0, effort 10.0, earning 6.7. Top marks everywhere but earning, where the limits on its categories keep it below the advertised rates.
Is it worth joining Costco for this card?
No — that gets it backwards. The membership costs real money every year, and the card only earns enough more than a good free flat-rate card to cover it if you spend a lot on gas and dining. Join Costco for Costco; get the card second.
Does the once-a-year reward certificate affect the score?
It doesn't change the math — 2.0% is 2.0% — but it means your rewards arrive once a year to spend at Costco, not as monthly cash. Fine if you're a regular, a real annoyance otherwise.