[REVIEW] CIBC Costco Mastercard

Costco and Capital One ended their relationship, but when one door closes, another door opens. Just for reference, here are the highlights of each card for comparison’s sake.

If you currently still have the Capital One card in your wallet, expect to see a new version from CIBC coming soon. But Capital One is no longer accepting new applications. We would need to go through CIBC going forward for a Costco co-branded card.

Highlights

CIBC Costco Mastercard

• No annual fee
• Earn 3% cash back on restaurants and Costco gas purchases (up to $5,000 in spending)
• Earn 2% cash back at all other gas and Costco.ca purchases (up to $8,000 in spending)
• Earn 1% cash back on all other purchases
• Have at least $15,000 in personal annual income
• Exclusive to Costco members

Annual Fee / Costco Exclusivity

There are no annual fees regardless of which card it is. So that is amazing to see. That being said, cardholders must be Costco members first, which in a sense is the annual fee to have the card. So it depends on how you look at it.

Earning Ratios

The CIBC card is an upgrade from the Capital One version. Adding Costco gas purchases to be able to earn 3% cash back as well. That is up from the previous 2%, good timing considering the high cost of gas.

The second upgrade with CIBC is Costco.ca purchases can now earn 2%, instead of the previous 0.5% with Capital One.

Lastly, now all other purchases can earn 1% cash back instead of 0.5%.

Redemption

Cardholders will receive their cash back as a lump sum every January in the form of a Costco gift certificate.

Thoughts

The CIBC card is quite an upgrade to the Capital One card. I am still disappointed that Capital One was not able to hang onto Costco. But I am glad that CIBC managed to team up and also upgrade the card!