The Best Credit Card for Costco
I put $1,000 a month through Costco and my Rogers World Elite pays me $360 a year for it. The card with Costco's name on it, the one in every second wallet at the checkout, pays $120. Here is how to get your $240 back.
Nobody at the checkout will tell you this. The cashier takes whatever card you hand over, the bank pays whatever it pays, and the difference is a couple of hundred dollars a year you never see. It starts with one rule at the door.
The whole post in one picture. The numbers are real and the receipts are below.
Costco only takes Mastercard
Inside the warehouse and at the gas pump, Costco Canada accepts one kind of credit card: Mastercard. Visa and Amex are turned away at the till, whatever they pay. Debit, cash and Costco Shop Cards work too. Costco.ca, the website, also takes Visa, which opens a side door I will show you at the end.
Costco is not a grocery store, so your 5% grocery card pays 1% here
The card networks classify Costco as a warehouse club, not a grocery store. Every "5% on groceries" Mastercard uses that classification, so at Costco it pays its everything-else rate: 1% on the BMO CashBack World Elite and MBNA cards, 0.5% on Tangerine. Canadian Tire's Triangle card excludes Costco by name. Neo's help centre says it outright: wholesale stores like Costco and Walmart are not grocery stores under Mastercard's classification.
The gas pump is different. It is coded as a gas station, so a gas bonus does pay there. One card below is built on that.
The Rogers World Elite pays 2% at Costco, more than any other card, with no fee
The best card inside a Costco warehouse is the Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard. It pays a flat 2% on everything if you have any Rogers, Fido, Shaw or Comwave service. No annual fee. On $1,000 a month, that is $240 a year, as cash back you redeem in the app whenever you like.
Today it pays me more than that. Until November 17, cash back redeemed against a Rogers or Fido bill is worth 1.5 times face value, so the 2% is really 3% and my Costco spending pays $360 a year. I wrote about the change in the Rogers World Elite is changing: from November 18 that bonus is gone and the card pays a straight 2%. That is a $120 cut on my Costco spending, and no other Mastercard recovers it. The change touches the redemption side only. The 2% earn rate stays, and a free 2% is still the most any card pays in that building.
rogersbank.com, September 26, 2026. "Up to 3% cash back value" is the bill-redemption bonus, which ends November 18. The 2% earn rate underneath it does not change.
| Card | In the warehouse | At Costco gas | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogers Red World Elite, with a Rogers or Fido service | 2% (3% until Nov 17 via the bill) | 2% | $0 |
| Rogers Red World Elite, no Rogers service | 1.5% | 1.5% | $0 |
| Neo World Elite Everywhere | 2% on the first $4,000 a month | 2% | $149 |
| CIBC Costco Mastercard | 1% | 3% | $0 |
| PC, BMO CashBack, MBNA, Triangle World Elite | 1% | 1% to 3%, depends on the card | $0 to $120 |
| Tangerine World Mastercard | 0.5% | 2% if gas is one of your categories, at some locations | $0 |
Not a Rogers customer? It still wins, at 1.5%
If you have no Rogers, Fido, Shaw or Comwave service, the Rogers card pays 1.5% at Costco, so $180 a year on $1,000 a month. The Costco card pays $120 and Neo keeps $91 after its fee. Rogers still wins, and it is still free.
Is $60 a year worth applying for a card? On Costco spending alone it is $5 a month, and if you already carry the Costco card and only ever use it at Costco, that is the whole prize. It gets bigger the moment you use the Rogers card elsewhere: 1.5% on everything against the 1% most no-fee cards pay, and 3% on anything in US dollars, so a household putting $2,000 a month through it clears about $120 a year more than the Costco card, paid as cash in the app rather than a January certificate. Apply if you would use it as your everyday card. Skip it if it would only come out at Costco.
Do not sign up for a phone plan to unlock the 2%. The cheapest Fido plan costs about $360 a year and the extra half a percent on $12,000 of Costco spending is worth $60.
The Costco credit card pays 1% at Costco. Use it for gas only
The CIBC Costco Mastercard is the card Costco sells you at the membership desk. It is free, and it pays 1% inside the warehouse. On $1,000 a month that is $120 a year, half of what Rogers pays. It does not pay it as cash, either. It arrives once a year, in January, as a certificate you can only spend at Costco.
cibc.com, September 26, 2026. Read the bottom row: "1% cash back on all other purchases including at Costco." The card named after Costco pays its lowest rate at Costco.
Its one good number is the pump: 3% on Costco gas, against 2% from Rogers. It also pays 3% at restaurants and 2% at other gas stations. If you fill up at Costco every week, it earns a spot as a second free card. The setup I use is two cards, both free: Rogers in the warehouse, CIBC at the pump.
Neo pays the same 2% and charges $149 for it
The Neo World Elite Mastercard comes in three plans. The Gas & Grocery plan advertises 5% on groceries, and by Neo's own definition Costco is not a grocery store, so it pays 1% there. The Everywhere plan pays a flat 2% on the first $4,000 a month, the same as Rogers, for a $149 annual fee.
neofinancial.com, September 26, 2026. "Up to 2% on everything." The World Elite version that pays 2% costs $149 a year; the free World version pays 1%.
On $1,000 a month Neo pays $240, then charges $149, so you keep $91. That is less than the Costco card. For a Rogers or Fido customer, Neo never catches Rogers, because the rate is identical and the fee is the whole difference. Neo's own staff said this summer that if you are getting 3% at Costco you are winning, and the best they have seen is the flat 2% cards. Neo only makes sense for someone with no Rogers service who puts more than about $2,500 a month on the card in total, because that is where 2% minus $149 finally beats a free 1.5%. Some sites carry a first-year-free Neo offer through their referral links; the year after, it is that $91.
The Costco card does not include a membership, so which membership should you buy?
Two things people mix up. First, the CIBC Costco Mastercard does not come with a Costco membership. You pay for the membership separately, and the card doubles as your membership card at the door. Second, the membership itself has a reward, and it is bigger than any credit card's.
Costco charges $65 a year for Gold Star and $130 for Executive. Executive pays 2% back on most Costco purchases, up to $1,250 a year, as a certificate every year. That 2% is Costco's, not the bank's, so it stacks on top of whatever your credit card pays.
costco.ca, September 26, 2026. Executive costs $65 more than Gold Star and pays 2% back. The banner above the tiers is the CIBC offer for brand-new members.
Here is the break-even. The upgrade costs $65 more a year, and Costco charges sales tax on it, so in Ontario it is $73.45. At 2% back you need $3,673 a year of Costco spending, about $306 a month, for the reward to cover the upgrade. Below that, stay on Gold Star. Above it, every extra $100 you spend at Costco pays you $2. On $1,000 a month the reward is $240, so you net about $167 a year after the fee and tax. Stack that on the Rogers card and $1,000 a month at Costco pays about $407 a year. If you are on Gold Star and shop there more than twice a month, upgrade before you think about credit cards.
Three things that move the number. Not everything counts: Shop Cards, gift cards, the Business Centre, Instacart and same-day delivery, tires and the membership fee itself are excluded, so the Shop Card trick below earns nothing toward the 2%. Costco Travel does count. The reward arrives once a year as a certificate you can only spend at Costco, which is fine for a weekly shopper and useless for someone about to let the membership lapse. And the cap is $1,250 a year, which you would reach at $62,500 of Costco spending, so it will not get in your way.
One offer worth knowing: brand-new Costco members who buy an Executive membership and apply for the CIBC Costco Mastercard the same day get $65 back on the card after spending $65 in 120 days. That covers the upgrade. New members only, not upgrades.
Visa holders: buy Shop Cards on costco.ca and spend them in the warehouse
Back to the door. Costco.ca takes Visa, and it sells Costco Shop Cards from $25 to $2,000, members only, up to $10,000 a day, delivered by email. Buy them online with a Visa, spend them in the warehouse, and your Costco spending just went on a Visa. This is how I hit the minimum spend on a new card without buying anything I would not have bought anyway.
The best use right now is the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite+ from Churning 101: 15% back on your first $2,000 in the first three months, so $2,000 of Shop Cards is $300 in cash, more than a year of Rogers rewards on the same money. The Aeroplan cards' $3,000 minimum spend works the same way. Two catches: Shop Cards do not earn the Executive 2%, and some welcome offers exclude gift cards in the fine print, so read that line before you buy $2,000 of them.
The pick
- Rogers, Fido, Shaw or Comwave customer: Rogers Red World Elite in the warehouse, CIBC Costco at the pump, both free. Upgrade to Executive if you spend more than about $306 a month. Redeem your Rogers balance against your bill before November 18.
- No Rogers service: the Rogers card still wins the warehouse at 1.5%. Neo only if your total card spending is high enough to cover its $149 fee.
- Chasing a welcome bonus: buy Shop Cards on costco.ca with the Visa you are working on.
Rogers in the warehouse, CIBC at the pump. Both free.
And whichever card it is, pay it in full every month. At 21% interest one carried balance wipes out a year of Costco rewards.
Before you apply: confirm the live terms on the bank's own page. Everything in this post is dated September 26, 2026, the day it was written, and banks change their offers whenever they like. General information, not financial advice, and no affiliate links. Full details in our Terms of Use.