Costco vs. Sam’s Club Credit Cards Comparison: Which Is Better?

You probably know that Team Clark is a huge fan of warehouse stores — and it only makes sense that we’d want to earn the most rewards from our credit cards when we shop at them.

Costco and Sam’s Club are the dominant players in the warehouse store world and they each have a co-branded credit card that offers cash back. Let’s take a look at these two products and see how they compare.

Comparing Credit Cards From Costco Wholesale and Sam’s Club

Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi

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The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi offers you a fantastic 4% cash back on gas and EV charging purchases, including those at Costco (for the first $7,000 spent each year, 1% after that).

This is great because many cards that offer bonuses for gas purchases specifically exclude stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, which often have the lowest prices. You also get 3% cash back at restaurants and on eligible travel purchases worldwide.

Somewhat surprisingly, you only get 2% back at Costco stores and at Costco.com, and just 1% cash back elsewhere.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of this card is that you only receive your cash back rewards once a year in February.

There’s no annual fee for this card with your paid Costco membership and no foreign transaction fees.

Sam’s Club® Mastercard®

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Synchrony Bank issues the Sam’s Club Mastercard, and it one-ups the Costco card by offering 5% back on all gas purchases (on up to $6,000 spent each year, 1% after that), including those at Sam’s Club. It won’t work at Costco because it’s a Mastercard and only Visa is accepted there.

It also gives you 3% back on dining and takeout purchases, but only 1% back everywhere else, including purchases at Sam’s Club.

As with the Costco card, you only receive your cash back rewards once a year in February, when they are automatically loaded to your membership account.

There’s no annual fee for this card and no foreign transaction fees.

	Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi	Sam’s Club® Mastercard®
Rewards	4% cash back on gas and EV charging purchases for the first $7,000 spent (1% afterwards) 3% at restaurants and travel 2% at Costco 1% elsewhere	5% cash back on gas 3% on dining and takeout 1% elsewhere
Annual fee	None, with paid Costco membership	None
Advantages	4% cash back at gas stations and EV charging for the first $7,000 spent (1% afterwards) and excellent returns elsewhere	High rates of cash back on gas and dining
Drawbacks	No sign-up bonus Cash back is only offered as an annual credit each February and must be redeemed in-store	Minimal sign-up bonus Mediocre cash back for shopping at Sam’s Club and other non-bonus spending Cash back is only offered each February, when it is loaded to your membership account

Which One Is Better? 

These cards have a lot of similarities. They both offer excellent rewards for gas purchases and dining. These cards both have no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Still, both of these cards have their strengths and weaknesses. The Costco Anywhere Visa offers 2% cash back for Costco purchases, while the Sam’s Club Mastercard surprisingly only offers 1% cash back at Sam’s Club.

Yet the Sam’s Club card offers slightly better cash back on gas — 5% compared to 4% with Costco.

With both cards, if you cancel your card for any reason before February, you’ll never receive the cash back you’ve earned the previous year.

Final Thought

Ultimately, these cards are so similar that your decision will likely depend on which store you prefer. Since neither credit card has a clear advantage, it’s hard to see fans of one switching allegiances just to gain a modest advantage on gas or in-store purchases.

In the extremely competitive fields of both credit cards and warehouse stores, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this race is too close to call.