As we've known since early last year,Costco is replacing American Express with Citi for their exclusive credit card agreement. This is a enormous loss for American Express, given that Costco represented roughly 10% of their US credit card trade. With Citi taking over the contract, or all Visa cards will eventually be accepted at Costco stores (however,there’s already a trick for using Visa cards at Costco stores).
Citi was supposed to be taking over the Costco contract from American Express on April 1, though a few weeks ago we learned that would be delayed, and that American Express cards would continue to be accepted at Costco stores until at least June. As I speculated at the time:"We don’t hold the details of exactly what’s going on,though it seems that this is something between American Express and Citi, rather than something between Costco and one of the issuers. That leads me to believe that they may be trying to work out a deal to convert those with the Costco American Express to the equivalent Citi product.
Previously the assumption was that cardmembers would hold their cards converted to another American Express product, and though perhaps there’s a way they can gain this mutually beneficial for both issuers (I assume it won’t be cheap for Citi,though)."The post Amex Sells Costco Portfolio To Citi In Billion Dollar Deal appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Source: boardingarea.com