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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't be particularly thrilled to have it switched to Amex, because a number of merchants won't accept Amex, but I am tired of not being able to use my Apple Card at Costco. Amex would be better, there.

I don't remember the details, but the reason they picked MasterCard, was because of some technical infrastructure that MC provides.

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It's all about fee negotiations, nothing else.

For Costco, they wanted lower fees. Amex said no. Now they only accept VISA (in the US).

Costco’s credit card partners change from time to time based on fee negotiations:

Costco in the US switched from American Express to Citi/Visa in 2016.

Costco in Canada switched from Capital One/Mastercard to CIBC/Mastercard in 2022.

Costco switched to Visa, they pay them quite a few millions to be the Costco Card.

So maybe Costco+Apple could be their own bank and card.

Costco does not accept American Express, which is annoying since it prevents use of the Blue Cash Preferred card.

Maybe, Apple and Goldman Sachs negotiated a better deal with Mastercard esp interchange fees. For instance, Costco pays Visa 0.4% interchange fees for accepting Visa cards exclusively at Costco.

Does Costco even take Amex anymore?

Maybe they still do in Canada?

Maybe they don’t. I haven’t had an Amex card in over 20 years.

I know they dont in the States - I dont know about elsewhere.

Costco takes only MasterCard in Canada.

They don’t since the Costco card changed to Visa

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