Costco Citi Card SCRA: Anywhere Visa Up to 26.99%, Capped at 6%

A $4,500 Costco Anywhere Visa balance owed before your orders costs about $1,215 a year at the card’s top purchase rate of 26.99%. At 6% it costs $270. The difference, about $945 a year, is forgiven. At the top penalty rate of 29.99%, the same balance runs about $1,350 a year, and 6% saves you about $1,080 of it. (Illustration: simple interest, no payments or purchases for a year. Citi compounds daily, so the true figure is slightly higher.)

Rates from the Citi fact sheet for the card, version 520/521 v32, read October 19, 2026.

A Citi card with Costco’s name and a membership rule

The Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi is a Citibank, N.A. account; the agreement, version 520 v20, defines “we, us, and our” that way. Purchase rates run prime plus 11.99% to 19.99%, which the fact sheet prints as 18.99% to 26.99%. Cash advances cost 28.99%. Late and returned payments cost $30 each, rising to $41 if another follows within six billing periods. There is no foreign transaction fee, and no annual fee “with your paid Costco Membership.”

That last phrase carries a condition. The agreement says, twice: “We will close your Account if you do not maintain a Costco membership.” Citi’s card page adds that the card “doubles as your Costco membership ID.” A deployment that outlasts your membership year can close the card. Closing does not erase the debt or your SCRA claim on it, but it ends the card. Renew before you leave.

Citi’s general SCRA process, its timeline and the 0% figure that Citi itself never publishes are on our Citi guide.

The penalty APR rule and what the cap does to it

The fact sheet lists a penalty APR of “Up to 29.99%” for a late payment or a returned payment, and says it “may apply indefinitely.” The agreement splits it in two. Less than 60 days late, it hits only new transactions. Sixty or more days late, Citi may apply it to existing balances too, and it comes off only after six on-time minimum payments in a row.

For a balance you owed before service, § 3937 does not care which contract rate is in force: while you serve, the debt may not bear interest “in excess of 6 percent.” A penalty rate on that balance is cut to 6% just like the regular one. Late fees still hurt: they count toward the 6% under § 3937(d)(1), but until the cap is applied you pay them in full. Set up autopay from a U.S. bank account before you deploy.

Citi Flex Plans: a fee that counts as interest

Costco cardholders can move a purchase into a Citi Flex Plan with fixed monthly payments. Some plans carry an APR; others carry a “Plan Fee (Fixed Finance Charge),” which the fact sheet sets at “up to 1.72%” of the amount moved, charged every month until the plan is paid off.

That fee matters under the SCRA. Section 3937(d)(1) folds fees and other charges into the meaning of interest and carves out only bona fide insurance. A plan fee is not insurance. On our reading, a Flex Plan created before your service is part of the pre-service obligation, and its monthly fee counts toward your 6%. Illustration at the maximum: $1,200 moved to a plan costs up to $20.64 a month in fees, while 6% a year on $1,200 is $6 a month. Citi does not say how it handles plan fees on an SCRA account, so name each plan in your request and ask.

A plan you set up after you are on orders is a new obligation and falls outside the cap by statute. If you opened the card while serving, the MAPR explainer shows how a finance charge like this is counted under the 36% limit instead.

No arbitration carve-out on paper, but the law supplies one

An account you opened while serving, or that your dependent opened then, falls under the Military Lending Act instead of the 6% cap, and its 36% ceiling governs your account. Costco’s MLA language sits on the fact sheet, not in the agreement. Its Covered Borrower test, which also counts AGR duty, is applied “in connection with the opening of your account,” and it gives 1-877-313-6762 for oral disclosures.

Citi’s Best Buy, Macy’s and Home Depot agreements each print a line taking arbitration off a Covered Borrower’s account. Neither Costco document we read prints one. The agreement’s Section 11 covers “any claim, dispute or controversy” and lets you reject it only by mail within 45 days of opening, to PO Box 790085, St. Louis, MO 63179-0085. For a covered member, federal law answers the question whatever the contract prints: § 987(e)(3) and 32 CFR 232.8(c) bar a creditor from requiring a covered borrower to submit to arbitration, and § 987(f)(4) says no arbitration agreement on consumer credit “shall be enforceable” against a covered member. If arbitration ever comes up on a covered account, cite all three. The arbitration fine print explains the stakes.

Costco Anywhere Visa: before you file with Citi

1. Pull a recent statement and note when the account opened and what rate it shows. Opened before your orders means the 6% cap; the eligibility checker sorts the edge cases.
2. List every Citi Flex Plan with its APR or monthly Plan Fee, and note whether a penalty APR shows.
3. Pay or set your Costco membership to renew through your deployment so the card stays open.
4. Mail a signed request and your orders to P.O. Box 790398, St. Louis, MO 63179, attention Citi Military Response Correspondence, SCRA Request, or call 877-804-1082. The letter generator drafts it.
5. Ask Citi to state in writing the rate applied, the date it starts, and how each Flex Plan fee is treated.
6. Check for a retroactive credit within two to three billing cycles; the refund guide covers a short one.

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3937

Six percent ceiling on obligations incurred before service: read the statute , or read § 3937 in plain English, with its enforcement record .