Costco was my #1 place for getting minimum spend for Amex cards I was churning for points:
Get the card, buy Costco gift cards (to be spent on groceries over the next several months), receive the sign-up bonus points (usually enough for a flight anywhere in North America), cancel the card, repeat 6 months later. I got hundreds of thousands of points that way.
So I'm super bummed -- I'm not sure where else I can reliably make those spending amounts on an Amex without Costco! The Mastercard options just seem so poor in comparison. Even at a decent cash back percentage, it's just not the same.
Will likely pick up the MBNA Smart Cash card, I guess. Better than nothing, and better than the Costco-branded card will be.
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