Costco Rewards American Express

Our American Express card is about to become useless as Costco did not continue with them. Kathy is working very hard to keep the card at exactly a 0 balance since if you have a credit, you risk losing the money, (we usually overpay our credit card balance so that we get busy or are on travel, we avoid problems).

I logged on to check the balance. The web site told me if I did not give them an updated physical address they would void the card. OK, please do :) In the meantime I got another offer from them for their new product:

My perception is that losing the Costco deal is going to be pretty damaging from a business perspective. Let's see what Mr. Market thinks. The real risk here is that the longer this trend continues the greater the potential damage, if people quit accepting the credit card, Discover, (which is also trailing the S&P 500), could take some market share.

Bloomberg reports: 

American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer by purchases, is spending more money to attract cardholders and actively seeking retail partners as it works “with a great sense of urgency” to improve results, Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault told shareholders.