No. Costco Australia does not accept American Express. Costco’s own member care page states: “We accept cash, Visa, MasterCard, debit cards and Apple Pay at our Australian warehouses.” Membership purchase and renewal is narrower still - Visa and Mastercard credit or debit only.

Last checked against Costco Australia’s member care page on 21 September 2026. [Affiliate disclosure: I earn a referral fee if you sign up via my links - it never affects my analysis.]

What Costco Australia accepts

  • Cash
  • Visa credit and debit
  • Mastercard credit and debit
  • Debit cards
  • Apple Pay

For buying or renewing a membership: Visa and Mastercard credit or debit cards. Online at costco.com.au: Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay.

Why Costco is different - and why it varies by country

Costco runs an exclusive card deal in each market rather than accepting everything. The company’s model is famously thin on margin, with most profit coming from membership fees rather than the goods, so acceptance costs matter more than they would to a normal retailer. Signing one network exclusively buys better rates than accepting all of them.

This is why travellers get caught out. In the United States, Costco accepts Visa exclusively; it previously ran an Amex exclusive there for years. Australia’s warehouses take Visa and Mastercard. Whatever worked at a Costco overseas is not a guide to what works here.

Working around it

Costco shops tend to be large and infrequent, which makes the lost points more noticeable than a weekly supermarket run - a $600 warehouse trip on the wrong card is a real amount of foregone value.

The practical answer is to make sure your best Visa or Mastercard is the one you take to Costco, rather than treating it as the card you happen to have spare. If your Amex is your main earner and your Visa is an old no-frills card, you are quietly earning a poor rate on some of your biggest single transactions of the year.

One thing that does not work: adding the Amex to Apple Pay. Costco accepts Apple Pay, but Apple Pay is a way of presenting a card, not a separate network - an Amex inside it is still an Amex and will still be declined.

Common questions

Can I use Amex to buy a Costco membership?

No. Membership purchase and renewal accepts Visa and Mastercard credit or debit cards.

Does the Costco petrol station take Amex?

Costco’s published statement covers its Australian warehouses. We have not found an official statement specific to the fuel stations, so we are not going to assert one - assume the warehouse policy and carry a Visa or Mastercard.

Which other big Australian retailers refuse Amex?

ALDI - see does ALDI take Amex. The full sourced list is on which Australian shops take Amex.