Aven Credit Card: Backed by Home Equity (Free Costco Executive Membership)

The Aven Credit Card is a new-ish credit card with 2% cash back that uses your home equity (HELOC) to get lower interest rates. Right now they have a new Costco offer, but you have to read the fine print. The offer includes a free 1-Year Executive Membership, which is issued as a one-time $135 credit on your Aven card within the first statement cycle. It’s not clear if you have to actually charge the membership to your card, as they are not closely affiliated with Costco.

However, they also advertise “4% cash back at Costco”, but that’s really just their standard 2% cash back plus Costco’s annual 2% membership reward certificate for Executive Members. They don’t actually pay 4% cash back on Costco purchases. That really reduces the potential draw of this card, as all we have left is the $135 one-time credit. I might have forgiven them if they actually covered my Costco membership every single year. Not worth a hard credit check.

Here’s their language on how the credit card works:

Aven combines the convenience of a credit card with the savings of a home equity line of credit (HELOC). It works like any other credit card where you can make everyday purchases and earn unlimited 2% cash back.1

You can either get a fixed Cash Out (ex. $10,000 cash transferred into your bank account) and get a fixed monthly payment for 5 or 10 years (2.5% transfer fee), or you can just use it like a credit card and build up a balance. In that case, the monthly payments are calculated as 1% of the principal balance, plus monthly interest, plus any fees.

No annual, sign-up, or pre-payment fees. There is a 2.5% fee on Cash Outs and Balance Transfers and a $29 late fee if you don’t make the minimum payment.