I take the membership plus exclusion as no CB for purchasing the actual membership fee. I have been getting rakuten CB all year as a member. I haven't done any recent purchases since I've been using capital one due to a higher 10% CB. But C1 has it's own issues with not getting credit for all transactions, seems to be much worse than rakuten in my experience so definitely need to make sure you keep screenshots of each transaction as proof. Little extra work but worth it for the few extra pennies... I guess. Anyway, just my two cents, if it's even worth that much.