Are you leaving rewards dollars on the table? See exactly how much.
Card Strategist runs the math on your real spend, net of annual fees and the statement credits you'll actually use. Then it shows the dollars you're missing: first from the cards you already own, then the one card, within your limit, that takes it further.
90% of the rewards value, 10% of the effort. Already a points nerd? The depth is all still here.
Free to start · 5 min setup · No credit card required (ironic, we know)
Your Dashboard: which card to swipe right now, and the real dollar gap between your current wallet and your optimized one.
Up and running in five minutes.
Estimate, add your cards, get your strategy. That's the whole setup.
Estimate your spend
Rough monthly numbers by category. No need to be exact.
Add your cards
Pick what’s in your wallet and which credits you actually use. No bank linking, ever.
Get your strategy
Your whole optimized setup, on one screen: best card per category, credits to use, and your 5/24 status.
Privacy isn’t a feature.
It’s the entire point.
We don’t know your card numbers.
We don’t know your transactions.
We don’t sell your data.
We don’t even want it.
Most finance apps want to crawl through your bank statements so they can sell you loans you don't need. We're different. We just give you the strategy, you keep the data.
*One exception: we use privacy-friendly, anonymous product analytics (no ad networks, nothing sold) to see which features help and where people get stuck. Never your card numbers, transactions, or balances. Details in our Privacy Policy.
Who's behind this
I'm an engineering manager and a credit-card enthusiast, but not a points nerd. When everyone raved about Bilt, I ran the numbers against my own wallet and found it barely moved the needle, and that's the tool I actually wanted: advice measured against my cards and my spending, not the internet's enthusiasm. Card Strategist is that tool, built on deliberately conservative estimates.
Your whole strategy, one screen.
Open the app and get the answer. Dig into the details only if you want to.
The right card, every time
Tell us your cards and where you spend. We map every category (groceries, dining, travel) to the exact card that pays you most, valued in real dollars so you can compare cash back and points on equal footing.
Honest math, no upsell
The gap is a real number from your own spend, net of annual fees and the credits you'll actually use. Sometimes the honest answer is to keep what you have, downgrade, or add nothing at all. You get the call that's right for you.
Velocity Guard
Chase 5/24, Amex 1/90, Capital One, Citi: we track your application pace and the banks' weird rules, so you apply at the right time instead of getting denied.
Shallow learning curve. Deep when you want it.
For the optimizer who slowly became a nerd. We see you.
Your point values, your call
Use our per-program estimates or set your own cents-per-point. The math respects your numbers.
Sign-up bonuses at a glance
See every bonus you're chasing and how close you are to the spend requirement.
Credits you forgot you had
Surfaces the statement credits and coupons you haven't used yet this period.
Player 2 & business, separated
Model a spouse's and business cards in their own lanes, not mashed in with yours.
Bilt rent & mortgage calculator
A straight “is it actually worth it?” verdict for putting housing on a card.
5/24 & authorized-user logic
Chase 5/24, issuer cooldowns, and authorized-user logic handled, so you can finally close the spreadsheet.
Find the best card for how you spend
Free, no sign-up needed: see the top cards for each category, ranked by the real dollar value they return.
Compare two cards, head-to-head
Real, computed match-ups — category-by-category earn, net of the annual fee, on the same conservative valuations as the rest of the site. Free, no sign-up needed.
Is that annual fee actually worth it?
A straight break-even verdict for each premium card, measured against a free 2% cash-back baseline — counting only the statement credits you say you'll use.
One upgrade, fully explained
See the single best card to add next, broken into real dollars: what it earns, what credits you’ll actually use, and what it costs after the fee. We show the number even if you ignore every credit.
What to add, and what to cut
A full review of your current wallet against its best possible version: which card should own each category, and which ones are quietly costing you more than they return.
The best card for every category
Groceries, dining, travel, gas: every category ranked by what each card actually pays, with the ones you already hold flagged. Switch to “your value” to rank by your own point valuations.
Tuned to how you play
Optimize for simple cash back or squeeze maximum value from transferable points. Cap how much you trust a point to be worth, set a limit on how many cards you’re willing to juggle, and the whole strategy respects your numbers.
Stop guessing. Start strategist-ing.
No commitment. No data mining. Just points.