How we calculate card value

First-year vs ongoing net value

For each card we compute two annual figures. The first-year net value sums rewards earned on your spending profile, welcome-bonus value (when you qualify), first-year credits (including one-time credits), minus the effective annual fee in year one, minus any Chexy bill-payment fee. The ongoing net value uses the same rewards and annual credits but excludes welcome bonuses and charges the full annual fee each year.

In formula terms: net value = rewards + bonus + credits − annual fee − Chexy fee − foreign transaction fee. Each breakdown component is shown separately and sums exactly to the net figure.

Spending profile & earn rates

You tell us how much you spend per month across categories such as grocery, dining, gas, travel, bills, foreign transactions, and more. We multiply each category's annual spend by the card's earn rate for that category. When a card caps bonus earnings, we apply the cap and route overflow spend at the base rate. Merchant-specific bonus rates are included where published.

If you haven't customized spending, we use a default monthly total until you personalize your profile on the rankings page.

Travel spend & foreign transaction fees

Travel earn rates and foreign-transaction fees are curated manually — issuer pages often omit them or state them unclearly, so we do not trust page extraction for these fields. Put flights, hotels, and other travel merchants in the Travel category. Cards may earn a bonus multiplier, the base rate (1x), or explicitly 0x on travel; when a card has no published travel rate we fall back to its base rate.

Put foreign-currency purchases in Foreign Transactions. For that spend we subtract the card's foreign transaction fee from net value (typically 2.5% in Canada). Cards with a fee waiver cost $0 here. Entering foreign spend is what makes no-FX cards pull ahead for travel abroad.

Point valuations & redemption strategies

Non-cashback rewards are converted to dollars using per-program redemption ladders loaded from our program-values data. Each program lists direct redemptions (cashback, statement credit, travel portal, flights) and transfer-partner chains with conversion rates.

By default we use the best value strategy: the single highest cents-per-point redemption available for that program, including transfer partners and premium cabins. You can switch to cash only on the rankings page, which values points at cashback or statement-credit redemptions and ignores travel and transfer-partner upside.

Welcome bonus qualification

Welcome bonuses often require minimum spend over a set period. We compare your effective monthly spend against each bonus step. Spend rules are either threshold (all-or-nothing) or cap (prorated up to the stated value). When Chexy bill payments are enabled or the card supports direct bill payment, bills-category spend counts toward bonus qualification; otherwise it is excluded from the spend total used for bonuses.

Chexy bill payments

When “Pay Bills with Chexy” is on (the default), we model earning card rewards on rent and bills routed through Chexy at a 1.75% fee on annual bills-category spend — but only for cards where the effective bills reward rate exceeds 1.75%. Cards at or below that break-even are treated as if Chexy were unused for that card. Cards with direct bill-payment support earn on bills without the Chexy fee. The Chexy fee is subtracted once in net value, not double-counted against rewards.

Credits, insurance & star scores

Annual and monthly statement credits are valued at face value in dollars. First-year figures include one-time credits; ongoing figures use recurring credits only. Insurance coverage is catalogued with published benefit values where available; star scores for insurance and other dimensions come from issuer data and our editorial ratings.

The overall star score is the mean of five dimension scores (welcome bonus, ongoing rewards, perks & benefits, insurance, low interest rate), scaled to 0–100. Value-sensitive dimensions update when you change redemption strategy; static catalog scores are used as fallbacks where needed.

Data freshness

Most card terms, rates, fees, and benefits are sourced from publicly available issuer pages via structured extraction. Travel earn rates, foreign earn rates, FX fees, affiliate links, and editorial scores are maintained in a separate manual overlay and merged into the catalog. Each card record carries a last-verified date; the rankings page shows the most recent verification across the catalog. Issuers change offers without notice, so confirm the details before you apply.

Approval odds

Approval odds on card listings compare your selected credit-score range (when provided) with each card's published minimum, and otherwise reflect typical difficulty from that minimum. These labels are rough estimates only — full legal wording is in our terms & conditions.