The problem
If you carry more than one credit card, you're almost certainly leaving money on the table. Not hypothetical money — real dollars. The average multi-card holder misses $300-600/year in rewards by pulling out the wrong card. But nobody tracks this because it's tedious, the rules are complex, and the math changes with every purchase.
What Card Optimizer does
We connect to your accounts (read-only, via Plaid) and analyze every transaction against every card in your wallet. Each morning you get a digest showing three things:
- Missed earnings — the exact dollar amount you left on the table yesterday, per transaction. "$87 at Whole Foods on your Sapphire: Amex Gold earns $3.48 vs $0.87. That's $2.61 missed."
- Expiring credits — monthly dining credits, Uber cash, airline incidentals that reset to zero if you don't use them.
- Spend thresholds — companion pass progress, free night targets, elite status qualification. Are you on pace or falling behind?
The backward-looking data is what makes this work. Once you see the actual dollars you missed last week, your habits change fast. Most people course-correct within a week or two — the daily number drops, and the money stays in your pocket.
How we calculate the dollar value
Every credit card reward point has a real-world redemption value. We use consensus community valuations: Chase Ultimate Rewards at 1.5¢/point (via travel portal), Amex Membership Rewards at 2¢/point (via transfer partners), SkyMiles at 1.2¢, and so on. When we say you missed $3.40, that's the difference between what you actually earned and what the optimal card would have earned — in cents you could redeem.
No affiliate links. No conflicts.
We don't earn commissions when you sign up for a card. There are no affiliate links anywhere on this site. The $15/month subscription is our only revenue. Our only incentive is to give you accurate numbers.
Contact
Questions or feedback: anna@startupincubator.dev