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Credit Card Rewards Value Calculator

What a card actually returns over a year. Enter what goes on it each month, what it earns per dollar, and what you hold a point to be worth.

Enter your spend and earn rate

Fill in the three fields to see what a year on this card earns, and what those points are worth.

How it works

  1. Start with a month of spendingWhat actually goes on the card each month, not what you intend to move onto it once the statement arrives.
  2. Multiply by the earn ratePoints per dollar, as the card publishes it. A flat card earns one rate on everything. A category card earns its headline rate on part of the spend, so enter a blended figure.
  3. Turn the year into moneyTwelve months of points, priced at what a point is worth to you. That is the figure to weigh an annual fee against.

This counts earn and nothing else. It leaves out sign-up bonuses, transfer bonuses, category caps, annual fees and the credits a premium card hands back. It also assumes you redeem at the rate you entered, which is a target rather than a promise.

Start from a scenario

Common spending patterns at ordinary earn rates. Click any row to load it into the calculator above.

Spending PatternMonthly SpendPer $1Point ValuePoints A YearAnnual Value
Flat-rate everyday card$2,0002x1.5¢48,000$720
Grocery-heavy household$1,5003x1.2¢54,000$648
Travel and dining card$3,0004x1.8¢144,000$2,592
Dining out most weeks$9004x1.5¢43,200$648
High spend, premium card$5,0003x2.0¢180,000$3,600
Small business card$8,0001.5x1.4¢144,000$2,016
Light spender$6001x1.0¢7,200$72
Base earn, no categories$2,5001x1.3¢30,000$390
FAQ

What a card
earns in a year

Ordinary earn, and only that. Monthly spend times the points per dollar, twelve times over, priced at the point value you entered. No sign-up bonus, no transfer bonus, no annual fee taken off the end.

A blended rate. Add up what each category earns over a typical month, divide by the total spend, and use that. A card advertising four points on dining rarely earns four across the whole statement, so the headline rate will overstate the year.

The rate you actually redeem at, averaged over the redemptions you really make. A cent is the floor for most programmes, because that is roughly what a cash-back or portal booking pays. Above about two cents you are assuming premium cabin awards, which is a plan rather than an average.

Subtract the fee from the annual value, then add back only the credits you would genuinely have spent anyway. A credit you have to remember to use is worth less than its face value, and a credit for something you do not buy is worth nothing at all.

Because the currency matters more than the multiplier. Three points a dollar in a programme you redeem at a cent returns less than two points a dollar in one you redeem at two. The rate and the value have to be read together, which is why both are fields here.

Not necessarily. Bank currencies usually last while the account is open, but airline balances often expire after a stretch with no activity, and programmes rewrite their charts without notice. A year of earn is worth what it is worth on the day you spend it.