How to keep track of credits across several cards
By Calvin. Published .
Put every credit on every card into one list, each with the rule for when it starts over. Sort the list by the day each credit ends, soonest first. Then check it on one fixed day each month, such as the 1st. The rest of this page explains why that works and three ways to keep the list.
Why is it hard to keep up?
One credit is easy to remember. Several cards are hard because their credits do not share a clock.
- Monthly. A new amount each calendar month.
- Quarterly. A new amount every three months.
- Twice a year. The year is split into two halves, and each half has its own amount.
- Calendar year. One amount from January to December, whenever you opened the card.
- Cardmember year. One amount per card year, which starts around your card anniversary. Some issuers count it from a statement date. Either way, the date is different for every card you hold.
A credit that resets starts over at its full amount. What was left in the period that ended is usually gone, so the day a period ends matters more than the size of the credit.
Two more things get in the way. Some credits do nothing until you enroll the card with the issuer, and a credit you never enrolled in looks the same on a list as one you forgot. And writing down a use is not the same as the credit posting: the issuer decides whether a purchase qualified, and your statement is where that shows.
What do the clocks look like on real cards?
The table takes one credit from each reset clock on a few widely held cards. Every amount and rule in it is read from the kardfolio catalog, which records each issuer’s published terms.
| Card | Credit | Amount | How often | Resets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Platinum Card from American Express12 credits in the catalog | Uber Cash | $15 a month, $35 in December | Monthly | The 1st of each month |
| Resy Credit | $100 a quarter | Quarterly | The 1st of January, April, July and October | |
| Hotel Credit | $300 each half | Twice a year | January 1 and July 1 | |
| Uber One Credit | $120 a year | Yearly | January 1 | |
| American Express Gold Card4 credits in the catalog | Dining Credit | $10 a month | Monthly | The 1st of each month |
| Resy Credit | $50 each half | Twice a year | January 1 and July 1 | |
| Chase Sapphire Reserve13 credits in the catalog | Lyft Credit | $10 a month | Monthly | The 1st of each month |
| Dining Credit | $150 each half | Twice a year | January 1 and July 1 | |
| The Edit Credit | $500 a year | Yearly | January 1 | |
| Annual Travel Credit | $300 a year | Yearly | By card year |
Each card’s page lists all of its credits with their terms. How card facts are sourced explains where the numbers come from and how they are dated.
Three ways to keep the list.
Calendar reminders
Put a repeating event near the end of each period: one a month, one a quarter, one for each half of the year and one in December. It costs nothing, and it is already where you look. It gets heavy as cards add up. A calendar event cannot tell you how much of a credit is left, and each cardmember-year credit needs its own event on that card’s own date.
A spreadsheet
One row per credit, with columns for the card, the amount, how often it resets, the day the current period ends and what you have used. Sort by the end date. A spreadsheet holds everything in one view and bends to any rule you need. The cost is upkeep: you move each end date forward by hand when a period closes, and you change the rows yourself when an issuer changes a credit.
A tracker
A benefit tracker keeps the list for you. It already knows each card’s credits and reset rules, so you pick your cards instead of typing rows. Before you trust one, check three things: where its card facts come from and how they are dated, whether it asks for your bank login, and whether you can correct what you logged. A tracker that does not connect to your bank still depends on you to log each use.
Four ways to track card benefits compares these methods in more detail, and Benefit trackers compared lists what each tool does and costs.
How to do it in kardfolio.
- Add the cards you have. Search by card or issuer and pick the ones in your wallet. You see their credits before you make an account.
- See credits lined up by the day they end. A monthly credit sits next to the yearly one that ends the same day, so what ends first comes first.
- Log a use when you make one. What’s left updates right away.
- Fix what you logged. Open the credit’s usage history to edit or remove an entry.
kardfolio does not ask for your bank login or full card numbers, and nothing is imported. You choose your cards by name and log use yourself. A logged use is your own record, not confirmation from your card issuer that a credit posted.