Calculator
Card Break-Even Calculator
A credit card breaks even when the credits you actually use plus the value of the points you earn exceed the annual fee. Count only the credits you genuinely redeem, not the ones on the marketing page, because an unused credit is worth nothing. Value the points at your own cents-per-point figure rather than the issuer's. What is left is the real cost or the real profit of carrying the card.
Net value of carrying this card
$—
Count the credits you use, not the ones advertised
This is the single biggest error in card math. A card advertising $1,500 of annual credits is only worth that if you would have made every one of those purchases anyway, at that vendor, in that month. A monthly dining credit you remember eight times out of twelve is worth two thirds of its face value, not all of it.
The honest way to fill this in is to look at what you actually redeemed last year rather than what the card is capable of. That is exactly what the perk tracker exists to record, and it is why the number in front of you here is usually lower than the one on the marketing page.
What the result means
- Net value above zero — the card pays for itself. Keep it.
- Net value near zero — you are running to stand still. Worth asking whether the spend would earn more on a different card.
- Net value below zero — the fee is costing you. Call and ask for a retention offer before you cancel, and consider a downgrade rather than closing the account, since closing shortens your average account age.
One thing this does not capture: putting spend on this card means not putting it on another one. If a no-fee card earns 2x on the same purchases, the real comparison is the difference between the two, not the total.
This is one number from a tool that tracks all of them. Points Commander keeps your balances, every card credit against its reset date, and an advisor that plans redemptions from the points you actually hold. It is free, there are no affiliate links, and it never asks for a bank login.
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