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What Is Your Rewards Card Actually Worth This Year?

Every card's marketing quotes its best-case point value — the top transfer partner, the perfect redemption. This tool uses your own numbers instead: your real spend, your real earn rate, and how you actually redeem, netted against the annual fee. The gap between the two is what SwitchWize calls the true cost of your rewards.

Quick answer: See what a rewards card actually nets you this year — your real spend and your own realistic redemption rate against the annual fee, not the issuer's best-case marketed point value. Enter annual spend, earn rate, annual fee, and marketed point value to personalize the estimate. It returns true net annual value, marketed value, and realized value so you can compare the impact before choosing a next step. Use it to compare payment, APR, total cost, credit impact, and lender or card tradeoffs.

SWReviewed by SwitchWize Research Desk · Last reviewed August 19, 2026

Your decision

Worth it at your realistic redemption rate. At your realistic redemption rate, this card nets about $265/yr after the annual fee — about $360/yr short of what the marketed point value implies.

Recommended: Keep the card at your current redemption habits

True net annual value

Good

$265

realized rewards minus annual fee

What the card actually nets you this year, at your own realistic redemption rate — not the marketed one.

What the marketing implies you earned

$720

36,000 pts at 2.00¢/pt

The issuer's own advertised best-case point value, applied to every point you earned.

What you'll actually capture

Watch

$360

36,000 pts at 1.00¢/pt

Points you expect to actually redeem, valued at how you actually redeem — not best-case.

Annual gap: marketing vs. reality

Watch

$360

breakage + redemption-rate gap

Value lost to points that go unredeemed, plus points redeemed below the marketed rate.

Ranked options

#1Keep the card at your current redemption habits
At your realistic redemption rate, the rewards clear the annual fee.
$265/yr
Confidence: MediumEffort: LowRisk: Low
#2Close the gap: redeem closer to the marketed rate
Capturing the full 2.00¢/pt instead of 1.00¢/pt, and redeeming everything you earn, would be worth about $360/yr more.
$360/yr
Confidence: MediumEffort: MediumRisk: Low

Watch-outs

• You entered a realistic redemption value (1.00¢/pt) below the card's marketed rate (2.00¢/pt). On the points you do redeem, that gap alone costs about $360/yr.

Assumptions used

Annual spend on this card: $24,000
Blended earn rate: 1.5 pts/$1
Annual fee: $95
Marketed point value: 2.00¢/pt
Your realistic redemption value: 1.00¢/pt
Points you expect to leave unredeemed: 0%

Estimates based on your assumptions above — roughly indicative, not financial, tax, or legal advice.

Next steps

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Why this matters

A card that markets "up to 2 cents per point" rarely pays that on every point. Some points expire or never get redeemed. Some get cashed in for gift cards or statement credit at a fraction of the marketed rate. Both are real, common, and rarely accounted for in a rewards pitch. This calculator asks for your own honest numbers on both — not an assumed industry rate SwitchWize cannot verify — and shows the true net value after the fee.

Frequently asked questions

Why do you ask me to estimate my own unredeemed-points share instead of using an industry average?

There is no reliable, verifiable, per-card breakage rate published anywhere SwitchWize can cite with confidence — issuer 10-Ks disclose rewards-liability totals, not per-cardholder redemption behavior. Rather than assert a number we cannot back up, this tool asks for your own honest estimate. Most people who go a full year without redeeming know roughly how often that happens.

What is the difference between the marketed value and the realized value?

The marketed value applies the issuer's own "up to" cents-per-point figure to every point you earn — usually the best available transfer-partner redemption. The realized value applies your own realistic redemption rate (cash back, gift cards, or whatever you actually use) to only the points you expect to actually redeem. The gap between them is the annual cost of not redeeming optimally.

Should I use my absolute best-ever redemption, or my typical one?

Use what actually happens most of the time, not your single best redemption ever. If you occasionally book an aspirational trip at a great rate but mostly redeem for cash back, weight the number toward how you actually spend most of your points.

Does this include the signup bonus?

Only if you mark it as completed — a signup bonus you have not actually earned yet (because you have not hit the minimum spend) is not real value yet, and this tool will not count it until you do.

This tool produces estimates based on the assumptions you enter. It is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Actual rates, fees, and outcomes depend on your lender, account terms, and approval.