How we compare credit cards

The method at a glance

Two numbers. Two different jobs.

Your ranking

Your rewards − annual fee

Yearly dollar value, based on your spending. The highest value comes first.

See the calculation

Our Best Score

Five weighted parts

A broader rating out of 5. A higher score does not always mean more value for you.

See the score weights

Both use the issuer’s published terms. Neither predicts approval. Commission is not an input.

Which cards we compare

Every card on this site has been checked automatically against the issuer’s own pages, with the issuer’s exact words saved behind each figure. In the US we have records for 141 cards. Only cards approved for publication can appear in a “Best for” list, be named a winner or get a Best Score. All 141 are approved. That is not the whole market, and we don’t describe it as one. We add cards as we check them.

How we work out what a card is worth to you

Your yearly spending in each category. We multiply each monthly amount you enter by 12.
The rewards on that spending. We apply the card’s rate for each category. Spending in a category the card doesn’t reward earns its rate for everything else. Flights and hotels are travel: they earn a card’s travel rate unless it has a separate rate for them.
Spending caps. Where a rate stops after a yearly limit, spending above the limit earns the lower rate the issuer states.
Points and miles. We value them at the rate the issuer itself states for a redemption anyone can make, such as cash back or a statement credit against travel, and we quote the issuer’s words beside the result. We never use a higher value that depends on transferring points to airlines or hotels, because nobody can promise what those transfers will be worth to you. If an issuer states no value, we don’t rank the card.
Minus the annual fee. The result is what the card is worth to you each year. If the fee is lower in the first year, that saving counts in year-one value only; the ranking uses the fee you pay from year two.
Welcome bonuses count only in year one, and only if your spending would meet the bonus requirement in time. We show year-one value separately and never rank by it.

Follow the money: a capped grocery rewardIllustrative example · USD · not a real card

$600 a month × 12 months = $7,200 a year on groceries.

Grocery spending split at the annual reward cap
Spending band	Rate	Rewards (USD/year)
First $6,000	3%	$180
Remaining $1,200	1%	$12

$192Grocery rewards

$95Example annual fee

$97Yearly value

Only groceries are included in this example. Other spending, welcome bonuses, perks and interest are excluded. The calculation assumes the balance is paid in full.

How cards are ranked

Highest value to you first. Cards with equal value are listed in alphabetical order of their identifier. Commission plays no part: the calculation has no input for it.

Lists of first cards answer a question that comes before value: which card can you get? They group cards by situation: student cards, cards with no deposit, and secured cards, which are the cards whose issuer requires a deposit. In each group the pick is the card worth most on the list’s example spending, by the same calculation. Beside it we show what each issuer states about building credit: reporting to the credit bureaus, checking your eligibility without a score impact, credit line reviews and getting your deposit back. Where an issuer’s page doesn’t say, we write “Not stated”, never “No”.

What we don’t count

Higher rates that apply only when you book through an issuer’s own travel site. We list them under each card instead.
Rates you have to activate or choose: categories that change each quarter, or a category you pick each month. We count the rate every purchase earns and list the rest under the card.
First-year matches, such as a match of all the cash back you earn in your first year. They have no fixed value, so we describe them under the card.
Extra value from transferring points to airline or hotel programs. It can be large, but it depends on availability and on how you redeem, so we mention it in words and never add it to the number.
Statement credits and perks, such as travel credits, lounge access or streaming credits. They are only worth something if you would have spent the money anyway, so we list them and leave the judgment to you.
Interest. The ranking assumes you pay your balance in full every month. If you carry a balance, interest usually costs more than any rewards earn, and we tell you so. See what a balance costs at the average credit card APR.
Whether you would be approved. We don’t check your credit.

Where every figure comes from

Issuer termsSave a dated copy of the source.
Automated checksMatch figures to the saved quotes.
Publication approvalRequired before a card can be a list winner or receive a Best Score.

Read our editorial policy · See the change log

Each figure comes from the issuer’s own terms or product page. We save a dated copy and keep the issuer’s exact words behind each figure. If a figure isn’t published on the pages we checked, the card shows “Not published”. If that figure is the annual fee or the rewards, the card isn’t ranked at all, because we can’t value it.

Our Best Score

The Best Score is our rating of a card out of 5, shown as stars. It is our judgment, so here is all of it: five parts, each scored from 0 to 5 using only the card’s figures from the issuer’s own pages, then weighted. Each scored card shows its own breakdown under “How we scored it”. It is not a rating by cardholders, and we never present it as one.

These weights were approved by our editor on October 7, 2026.

What goes into the Best ScorePublished weights · each available part is scored from 0 to 5

Value40%
Fees25%
Interest rate15%
Intro offer10%
Transparency10%

These are the full weights when all parts can be scored. Missing parts drop out; the remaining weights are redistributed. The detailed rules follow.

The parts of the Best Score, their weights and how each is scored
Part	Weight	How it scores, 0 to 5
Value	40%	What the card is worth each year after fees, as a share of the most valuable card we’ve checked, on each of 9 example spending profiles (the homepage’s and each list’s), averaged. The best card on a profile scores 5; one worth half as much scores 2.5.
Fees	25%	The annual fee, from 5 at $0 to 0 at $400, averaged with the foreign transaction fee, from 5 at 0% to 0 at 3%.
Interest rate	15%	The middle of the card’s purchase APR range, from 5 at 18% or less to 0 at 32% or more.
Intro offer	10%	The longest 0% intro APR period, from 0 for none to 5 at 21 months.
Transparency	10%	How many of the terms we record the issuer states on the pages we checked. We reward cards whose terms you can read before applying.

Missing figures. A part we can’t score because the figure isn’t published drops out, and the other parts share its weight. A missing figure is never counted as good, and it lowers transparency.
No value, no score. If we can’t value a card’s rewards or its annual fee, it isn’t scored at all.
Relative to our records. Value is measured against the cards we’ve checked, so a score can move when we add a card. Each breakdown says how many cards it was scored against.
Not the ranking. Lists rank cards by what they’re worth on that list’s spending, or yours. The Best Score is a general rating across many kinds of spending, so a card can rank first on a list with a lower score than one below it.
Not for sale. Commission plays no part: the score has no input for it.

Read our editorial policy and how we get paid.