Which card should I get? This is a question I get asked quite a lot throughout the year. And there’s no simple answer. Everyone’s spending habits and goals for their points are different. There’s really not a one size fits all approach.

For someone who is new to this game, my recommendation would probably be to look for a low or no annual fee card to get their feet wet. Recommending someone jump right in with the Amex Platinum and its almost $700 annual fee probably isn’t going to go over well. However, for a more seasoned points and miles enthusiast who already has a handful of cards, we would have a different discussion on how to round out their wallet and maximize the points they are earning for each purchase.

At a previous job I had with an insurance technology company, something similar would happen. Each fall when friends would enroll in their company benefits during open enrollment, I would get phone calls asking what medical plan they should enroll in. While that is a great question, it was difficult to answer without knowing what they spent their medical dollars on. Were they healthy and rarely went to the doctor? Did they have young kids or about to start a family and went into the doctor fairly regularly? Both of those questions and more had a huge impact on what was best for them. Without that data, it was nearly impossible to make an educated recommendation. It’s very similar to what credit card you should get. Without knowing what you spend your money on, it’s almost impossible to give good advice.

In our ever increasingly data driven world, we can now make those recommendations and know exactly what card you should get and which one you should pull out of your wallet the next time you go to swipe it.

I’ve created a decision support tool that will give recommendations for the best card you should use based on the actual money you are already spending. Gone are the days of “well you should probably get this card because I’m assuming you spend a lot of money going out to eat.” Now we can plug in your actual spending to my tool and we can tell you exactly which card is the best for you. There are a lot of intangibles like lounge access and other benefits some cards provide but from a pure points approach this does an excellent job of knowing what card will earn you the most points. Reach out and I can help you decide what works best for you.