The Credit Card Audit

If you’re serious about maximizing your credit card rewards, reducing fees, or just getting more organized with your finances, it’s time to run a credit card audit. And if you're not serious - you should be. You can do it in less than 30 minutes with just a little research and then you'll get a clear picture of what cards you have, how they’re working for you (or not), and where you might be leaving money on the table. Here's how to do it—and why it's one of the most underrated money moves out there.

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Why should you audit your credit cards?

Most people sign up for credit cards with a specific goal—maybe it was to earn a welcome bonus, get cash back on groceries, or build credit. But over time, those reasons can be forgotten or the cards themselves change in purpose. You might be paying annual fees on cards you rarely use, missing out on better rewards from newer options, or failing to use valuable credits on your current cards.

An audit helps you:

• Identify which cards are giving you real value

• Spot overlaps or redundancies in your wallet

• See where you're underutilizing benefits (like travel credits or insurance)

• Plan better strategies for rewards, especially if you’re collecting points across different programs

When should you audit your credit cards?

I personally recommend auditing your cards at least once a year - ideally around the time when your most expensive credit card annual fee is about to be renewed. During this time, you'll be able to get the most current context for your card set up and relate it to your current financial situation. More often would be great depending on how many high annual fee cards you have! Finally, any time you have a  major life change or your credit/travel goals shift could also be good times to audit your cards. 

How do you audit your credit cards?

There are two phases to this audit - gathering your card information and deciding whether you should keep or cut. 

1) Information Gathering

You'll want to take a look inside your wallet and list out all the cards you have, and then capture their associated information. Some of the below pieces will never change, others can fluctuate year to year depending on card changes.  *will denote that this will never change so you don't have to look it up every single time. 

• Card Name - the name of the card and the bank it's from (e.g., Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Quicksilver)

• Year Opened* - when you opened the card, add month if possible

• Year Closed* - if you can track the cards you don't have anymore, that can still be helpful to know issuer rules/restrictions

• Annual Fee - how much the card costs each year

• Points Earning - how many points you earn on category spend (e.g., 3x back on dining). It's best to look on the actual card website, but ChatGPT could help

• Hard Credits - how much dollar for dollar value you get from using the card (e.g., American Express Gold provides a $10/month Uber credit)

• Variable Credits - how much estimated dollar value you get from the other card benefits (e.g., lounge access, anniversary miles, checked bags, etc.)

• No Foreign Transaction Fees  - if you travel internationally you'll want to know which cards you can bring

• Other factors  - other notes you want to put in here, especially for advanced credit card churners (e.g., you're at your limit of American Express charge cards allowed)

2) Keep or Cut

Now here comes the fun part, follow these steps to determine which cards to keep or cut. 

1. Highlight your oldest credit card - you're keeping that card. 

   • If it has an annual fee, calculate whether the hard and variable credits outweigh the fee. 

   • If the annual fee isn't worthwhile, try to downgrade the card to a no annual fee one

   • If that is not an option, consider cancelling the card OR pay the annual fee as the "cost" for keeping your credit history

2. Circle your cards with annual fees, we will audit them first

   • Similar to the above section - evaluate whether the total benefits outweigh the cost of the annual fee. 

     • Ask yourself, "would I use X credit even if I didn't have the card?" or "am I actually get $X from this benefit" TAKE NOTES!

   • If the annual fee is definitely worthwhile, keep the card

   • If the annual fee is borderline worthwhile, keep doing the audit to evaluate

   • If the annual fee is definitely NOT worthwhile, cut the card 

3. Highlight the points earning features that earn you the highest earn on the categories you spend the most on. For most people this will be groceries, gas, dining, and rent. 

   • You're likely going to keep the cards that earn the most points back on those categories 

     • EXCEPT for the borderline annual fee cards. You'll need to do the math if the extra points back is worth the annual fee. For example, the American Express Gold card earns 4x back on dining with a $325 annual fee, but the Capital One Savor card earns 3x back on dining with $0 annual fee. Do the math whether the amount of spend you put on dining is worth the 1x back on the Amex Gold (or not)

   • Review cards that may be redundant in earning the same rate - it may be worth consolidating and just keeping a few cards. 

     • For the most part, if a card has no annual fee, you'll generally want to keep it for the credit history and since it costs you nothing.

4. Review card benefits and perk updates you may have missed. 

   • Card perks and credits are always changing. For example, the Chase Freedom Unlimited used to have $10/month GoPuff credit. Now in 2025 they have a $10/quarter Doordash grocery credit. You want to take advantage of the credits the card has. 

And then you'll have a productive audit like the one below. 

Still on the fence on what cards to keep or cut? You can get a full analysis and audit from us for only $5!