How TapWise picks a card
You tell TapWise which cards you carry and where you're paying. It works out what each of your cards earns on that purchase and puts the one that earns the most on top. That's the whole ranking.
Our neutrality promise
We rank only the cards you tell us you have, purely by what they earn. No issuer can pay to change a ranking.
If TapWise ever shows a card you don't have, it will be clearly labeled as one, and any partnership with a card issuer will be disclosed on this page. Today there are none: TapWise has no issuer partnerships, no affiliate links, and earns nothing from any card.
Where the rates come from
Each card's earning rates are read from the issuer's own card page, and the app shows the date they were last checked ("Rates checked against the issuer on…" under Why?). When an issuer's page can't be read, the card's record says where the rate came from instead, and it's re-checked at the next review. Cards are reviewed every quarter. A card we can't verify is left out rather than guessed.
How stores are matched to bonuses
A card's bonus depends on how the store's payment system codes the purchase, not on what the store sells. TapWise knows how hundreds of chains usually code, and notes the common surprises: superstores like Walmart and Target don't count as supermarkets, Costco takes only Visa in U.S. warehouses, and a store inside another store usually codes as the host.
Caps, store cards and offers
- Spending caps: when a bonus has a limit (say 6% up to $6,000 a year), TapWise shows it. In Advanced mode you can mark a cap as used up, and the next-best card moves to the top. The wallet check applies caps to your yearly spending.
- Store cards only count where they work, like a Target card at Target.
- Card-linked offers you add (from screenshots or by hand) are added to that card's earnings at that store. Statement credits are shown separately, since they don't depend on how much you spend.
Points versus cash back
To compare a points card with a cash-back card, TapWise puts a cents value on each point. The default is Cash back (simplest): points count at what you'd get cashing them out. If you transfer points to airlines or hotels, you can choose Typical traveler (based on Frequent Miler's published values) or Optimistic traveler (based on The Points Guy's), or Flat 1¢.
Either way, the main number on each card is its advertised rate, like "2%" or "4x". When your setting makes it worth more or less than that, a short line says so, for example "worth 3.0% if you transfer points".
Your information
TapWise never asks for card numbers or bank logins, and your wallet stays on your device unless you choose to sync it. See the privacy policy for everything it stores.