How I Track Credit Card Benefits
Tl;dr: There are plenty of options to track your credit card benefits, but a simple Google Sheet does the trick for me.
These days, the most rewarding credit cards all charge annual fees, which can reach into the hundreds of dollars. The sticker shock can be intimidating, but many of these cards offer statement credits and other perks that can easily outweigh the annual fee—at least if you'd make those purchases anyway and remember to use the benefits.
I've tried several ways to keep track of these benefits, including Thrifty Traveler’s card tracker, Cardstack, MaxRewards, and Kudos. They all have their strengths and could be a good fit depending on what you're looking for. But until something blows me away, I’m just sticking with a Google Sheet.
Full card list redacted to protect the innocent/lazy.
The great thing about a Google Sheet is that you can tailor it to your own habits and preferences and customize it to fit the way you think. Here’s how I’ve organized mine:
Monthly and quarterly credits go at the top because they're easiest to forget
I generally don’t track benefits that don’t require any action
I highlight the credits I’m unlikely to use, so I can skim over them
I omit credits I’ll never use—I don’t need the Oura Ring clutter
I write the month I used a credit instead of a ✅ so I don't forget which cycle it applied to (learned that the hard way).
Whenever possible, I convert credits into stored value instead of waiting for the perfect time to use them. When my Resy credit resets, for example, I'll usually grab a gift card and note it in the spreadsheet. For everything else, I check this often enough that I don't need reminders—but if you’re more hands-off, a recurring calendar alert could do the trick.
Lazy Take 🦥
There are better-looking tools than a Google Sheet, and eventually one of them might win me over. But for now, this simple spreadsheet is free, simple, and gets the job done. If you'd like to steal it, you can grab a copy here and customize it however you like: