A transparent explanation of the ranking formula, our editorial standards, and why we built this.
Most credit card comparison tools show you a table of nominal reward rates: Amex Gold earns 4x at dining, the Hilton Surpass earns 12x at Hilton, and so on. The obvious move is to pick the highest number.
That logic fails constantly. A card that earns 12x Hilton points might actually be worth less per dollar than a card earning 3% cash back, because a Hilton point is worth less than a third of a cent. A card earning 5x points in a category you're not shopping in is worth 0x. And two cards that look identical on a rate chart can produce very different real-world value depending on what else is in your wallet.
PullThisCard was built to solve this correctly. It evaluates every card across five dimensions simultaneously, not just the multiplier printed on the marketing page.
Our ranking engine computes a score we call Net Multi-Dimensional Yield (NMDY) for every card in your wallet, for the specific merchant and category you're shopping at.
We estimate the likely rewards category for a merchant using curated merchant records, known MCC information where available (the 4-digit classification codes payment networks assign to merchants — the system issuers actually use to determine which bonus rate applies), merchant data, and user corrections. Because the actual MCC is assigned when a transaction is processed, a recommendation made before you pay is our best estimate of that classification, not a guarantee of it — the final category is always determined by the issuer based on how the merchant processes the transaction. When we can't confidently estimate a category, we treat the purchase as "everything else" rather than guessing a bonus that might not apply.
The advertised multiplier for that category, the number you see on the card's marketing page. We also check merchant-specific bonuses: a Marriott co-brand card might earn 6x specifically at Marriott hotels, above its generic "3x travel" rate. That distinction matters and we capture it.
We convert every card's earn rate into a real cents-per-dollar value using conservative, independently-researched point valuations. A Chase Ultimate Rewards point is worth approximately 1.5¢ when redeemed through premium methods; a Hilton point is worth approximately 0.5¢. A card earning 12x Hilton points is therefore worth about 6¢ per dollar, less than a card earning 4x Chase points at 6¢. This is the adjustment most comparison tools skip entirely.
Some reward currencies unlock higher value when combined with a premium card. Chase Freedom Flex points alone are worth 1¢ each. If you also hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve in your wallet, those same points can be transferred to airline partners and become worth 1.5¢. That's a 50% increase in value with no extra spending. We account for this automatically based on the cards in your wallet.
If you tell us you're optimizing for a specific goal (travel, airline miles, hotel points, or pure cash back), we apply a ranking boost toward cards in that currency. This lets someone who's building towards a business class flight pick the card that earns the most useful points for that goal, even when two cards have similar nominal rates. Importantly, this boost affects ranking only; it's never shown to you as a false "cash value."
You're at a grocery store. You have two cards: the Hilton Honors Surpass (6x Hilton points at groceries) and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred (6% cash back at groceries).
A naive comparison sees a tie, since both are "6x" or "6%". But our engine values 6 Hilton points at 0.5¢ each = 3¢ per dollar. The Blue Cash Preferred earns 6¢ per dollar in real cash. The correct answer is the Blue Cash Preferred by a 2:1 margin, and that's what we return.
The recommendation screen shows your winning card's effective rate: the real cents-per-dollar value after point conversion, not the inflated ranking score. When the "Why this card?" section mentions an estimated cash value, it always uses this honest number.
The bar chart comparing all your cards uses the NMDY ranking score to show relative ordering. That is the correct use of that number, since it's a ranking, not a redemption value. We never label the ranking score as a dollar figure or percentage yield.
If a card not in your wallet would earn significantly more than your best card for a specific purchase, we show a suggestion. That suggestion requires both a meaningful ranking gap and a genuine real-value advantage; a preference boost alone cannot trigger a suggestion for a card that actually earns less per dollar.
We use the low-to-mid end of published point valuation ranges, for both ongoing earn rates and welcome bonuses. We'd rather understate the value of a great card than overstate it to make a recommendation look more compelling.
Compensation is never an input to the ranking formula. There is no variable in our engine for "which card pays us more." Should we ever introduce paid placement, it will carry an explicit sponsored label and sit apart from our genuine recommendations; it will never be blended into the organic ranking.
Card rates and point valuations change. We track when each card's data was last verified, and run automated freshness checks weekly for welcome bonuses and monthly for earn rates. Welcome bonus offers that go stale are suppressed outright — a hidden number is better than a confidently wrong one. Earn rates aren't hidden the same way, since a card's ongoing category bonuses are far less prone to silently changing than a limited-time signup offer; instead, a stale earn rate is flagged with a disclosure noting when it was last verified, so you know to double-check current terms before relying on it.
Your wallet remains stored locally on your device. When you request a recommendation, the card names or identifiers in your wallet, the selected merchant or spending category, and your ranking preference are transmitted temporarily to our server to calculate the result; merchant searches are also sent to identify the spending category. We never receive card numbers, balances, credentials, or transaction history — you tell us which cards you have, and we tell you which one to use. Full detail on exactly what's sent and why is in our Privacy Policy.
Every card in our database is researched individually: earn rates, point valuations, merchant bonuses, and welcome bonus amounts are verified against the issuer's current public terms before being added. We don't scrape or infer rates; each card entry is a deliberate, cited addition.
PullThisCard was built by a small team frustrated by the same problem: standing at a register with three rewards cards and no confident answer for which one to tap. Every existing tool either showed a static rate table (not helpful in the moment) or recommended cards based on undisclosed affiliate arrangements (not trustworthy).
The tool covers both US and Canadian cards, with more added regularly; the current number of cards available in our database is displayed in the app. It works as a progressive web app, installable on iOS and Android without going through an app store, and stores your wallet locally so there's no account to create.
We are independently operated. Questions, corrections to card data, or feedback about a recommendation can be sent to hello@pullthiscard.com.
When a card's "Apply" link is a genuine affiliate link, that's disclosed right next to the link itself — the button reads "Apply on [Issuer] →" and a compensation note sits directly beneath it. When we don't yet have an affiliate relationship for a card, the link instead reads "Find [Issuer]'s card page →" and says plainly that we don't currently receive compensation from it. The two are never blended: the wording always matches what the link actually is.
Affiliate relationships do not affect which card is recommended to you. The recommendation is determined entirely by the NMDY formula described above. The affiliate link, when one exists, is only where that already-determined recommendation happens to point.
PullThisCard is independently operated and is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with any card issuer unless an affiliate relationship is explicitly disclosed as described above. Issuer and network names are used only to identify the cards being described.
For full details, see our Affiliate Disclosure.