The New Year Card Audit: Claire's Annual Review Framework
Every January, Claire audits every card she holds. The question for each: did it earn more than it cost in the last 12 months?
The Audit Framework
Claire's annual card audit runs the same calculation for every card: total rewards earned minus annual fee. If the result is negative, the card is cancelled or product-changed to a no-fee version. If the result is positive, the card stays. If the result is barely positive, she checks whether a better option now exists for the same spending category.
The audit takes approximately 45 minutes per card. She runs it in January because that is when annual fees are easiest to remember and when new card offers are often most competitive.
What to Pull
For each card: log in and export the previous year's transactions. Sum by category — dining, groceries, travel, gas, other. Multiply each category total by the card's earn rate in that category. Convert points to cash value using standard valuation (1.25 cents for Chase Ultimate Rewards through portal, 1.8 cents for Amex Membership Rewards at typical redemption, face value for cash back). Subtract annual fee. That is the card's net annual value to you, personally, at your spending level.
What Usually Changes
The most common outcome of the audit: a card that was worth keeping at lower spend has become marginal. A retail card opened for a welcome bonus that now earns 1% and charges $75/year. A travel card acquired for the welcome bonus that is no longer earned against because travel patterns changed. The audit catches these situations before another year's fee posts.
The second most common: discovering that a card is worth far more than remembered, typically the Amex Gold, whose credits most people undercount. Run the credit math before canceling any annual fee card — the credits often change the outcome entirely.