Over the past year, I’ve jumped deep into the world of credit card rewards, maximizing redemption values, collection points and cash back, and taking advantage of lucrative welcome bonuses. One of the apps I’ve used to learn more about this is CardPointers, an excellent app from indie developer Emmanuel Crouvisier.
I had the opportunity to talk to Crouvisier about CardPointers, iOS 16, what it’s like to be a full-time indie developer in 2022, and much more. Plus an exclusive discount and offer for 9to5Mac readers.
Hands-on: CardPointers Can Help Maximize Credit Card Rewards
Competition in the credit card industry has increased dramatically in recent years. Companies such as American Express, Chase and Capital One have expanded their offerings to include huge welcome bonuses, new redemption offers, lucrative spend and reward categories, and much more.
Speaking from experience, this can be overwhelming and confusing at first. It’s easy to make mistakes; especially when card companies tempt you to redeem for low redemption values. CardPointers is designed to help you navigate through all of these situations.
When you open CardPointers for the first time, you will be prompted to go through the process of adding the credit cards you already have. During this process you can add the date you were approved, adjust the bonus categories if necessary and see all the available offers.
Entering the date you were approved for a card is especially important if the card has a welcome bonus or annual fee. CardPointers can help you track your progress toward a welcome bonus and remind you when your annual fee will be charged.
The latter is especially important if you want to contact your card company and see if there are any retention offers available to offset the annual fee. (Hint: there are usually, you just have to threaten to cancel/downgrade your card first.)
Once you’ve added your existing cards to CardPointers, you can tap the “Pointers” tab to see an overview of the best cards to use for different spending categories. These suggestions are purely based on the cards you already have. For example, if you have the Amex Gold Card, you will probably find it to be the best option for most purchases in restaurants and supermarkets.
The ‘Dashboard’ tab in the CardPointers app provides additional information about the cards you have. This includes a list of your cards, your annual cost total, your active offers, and more details about the best cards for different spending categories.
Finally, the “Dashboard” also includes an overview of the best card offers for the month in terms of welcome bonuses. If you’re looking to expand your arsenal of credit cards, this is a really handy tool to see welcome bonuses for some of the best cards out there.
Safari extension
One of my favorite aspects of CardPointers is the Safari extension. The Safari extension is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It is primarily intended to tell you which credit card is best to use on a particular website to maximize the cashback or points you receive for a purchase. For example, if you book a hotel, the CardPointers extension will show you which of your cards offers the best rewards for that purchase.
Another excellent benefit of the CardPointers extension for Safari is that it supports the ability to activate all your available offers on the Chase and American Express websites.
When you visit Chase or American Express, you’ll see a CardPointers notification that allows you to quickly sign up for your offers. Once you do this, the offers will also sync with your CardPointers account and will be included in all suggestions and directions.
CardPointers supports a number of different system features from iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. This includes things like app clips, Apple login, home screen widgets, Quick Note, Siri integrations, and more. There is also a dedicated Apple Watch app and apps for iPad and Mac.
You can get started with CardPointers at this link and get an exclusive 20% discount for being a 9to5Mac reader.
iOS 16
I had the opportunity to speak with CardPointers developer Emmanuel Crouvisier this week. One thing I was specifically interested in was what he has planned for iOS 16 and Apple’s other new software releases coming this fall. His answer? Basically everything.
Crouvisier: The first day of WWDC I always think I only need to include a few little things in my app to keep it fresh, but by the time I’m done watching all the relevant session videos, I’ve got a to-do list of more than 100 items. This year is no different.
- App Intents: These make creating new shortcuts *so* quick and easy for developers. I already had 5 shortcuts in the app, but having the option to have one enabled automatically on app installation makes them so much more accessible to users who wouldn’t normally venture into the Shortcuts app. I’ve made some major updates to my “Which map?” shortcut, and now a user can just say the name of a store, rather than just the type of purchase they are making, and the app will immediately tell them which card to use there to maximize their points or an Amex or Chase -use offer they have there. It even works completely with Siri, so if a user has their AirPods in they can use Hey Siri and know which card to use in a second without having to grab their phone or check the watch app.
- Focus filters: Thanks to Apple, I’ve finally been able to use the Focus modes, and I can’t imagine working any other way now. I followed Apple’s lead here in the implementation, and I used it during my work focus to show only my business cards in the app, and I created a custom focus mode called Travel that I set up to show all the cards with exchange rates in the app so that I am not surprised by a 3% surcharge on my purchases abroad. It’s a feature many users have been asking for, and its integration through focus filters was a perfect fit.
- Lock screen widgets: I’ve been having issues with the Watch app since v1 and with widgets since they came out, and now I have a new place where users can post the information that matters most to them. This is a great place to add a reminder about a special category bonus and expiring offers, and I’ll be exploring a few new ideas as well.
- Quick charts: This is the most amazing API I’ve seen from Apple. In just a few lines of code you can get really nice charts with great accessibility features, but it can do some really complex things with a few extra lines; it’s a huge addition to SwiftUI. There are many uses for maps in the app that I’ve wanted to do for a while but didn’t want to build my own map library. Problem solved!
go indie
At the beginning of this year, Crouvisier made the decision to quit his full-time job at a startup and focus entirely on CardPointers. With the broader context of recent changes to the App Store, I asked him how his first six months as a full-time indie went.
croudier: I think that’s the best decision I’ve ever made for myself! I’ve been working on CardPointers since 2019, and almost all the time I’ve also worked at a startup, which amounted to ~16 hour workdays, sacrificing sleep to have time to work, no evenings or weekends to relax, and I certainly have hit some unhealthy burnout periods, especially late summer which prepares for iOS release days every year.
Since I quit the startup job and was able to focus only on CardPointers, literally everything in my life has improved: I sleep well every day, I can decompress (some) evenings and weekends (I’m still a bit of a workaholic ), and CardPointers is doing better than ever – my first 2 months were focused solely on the business. I tripled sales in 2 months by focusing on bringing the app and extension to market and growing the business, rather than just improving the app.
Apple’s Small Business program was great for saving 15% on App Store sales, but I’ve discovered many benefits of using web payments through Stripe and RevenueCat to save even more and stay under the maximum revenue limit of Small Business to remain. From the user’s point of view, nothing beats the convenience of an in-app purchase, other than a discounted price via Apple Pay via a web checkout flow. The two work fantastically well together to cover all types of users.
apple card
Finally, given his in-depth and unparalleled knowledge of the credit card industry and rewards, I asked Emmanuel for his opinion on Apple Card. His advice? You’re probably better off with a different card.
croudier: There are so many more benefits to a good rewards card, such as a Chase Freedom, Sapphire Preferred, Citi Premier or Amex Gold card. Those cards allow you to earn transferable points that you can transfer to airlines and hotels to get much more value out of the points you earn — and their point multipliers for most categories are much higher than the Apple Card, too.
The Apple Card allows you to get up to 3% back on your purchase, while the cards I mentioned allow you to get 5x points back in some categories like restaurants, gas stations, etc., and those points are worth even more because you can exchange them for things like business class seats to Europe.
If someone spends $10,000 on their Apple Card in a year, they will get back up to $300, while the same $10,000 they spend on a good rewards card can earn them 50,000 points, and those points can be worth 4c or more with good redemption , meaning the real value would be $2,000. Literally 7x more value from using a good rewards card, and that’s what CardPointers helps users do: earn more with every purchase just by paying with the right card.
Even if you just want to focus on cash back, other cards can earn the same cash back as the Apple Card on even more categories and merchants. I’d like to see the Apple Card further improve their revenue categories, and more and more banks are making deals directly with specific merchants as a form of advertising, so I think we’ll continue to see more of that across all cards as a new source for them. of income.
Packing up
CardPointers is available as a free download, with an in-app subscription to unlock CardPointers Pro features.
9to5Mac readers can save 20% on CardPointers Pro annual and lifetime subscriptions. If you upgrade to the Lifetime plan through this link, you even get a $100 savings card that basically makes the upgrade free.
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