Five questions about how you actually spend, fly and pay - and one honest recommendation from the cards we’ve reviewed, including the recommendation most card quizzes won’t give: don’t get a rewards card at all if the numbers say so.
Prefer to browse first? The quiz draws on our main roundups: best rewards card if you don’t fly business class, best Qantas points credit cards, best Velocity credit cards, best cashback credit cards and best balance transfer cards.
Want the working behind the answer? Every recommendation links to its full review, or run your exact numbers through the worth-it calculator.
Common questions
How does the quiz work?
Five quick questions about how you spend and whether you fly, then one honest recommendation, including “you probably should not get a rewards card” when that is the right answer.
Is the recommendation based on commission?
No. Recommendations follow the maths, not affiliate payouts. See how we review cards for our method.
How the quiz decides
The quiz is not a personality test. It collects the four inputs that mathematically determine which card wins, then runs the same calculation every review on this site ends with.
- How much you spend, because the annual fee is fixed and the rewards are not. Spend is what decides whether a fee pays for itself.
- Where you spend it, because supermarket and fuel earn rates differ sharply from everything else, and because some of your merchants may not take Amex.
- Whether you carry a balance, because interest at 20%-plus overwhelms any rewards rate and changes the answer completely.
- What you will redeem for, because a point is worth roughly half a cent as a gift card and several times that as a well-chosen flight.
Those four produce a net annual value per card, and the highest number wins. No weighting of “lifestyle”, no scoring of how premium you feel.
The recommendation most quizzes will not make
Sometimes the answer is that you should not get a rewards card at all.
If you revolve a balance, rewards are irrelevant - the interest costs more than the points return, every time. If your annual spend sits below the break-even for the fee, a no-annual-fee card beats the rewards card outright. Most comparison sites will not tell you this, because a card application is how they get paid. This quiz will, because the alternative is recommending something the numbers do not support.
A worked example
Two people, same card, opposite answers.
Someone spending $3,500 a month, redeeming for flights at about 1.5c, on a card earning 1 point per dollar with a $195 fee: roughly $630 earned against $195, so about $435 net. Clear yes.
Someone spending $900 a month, redeeming for gift cards at 0.5c, same card: roughly $54 earned against $195. A $141 annual loss dressed up as a rewards program.
What the quiz cannot know
- Whether you will be approved. Income, existing limits and credit history decide that, and no quiz can see them.
- Whether you will actually redeem. Unredeemed points are worth nothing. If you have never booked a reward seat, be honest in the redemption question.
- Introductory offers. Sign-up bonuses change year one dramatically and year two not at all. Judge the card on the ongoing position.
- Your spending changing. A card chosen for a $4,000-a-month lifestyle stops making sense if that drops. Re-run it annually before the fee hits.
Common questions
Do you get paid for the recommendation?
Where an affiliate link exists, yes, and it is disclosed on every page. The ranking is produced by the calculation, not the commission - which is why “get no rewards card” is a possible outcome.
Can I see the maths instead?
Yes - the card worth-it calculator runs the same numbers with every input visible.
What if I am carrying debt?
Deal with the debt first. Start with the balance transfer calculator, and if the repayment does not clear it, the National Debt Helpline (1800 007 007) is free and independent.
How often should I redo this?
Once a year, just before the annual fee is charged. That is the moment the decision is actually live.
