How Lirandel picks a credit card for you

By Amine, founder of Lirandel. Last fact-checked October 28, 2026. General information, not financial advice.

Short answer: Lirandel reads your real spending from a statement, then works out what each card it checks would add to the cards you already have over your first two years: rewards after the annual fee, plus a welcome bonus only if your usual spending would reach it. Points are valued at what they're worth as cash, and travel value is shown separately as “up to”. Cards are ranked by that 2-year total and never by what Lirandel earns.

Step 1: what you actually spend

Lirandel reads a card or bank statement you upload and sorts each purchase into a kind of spending: groceries, dining, gas, travel, shopping and so on. It turns that into a yearly amount for each kind.

Some money out isn't counted as card spending, because a card can't usefully earn on it: rent and housing, cash withdrawals, taxes, fees, interest, transfers between your own accounts, and income. Purchases that were refunded aren't counted either.

Step 2: what each card would earn on it

For each card, Lirandel applies the card's own rates, read from the issuer's page with the date it was checked:

Category rates and caps. For example, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express pays 6% at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 a year. Above a cap, Lirandel uses the card's base rate.
The annual fee is subtracted every year. Where a card waives it the first year (the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express charges $0, then $95), the yearly figure still uses the full fee, and the 2-year total charges it only once.
Foreign transaction fees. If your statements show foreign fees, a card that charges them is counted as costing about what you pay today. If an issuer's page doesn't state the fee, Lirandel counts it as charged rather than assume it's zero.

Some things are left out on purpose, because they depend on choices Lirandel can't predict:

Rotating 5% categories, which change every quarter.
Statement credits (dining, rideshare, hotel credits). Lirandel lists them for you to judge, but they're not in the ranking.
Extra points for booking through an issuer's travel site.

Step 3: points valued as cash

Issuers don't publish one value for a point. Lirandel uses what a point is worth as cash (a statement credit or deposit), from a published third-party estimate with its date:

Card	As cash	Toward travel
American Express® Gold Card	0.6¢	1¢
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card	1¢	1¢
Capital One Venture Rewards	0.5¢	1¢

The ranking always uses the cash value. When travel would be worth more, Lirandel adds a line underneath, “Up to $X if you use the points for travel”, so you can see the upside without it inflating the estimate. You can change the point value in Settings.

Step 4: what it adds to your cards, over two years

A new card only helps on the spending where it beats the cards you already have. So Lirandel imagines you add the card and use each card where it earns most, then subtracts what you'd earn using your current cards well. That difference, after the new card's fee, is what it adds a year.

2-year total = what it adds a year × 2 + a welcome bonus your spending would reach + any first-year fee waiver

A welcome bonus counts only if your usual spending reaches the issuer's requirement in time. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card's bonus needs $5,000 of purchases in 3 months; at $1,000 a month you wouldn't reach it, so Lirandel doesn't count it.
Where an issuer's page states an offer, Lirandel counts that amount. Where it says offers vary by person, or shows none, Lirandel counts none.
Discover's Cashback Match (all the cash back you earn in the first year, matched once) counts as a one-time bonus equal to that first year.

Why two years? One year overstates cards with big bonuses; a longer window understates them and assumes you'll keep the card for years. Two years puts the bonus and the ongoing earnings side by side.

Step 5: the labels you'll see

+$X/yr: the card adds money every year, after its fee. Under it: the 2-year total.
Bonus only: the card adds less than $1 a year after its fee, or costs you, but its welcome bonus makes the 2-year total positive. Lirandel shows what happens after the bonus.
Adds nothing: neither its rewards nor its bonus beat what you have.

An example, from Lirandel's own math: someone who already has the Citi Double Cash® Card and spends $2,500 a month with the average US household's mix (see the groceries guide for one category in detail) would see the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at the top: about $695 over two years, including a $750 welcome bonus, then costing about $28 a year. Next comes the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express: about $674 over two years, including a $250 welcome bonus and no fee the first year, then adding about $165 a year. Which is better depends on whether you'd keep the new card after its bonus, and Lirandel shows both so you can decide.

Step 6: when Lirandel won't suggest a new card

You carry a balance. If your statements show card interest, or you tell Lirandel you don't pay in full, Lirandel doesn't push a rewards card. Paying down the balance comes first.
The gain is small. A new card means a credit check and a new account, so Lirandel only suggests one when it adds at least $300 a year on top of using your current cards well. The full ranked list is still there to browse.
The data is thin. With less than about two months of card history, Lirandel marks its estimate as rough and doesn't suggest a new card.
Better use of what you have. If you pay by debit card, Lirandel first checks whether using a card you already have would earn more.

Where the card terms come from

Lirandel checks 13 US cards so far (11 earn rewards; the others are 0% intro APR cards compared only when you carry a balance). Every term is read from the issuer's own page, with the date, and re-checked at least every 30 days; older terms show a warning. If a page doesn't state a term, Lirandel leaves it out or says it's unknown rather than guessing. See them all on the rates page.

How Lirandel earns money

Lirandel earns nothing from any product on this page today: it has no partner agreements with these companies. If that changes, what Lirandel would earn will be shown next to each one before you click, and it never changes the order.
What Lirandel earns is not part of the calculation, and Lirandel's automated tests fail if it ever changes the order.
Lirandel doesn't sell your data.