Starbucks, on the corner
$6.40 spent
Use Amex Gold.
4x restaurants
$0.20instead of $0.05
+$0.15 recovered at this counter
A standalone store codes as dining. The kiosk inside the supermarket would not.
Which card do I swipe?
Answered on your Lock Screen, before you unlock your phone — and without ever asking for your bank login.
Every other card app reads your accounts. CardSwipe asks which cards you carry, and nothing else.
Why it works without a loginThree seconds at a counter
You walk up to the counter
Location resolves the store — that is all it is used for. Nothing about the stop is logged.
Three inputs, none of them a password
- First
You name the cards you carry
Search the issuer, pick the product. Amex Gold, Sapphire Reserve, whatever is actually in your wallet. That is the entire setup, and it takes under a minute.
- Then
The rules are already loaded
Category multipliers, quarterly rotators, spend caps, activation state. CardSwipe knows what your cards earn, so you never type a reward rate.
- From then on
The answer arrives before you do
Walk up to a counter and the Lock Screen already shows the card to reach for. Open the app only when you want to check the ranking yourself.
The whole account of what we ask for
One column is what the others take. The other is the complete list of what CardSwipe asks for.
Given to other apps
Never asked, by CardSwipe
Bank username and password
—
Account balance
—
Full transaction history
—
Card numbers, CVV, expiry
—
Credit score
—
—
The cards you carry, typed in by product name
—
Merchant location, used to name the store and never stored
Running total collected by CardSwipe$0.00, zero credentials
And on the wrist already out of your pocket
The same ranking, one line shorter, for when the phone stays where it is.
The winning card, its rate, and how far ahead of your next card it is.
A tap on the wrist as you walk in, naming the card before the till.
Your whole wallet, ordered by what each card earns here.
Offers by deadline, with whether they still need activating.
The questions behind the answer
- Does Target count as a grocery store?Target codes as a superstore, not a supermarket, so grocery multipliers do not apply. What earns instead, and which stores do count.
- Best credit card for groceriesHow grocery rewards actually work: the rates worth carrying, the annual caps that end them, and the stores that never count.
- What happens when you hit a rewards capSpending caps quietly turn a bonus card into a base-rate card. How to tell when you have crossed one, and what to carry afterwards.
Be the reflex, not the afterthought
300
people have asked for early access. Add your email and you get one message when it opens, nothing else.
No bank login required to sign up, which is rather the point. Questions go to hello@cardswipe.app.
Which card do I swipe?
Answered on your Lock Screen, before you unlock your phone, and without ever asking for your bank login. Try it against a counter you actually stand at.
Example wallet of five cards: Blue Cash Preferred, Amex Gold, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Double Cash and Capital One Venture X. Pick a counter and watch which one wins.
You walk into
Whole Foods Market
GroceriesUse Blue Cash Preferred.
6% US supermarkets
$6.00back per $100 spent
- Blue Cash Preferred6% US supermarkets$6.00
- American Express Gold4x US supermarkets$3.20
- Citi Double Cash2% everywhere$2.00
- Capital One Venture X2x everything$1.60
- Chase Sapphire Reserve1x everything else$0.80
Points counted at 0.8¢, the conservative default you can change in Settings.
Reliable coding. Codes reliably as a US supermarket. Blue Cash Preferred earns 6% on the first $6,000 of US supermarket spend each year, then 1%. Amex Gold covers the next $25,000 at 4x.
Lock Screen
Saturday, June 14
9:41
CardSwipe
Use Blue Cash Preferred
Whole Foods Market, 6% US supermarkets
~$6.00 back per $100
Apple Watch
Best card
Blue Cash Preferred
6% US supermarkets
+$2.80 vs next
Whole Foods Market: use Blue Cash Preferred at 6% US supermarkets, worth about $6.00 per $100, $2.80 more than American Express Gold. Codes reliably as a US supermarket.
Three inputs, none of them a password
Setup is a list of card names. Everything after that is rules CardSwipe already keeps. See the whole sequence.
First
You name the cards you carry
Search the issuer, pick the product. Amex Gold, Sapphire Reserve, whatever is actually in your wallet. That is the entire setup, and it takes under a minute.
Then
The rules are already loaded
Category multipliers, quarterly rotators, spend caps, activation state. CardSwipe knows what your cards earn, so you never type a reward rate.
From then on
The answer arrives before you do
Walk up to a counter and the Lock Screen already shows the card to reach for. Open the app only when you want to check the ranking yourself.
The whole account of what we ask for
Every competitor reaches the same answer by asking for your bank login. This is the full ledger of what CardSwipe asks for instead. Read why it works without one.
Given to other apps
Never asked, by CardSwipe
Bank username and password
—
Account balance
—
Full transaction history
—
Card numbers, CVV, expiry
—
Credit score
—
—
The cards you carry, typed in by product name
—
Merchant location, used to name the store and never stored
Running total collected by CardSwipe$0.00, zero credentials
Made for iPhone, and the parts of it you already use
The answer arrives where your eyes already are. Nothing to open, nothing to sync, no dashboard to check.
- Lock Screen widgets
- Circular, rectangular and inline, so the card to use fits whichever slot you keep free.
- Arrival notifications
- One line when location resolves the merchant, with the rate and what it is worth per $100.
- The wallet, ranked
- Search a store and every card is ordered by what it would return there, not by name.
- Offers with their deadlines
- Sorted by what expires first, each showing whether it still needs activating.
Made for Apple Watch, for when the phone stays in a pocket
The same ranking, one line shorter, on the wrist that is already out of your pocket at the terminal.
- Best card, at a glance
- The winning card and its rate, with how far ahead of your next card it is.
- Your wallet on the wrist
- Every card and what it earns here, without reaching for the phone.
- Notifications on arrival
- A tap on the wrist as you walk in, naming the card before you reach the till.
One day, six counters, five cards
Scroll from morning to night. The wallet never changes; the right card changes at almost every stop.
7:10 am, so far today
$0.20
$0.15 of it is money the card in your pocket would have missed.
Shell, on the way in
$52.00 spent
Use Blue Cash Preferred.
3% US gas stations
$1.56instead of $0.42
+$1.14 recovered at this counter
The travel card is the habit here, and it earns a third as much.
Lunch, two blocks over
$18.00 spent
Use Amex Gold.
4x restaurants
$0.58instead of $0.14
+$0.44 recovered at this counter
Forty-four cents is not a life change. Five lunches a week is.
Whole Foods Market
$214.00 spent
Use Blue Cash Preferred.
6% US supermarkets
$12.84instead of $1.71
+$11.13 recovered at this counter
The big one: same trolley, same queue, eleven dollars different at the terminal.
Delta, booked direct
$412.00 spent
Use Chase Sapphire Reserve.
4x flights booked direct
$13.18instead of $3.30
+$9.88 recovered at this counter
Booked on the airline's own site. Through a travel site the same fare earns 1x.
Target, for the school run
$63.00 spent
Use Citi Double Cash.
2% everywhere
$1.26instead of $0.50
+$0.76 recovered at this counter
Superstore, not supermarket. No grocery bonus, whatever is in the cart.
By the end of the day
$29.62
recovered across six counters, $23.50 of it from swaps you would not have made on your own.
Repeat that week after week and it is the difference between a card that sits in a wallet and one that pays for itself.
A sample day run on the beta build with the five-card wallet. Figures use published issuer terms at a conservative 0.8¢ a point, against a single card carried for everything.
Precise, unhurried, never salesy
The app sounds like a careful person rather than a marketer. Switch the voice to read the same five moments the other way.
Hype carries the claim. Nothing is measurable, so nothing can be checked.
- Lock Screen widget
Maximize your rewards!
- Card comparison
Much better than your other cards
- Category flag
This is definitely a grocery purchase
- Monthly summary
You earned $312!
- Expiring offer
Don't miss out — activate now!
Showing A standard rewards app copy. Hype carries the claim. Nothing is measurable, so nothing can be checked.
Two people are accountable for every claim on this site
CardSwipe is built by its founders, in public, before launch. If a number here is wrong, there is someone to tell.
Shaurya Dattani
Co-founder
Builds the ranking engine and the iOS and watchOS app: the card rules, the merchant matching, and the widget that answers before the phone is unlocked.
LinkedInAarav Patel
Co-founder
Works on the reward data and the product itself: keeping published issuer terms current, and deciding what the app is allowed to ask of anyone using it.
LinkedInThe questions behind the answer
The rules that decide which card wins are public, and mostly unread. These are the ones that change the answer most often. All guides.
- Does Target count as a grocery store?Target codes as a superstore, not a supermarket, so grocery multipliers do not apply. What earns instead, and which stores do count.
- Best credit card for groceriesHow grocery rewards actually work: the rates worth carrying, the annual caps that end them, and the stores that never count.
- What happens when you hit a rewards capSpending caps quietly turn a bonus card into a base-rate card. How to tell when you have crossed one, and what to carry afterwards.
Follow the build
CardSwipe is being built in public, before launch. The accounts are where the work shows up first.
LinkedIncardswipe-appBuild notes, launch dates and anything we learn about card rules worth writing down.Instagram@cardswipe.appScreens from the build, and the answer at counters we actually stand at.FacebookCardSwipeThe same updates, for anyone who reads there rather than anywhere else.
The founders post about the build in their own words too.
Be the reflex, not the afterthought
300
people have asked for early access. Add your email and you get one message when it opens, nothing else.
No bank login required to sign up, which is rather the point.