CardStack Insiders #8

Hey, Adam here. Happy Sunday!

CardStack v1.4.0 is rolling out to the App Store this week with a big update including a revamped spending analysis experience (aka Swipes), a more accurate CardStack ROI card (and Net Fee Offset on card screens), proactive Stack AI Insights, transfer bonus notifications, a new Lifetime plan, and a lot more. Details at the bottom.

If you've been enjoying CardStack, I'd really appreciate a rating and a review on the App Store.

Not all transfer bonuses are created equal, and Chase's two active deals this week are a perfect illustration.

First, now through June 5th, Chase is offering a 30% bonus when transferring points to Southwest. Transfer 10,000 Chase points, you'll get 13,000 Southwest points. Bonus points don't count toward the Companion Pass or tier qualification.

Southwest points are dynamically priced, meaning their value fluctuates with the cost and demand of each flight. The median value tends to land around 1.3 cents per point. With this 30% bonus, you're effectively getting about 1.7 cents per Chase point. Solid, not spectacular.

Chase is also offering a 55% transfer bonus to Marriott through June 30th. Sounds impressive. Deserves skepticism. Marriott points are only worth around 0.8 cents each on average. Even with the bonus, you're squeezing maybe 1.2 to 1.3 cents of value per Chase point, well below what Chase points can be worth.

If you have a specific, high-value Marriott redemption already lined up, maybe a transfer makes sense. Otherwise, this is a case where a big bonus number is doing a lot of work to make a mediocre transfer partner look more appealing than it is.

Transfer bonuses pop up all the time. The easiest way to stay on top of them is our active transfer bonuses page on CardStack — live end dates, ratios, and every current Chase, Amex, Citi, and Capital One deal in one place — or track your points in CardStack and you'll get notified via push notifications. More on that below.

If you have an Amex Business Platinum or Business Gold, you can now get up to $300/year back on a ChatGPT Business account. Enrollment is required on the Amex site or app. ChatGPT Business is $25/seat/month on monthly billing or $20/seat/month on annual billing, with a two-seat minimum, so $50/mo at the floor (or $40/mo on annual). A promo code like this can cut that in half.

At $50/mo, the $300 credit covers six months for two accounts. Next year, if you have both cards, that's $600 in credits, which covers two users for the full year. Worth checking out if your usage doesn't require the $100 or $200 plan.

I've already added this credit in CardStack v1.4.0, and the app should track it automatically as long as you're a CardStack+ user.

The next phase of the JetBlue/United Blue Sky partnership is active. TrueBlue and MileagePlus elites now get reciprocal priority boarding, preferred seating, free checked bags, and same-day standby when flying the other airline. Better than nothing, though I wish it included preferred seating at booking for top-tier elites.

Doctor of Credit has the details. Never used the credit on FedEx personally — I always use it for GrubHub — so not a big deal here.

• Accor: Mega Offer, up to 40% off Americas
• Choice: 8K bonus points every 2 stays
• Marriott × Starbucks: Sip, Share & Earn Sweepstakes + $5 GC

• 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: Delta One from 85K SkyMiles
• 🇮🇪 Ireland: Aer Lingus Biz from 45K Alaska
• 🇮🇹 Italy: Biz class from 55K Flying Blue
• 🇬🇧 London: Virgin Upper Class from 29K + ~$700
• 🇵🇫 Tahiti: LAX–PPT from 24K Cap One miles

Besides the Chase deals above, here are the other active transfer bonuses on CardStack (as of May 17, 2026). Confirm ratios and end dates in your issuer portal before you transfer.

• Amex → Hilton: 20% through May 30
• Capital One → Qantas: 20% through May 31
• Citi ThankYou → Preferred Hotels: 30% through June 13
• Citi ThankYou → Wyndham: 25% through June 13
• Rove → Aeroplan: 25% through June 6

As I mentioned earlier, in CardStack v1.4.0, you can also get a push notification when a new transfer bonus goes live for a rewards program you're tracking. Update to v1.4.0 when it hits the App Store this week, add your points balances for the programs you care about (Amex, Chase, Citi, and the rest) in Points Tracker, and CardStack will notify you when a fresh bonus drops for one of those programs.

I'm working on making this faster and more real-time soon, and email alerts are on the roadmap too.

CardStack v1.4.0 has been submitted to Apple and should be live soon.

It's a big release with a lot of improvements:

• I've made the CardStack ROI math more precise:
  • The CardStack ROI widget on Home and your individual card totals (Net Fee Offset widget on card screen) are now anchored to the same fee-anniversary calculation, so the numbers are consistent everywhere you look.
  • First-year credits count. For recently-opened cards, credits redeemed between your card open date and your first annual fee posting now contribute toward that fee — capturing the full value of your card from the start.
  • “Credits available” reflects your card's annual value minus what you've captured this fee year.
  • New in-app explainers: Tap “How is this calculated?” on any card screen to see the math for each number. Tap the CardStack ROI widget on Home to flip it and see how the aggregate is computed.
  • For the most accurate data, I highly recommend you set the ‘Card Open’ and ‘Next Fee Due’ dates for each of your cards in the app to unlocks the most accurate, anniversary-aware math.
• New ‘Swipes’ Experience:
  • The Swipes tab on Home now includes two new screens:
    • Summary: shows you how many rewards you've earned vs missed from your cards at a glance. It will also break it down by category.
    • Transactions: shows you individual transactions across all of your cards and whether you've earned the maximum amount of points on each purchase or left some on the table by using the wrong card.
    • Fix My Stack: A list of recommendations about which cards you should use for specific purchases to maximize your points and miles.
• CardStack now supports Bilt's new earning structure more accurately:
  • Obsidian 3x Category: if you have the Bilt Obsidian card, you can tell CardStack whether your 3x category is Dining or Grocery, so recommendations and swipe analysis reflect how your card is actually set up.
  • Rent Rewards: Bilt rent rewards are now calculated separately from normal card spend. CardStack can estimate rent points using either Housing-only rewards or Flexible Bilt Cash, depending on the option you use.
  • Rent Rewards Estimate: on Bilt card details screen, you'll now see your detected rent payment, everyday Bilt spend, unlocked rent tier, estimated rent points, and the statement cycle being used.
  • Rent Transactions: Bilt rent swipes now show how rent points were estimated, including whether the estimate came from Housing-only rewards or Flexible Bilt Cash. You can also manually set the actual posted points if Bilt reports something different.
  • Rent Target Notifications: for Housing-only rewards, CardStack can notify you when your everyday Bilt spend reaches the rent rewards tier you care about, like 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%.
  • You can update your Bilt settings from the Bilt card's Card Details screen by tapping Edit, then choosing your Obsidian 3x category and rent rewards option.
• Other improvements and bug fixes:
  • A cleaner credit review flow when CardStack finds a credit redemption that needs your confirmation.
  • Improved automatic-credit redemption & tracking logic.
  • A personalized bonuses view for transfer bonuses in the Points screen.
  • Program hubs now do a better job surfacing limited-time opportunities.
  • Browser Extension onboarding is smoother, with more reliable pairing.
  • Card catalog updates, including Amex Centurion, Navy Federal Flagship Rewards, and Wells Fargo Autograph Journey.
  • Cleaner Profile/Settings screen.
  • Performance and speed improvements.

Adam

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