Maximize Your Credit score Card Rewards

Kudos is a useful internet browser extension that helps you maximize your bank card rewards earnings if you store on-line. 

When you’ve got a number of rewards playing cards, figuring out which card will get you the very best money again or journey rewards fee for various purchases generally is a problem. 

Between my spouse’s and my pockets, now we have greater than a dozen rewards playing cards. Whereas doing this assessment, I signed up myself, because it appears useful for my private wants.

It is browser plugin mechanically fills out your bank card particulars primarily based on which card affords the perfect rewards from that exact service provider. Right here’s a better take a look at how the Kudos pockets app works and who might profit most.

Kudos is a California-based enterprise capital-funded firm based in 2021. Founders Tikue Anazodo and Ahmad Ismail beforehand labored collectively at massive tech firms and determined to unravel one in all their largest challenges with rewards playing cards: figuring out which to make use of to maximise the rewards from every card of their pockets.

The Kudos system helps greater than 3,000 totally different credit score and debit playing cards and works with greater than 2 million retailers, so there’s a very good likelihood it’ll work with all your bank cards and the locations you store most.

They declare to have helped their 200,000 members earn over $150,000,000 in rewards to-date.

Kudos has raised $7 million, giving it room to develop and enhance. These funds have additionally allowed the corporate to speculate closely in safety features to maintain your bank card particulars protected, which ought to put most customers comfy so that they don’t have to fret about including their playing cards to the app.

The principle characteristic of the Kudos pockets helps you decide the perfect bank card for every buy, specializing in which card you will have that provides the perfect rewards in that buy class. It additionally works with over 15,000 taking part retailers to supply elevated rewards, much like different increase packages provided by bank card and funding firms.

Kudos is finest used as a browser extension on desktop or laptop computer computer systems, although you can too use it with Safari on iOS gadgets. There’s at present no app for Android customers, but it surely’s on their roadmap.

Choose The Finest Rewards Credit score Card At Checkout

The first characteristic of Kudos is a great bank card picker. The Kudos pockets seems at the place you’re buying and compares playing cards in your on-line pockets to decide on the perfect rewards card for that particular retailer. Whether or not you’re trying to earn money again or journey rewards, the Kudos app considers the place you’ll earn probably the most worth.

In keeping with the Kudos web site, it helps greater than 3,000 cost playing cards. Once I signed up, I used to be in a position to simply discover and add each card my spouse and I’ve to my account. That features some older Chase and Amex playing cards which might be not obtainable and each enterprise and private accounts.

Kudos Enhance

Kudos Enhance is a companion program (that’s additionally a part of the Kudos income mannequin) that means that you can earn enhanced rewards with taking part retailers. Whereas looking the highest offers, I noticed large manufacturers, together with Walmart, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Tractor Provide, Staples, Dick’s Sporting Items, Workplace Depot, Groupon, and CVS. The record consists of retail, journey, and different locations you seemingly already store.

With the intention to earn Kudos Enhance, it’s good to add your playing cards to your Kudos pockets and activate the extension at checkout. Enhance rewards are accrued in your Kudos account. When you attain a steadiness of $10 or extra, you may redeem them for an Amazon present card. Further redemption choices corresponding to money or airline miles are coming quickly.

After finishing a couple of signup duties within the app, I earned greater than $4 in rewards earlier than making my first Enhance-eligible buy.

Computerized Credit score Card Kind Filling

Whereas it’s not a standalone characteristic, the added comfort of mechanically filling in your bank cards when buying on-line is useful. Whereas I already get this from my browser and password supervisor, if I didn’t, I’d definitely take into account this a pleasant value-add. 

Kudos is totally free, so there’s not price so as to add it to your browser or iPhone and provides it a attempt. 

Kudos earns cash by referring folks to new bank cards and earns an affiliate fee in the event that they join. It additionally earns income from the Kudos Enhance program, getting a minimize of the bonus or sale from taking part retailers.

Kudos isn’t the one fintech firm attempting that can assist you maximize rewards. A few different alternate options embrace:

MaxRewards is a free app that helps you select the proper card for every buy however doesn’t have the identical degree of automated integrations as Kudos. It’s extra highly effective for managing your bank card portfolio, and the premium model, MaxRewards Gold helps you mechanically activate offers by your bank card portal. A Gold membership begins at $84 yearly. For extra particulars, take a look at our MaxRewards assessment.

CardPointers is much like Kudos, but it surely additionally means that you can mechanically activate merchant-specific bonuses in your current bank cards. Nonetheless, you must pay $60 per 12 months to unlock a lot of the options.

Whereas in style buying instruments like Rakuten, Honey, and Capital One Purchasing may also help you lower your expenses by coupons and cashback affords, Kudos gives a extra holistic and automatic strategy to maximizing your bank card rewards. By seamlessly integrating along with your current bank cards, Kudos units itself aside as the final word rewards optimization instrument for savvy consumers and bank card fans.

Opening an account took me about two minutes. I entered my identify, electronic mail tackle, and telephone quantity and needed to enter a code to confirm each. As soon as verified, Kudos took me by an onboarding course of the place I added my bank cards and the browser extension.

It was a clean and straightforward course of that anybody with fundamental web abilities ought to have the ability to deal with with out breaking a sweat.

Kudos makes an enormous deal of consumer safety, and is clear about its app and the steps it takes to maintain your info protected:

• 256-bit encryption: This is similar degree of encryption utilized by banks and different monetary platforms to make sure customers can’t learn your info, even when they in some way break into Kudos.
• Exterior auditing: Kudos hires outdoors auditors for SOC 2 safety with constant outdoors monitoring by a specialised digital safety vendor.
• AWS internet hosting: Kudos makes use of Amazon Net Companies secured internet hosting with encryption, one of many largest and most trusted cloud internet hosting suppliers.
• Knowledge by no means offered: Private information isn’t offered or shared with third events outdoors of distributors used to make the service work.

One of the best place to get assist with a Kudos account or get solutions to questions is by emailing assist@joinkudos.com. There are not any extra customer support strategies, corresponding to telephone assist.

The assist part has a hyperlink for a contact kind, which is actually the identical as electronic mail.

Why Ought to You Belief Me?

I’m a former financial institution supervisor and have been writing about fintech apps like Kudos since 2008. With greater than two dozen bank cards of my very own, I’m at all times looking out for brand new and distinctive apps that may assist me benefit from my bank card rewards. On this case, I signed up for the app myself.

The Faculty Investor crew works to supply unbiased evaluations to assist customers discover probably the most useful accounts and instruments on the most cheap worth. If I wouldn’t advocate it to my sister, I wouldn’t advocate it to The Faculty Investor readers.

Kudos is for anybody with a number of bank cards searching for assist figuring out the place to make use of every card to maximise their rewards. Because it’s free, there’s no hurt in attempting to determine if it’s a very good match in your wants.

Contemplating that every bank card has its personal “finest” rewards perks, it may be onerous to be sure you’re making the most of your card in one of the best ways. Particularly in case your playing cards have annual charges. When you’ve got a bank card with an annual charge, you need to make certain you’re getting sufficient worth from the cardboard to ensure the charge is worth it. Kudos may also help with that.

Kudos might not be price utilizing in the event you solely have one or two bank cards or are skittish about sharing your bank card particulars on-line. In any other case, it’s a fantastic worth contemplating the price and options.

Take a look at Kudos right here >>