Maximize Your Credit score Card Rewards

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

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

Between my spouse’s and my pockets, we now 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 specific service provider. Right here’s a more in-depth have 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 giant tech corporations and determined to unravel one in all their greatest challenges with rewards playing cards: realizing 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 an excellent likelihood it’ll work with your whole 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 security measures 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 primary characteristic of the Kudos pockets helps you choose the perfect bank card for every buy, specializing in which card you’ve got that provides the perfect rewards in that buy class. It additionally works with over 15,000 taking part retailers to supply elevated rewards, just like different increase packages provided by bank card and funding corporations.

Kudos is finest used as a browser extension on desktop or laptop computer computer systems, although you may as well use it with Safari on iOS gadgets. There’s at the moment no app for Android customers, however it’s on their roadmap.

Choose The Finest Rewards Credit score Card At Checkout

The first characteristic of Kudos is a brilliant 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 seeking to earn money again or journey rewards, the Kudos app considers the place you’ll earn essentially the most worth.

Based on the Kudos web site, it helps greater than 3,000 fee playing cards. Once I signed up, I used to be capable of simply discover and add each card my spouse and I’ve to my account. That features some older Chase and Amex playing cards which can be not out there 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 permits you to earn enhanced rewards with taking part retailers. Whereas searching the highest offers, I noticed huge manufacturers, together with Walmart, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Tractor Provide, Staples, Dick’s Sporting Items, Workplace Depot, Groupon, and CVS. The listing contains retail, journey, and different locations you possible already store.

With a view to earn Kudos Enhance, that you must add your playing cards to your Kudos pockets and activate the extension at checkout. Enhance rewards are collected in your Kudos account. When you attain a stability of $10 or extra, you’ll be able to redeem them for an Amazon reward card. Extra redemption choices resembling money or airline miles are coming quickly.

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

Automated 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 individuals to new bank cards and earns an affiliate fee in the event that they enroll. It additionally earns income from the Kudos Enhance program, getting a lower of the bonus or sale from taking part retailers.

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

MaxRewards is a free app that helps you select the fitting card for every buy however doesn’t have the identical stage 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 via your bank card portal. A Gold membership begins at $84 yearly. For extra particulars, take a look at our MaxRewards assessment.

CardPointers is just like Kudos, however it additionally permits you to mechanically activate merchant-specific bonuses in your current bank cards. Nonetheless, you must pay $60 per 12 months to unlock many of the options.

Whereas fashionable buying instruments like Rakuten, Honey, and Capital One Buying might help you get monetary savings via coupons and cashback affords, Kudos offers 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 device for savvy customers and bank card fanatics.

Opening an account took me about two minutes. I entered my identify, electronic mail handle, and telephone quantity and needed to enter a code to confirm each. As soon as verified, Kudos took me via 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 primary web expertise 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 data protected:

• 256-bit encryption: This is identical stage of encryption utilized by banks and different monetary platforms to make sure customers can’t learn your data, even when they one way or the other 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 bought: Private knowledge is rarely bought or shared with third events outdoors of distributors used to make the service work.

The perfect place to get assist with a Kudos account or get solutions to questions is by emailing assist@joinkudos.com. There aren’t any further customer support strategies, resembling telephone assist.

The assist part has a hyperlink for a contact kind, which is basically 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 all the time looking out for brand spanking new and distinctive apps that may assist me take advantage of my bank card rewards. On this case, I signed up for the app myself.

The School Investor group works to supply unbiased opinions to assist customers discover essentially the most useful accounts and instruments on the most cheap value. If I wouldn’t advocate it to my sister, I wouldn’t advocate it to The School Investor readers.

Kudos is for anybody with a number of bank cards in search of assist realizing the place to make use of every card to maximise their rewards. Because it’s free, there’s no hurt in attempting to resolve if it’s an excellent match in your wants.

Contemplating that every bank card has its personal “finest” rewards perks, it may be exhausting 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 wish to make sure you’re getting sufficient worth from the cardboard to ensure the charge is worth it. Kudos might help with that.

Kudos might not be value utilizing for those who solely have one or two bank cards or are skittish about sharing your bank card particulars on-line. In any other case, it’s an important worth contemplating the price and options.

Try Kudos right here >>