Why UseIt?

It started with a spreadsheet

Like a lot of people who hold more than one premium card, I kept a spreadsheet. One tab per card, one row per benefit, a column for the month, a note for whether I had used it yet. Every time an issuer added a new credit or changed how one reset, I added another row and told myself I would keep up with it.

The problem is that card benefits do not behave like a list. Some reset monthly, some quarterly, some twice a year, and some on the anniversary of when you opened the card. A few can be used in pieces. Others are all-or-nothing. Some only unlock after you spend a certain amount. A spreadsheet cannot tell you that a $15 credit expires tonight, or that you have quietly let the same $50 lapse three quarters in a row. It just sits there, waiting for you to remember to open it.

I did not remember. By the end of the year I had missed enough credits that the annual fees I was paying stopped making sense, and I had no clean record of what I had actually used versus what had simply expired. Tracking everything reliably with a spreadsheet was, in practice, impossible.

So I built a website for it

UseIt is the version of that spreadsheet that does the remembering for you. You add the cards you hold, and UseIt already knows each card's credits, how often they reset, and which ones need your card anniversary to track correctly. From there it does three simple things well.

• Shows what is available right now. One number for the value you can still use this period, with the benefits closest to expiring at the top.
• Makes marking a benefit used effortless. Tap once for full credits, enter an amount for partial ones, or log spend toward thresholds. UseIt opens the next period automatically.
• Keeps an honest history. Every period is recorded as used, partially used, or missed, so you can see whether a card's annual fee is really paying for itself.

What UseIt is not

UseIt does not connect to your bank, read your transactions, or ask for account numbers. It is a focused tracker, not a budgeting app. You tell it when you have used a benefit, and it keeps the calendar straight. That keeps it simple, private, and fast enough to check in the checkout line.

Who it is for

If you hold one premium card and want to make sure the fee is worth it, UseIt will get you there. If you hold several and have ever opened a spreadsheet in a restaurant to check whether a dining credit had reset, it was built for you specifically.

Not sure what your cards include? Browse the card guides to see every benefit and what it is worth.