About Plastic Math

Plastic Math is a YouTube channel and website about winning the credit card game: more rewards, a better credit score, and no money lost to fees or interest you didn't need to pay.

Every card runs on numbers the bank has already worked out. What a point is really worth. When an annual fee pays for itself. Which date your credit report actually reads. How a balance on minimum payments turns into fifteen years of bills. Each video works one of those out on screen, and each guide here writes it down so you can come back to it.

Why the math is on screen

Most card advice is a list of cards and a link. We'd rather show the arithmetic, because then you don't have to take our word for anything. If a redemption is a good deal, you'll see the number that makes it one. If a card isn't earning its fee, you'll see the dollar gap.

That's also why the tools on this site are quick answers, not spreadsheets. Two or three numbers in, a plain answer out, and the math one tap away if you want it.

How we work

• Every figure has a source. Rates, fees, rules and statistics come from issuers, the credit bureaus, regulators and published research, listed at the bottom of each guide with the date we checked them. See our editorial standards.
• Examples are made up, the math isn't. Worked examples use invented households so the numbers are easy to follow. The arithmetic is real and you can redo it.
• We play the system, we don't break it. Nothing here involves breaking a card's terms.
• We explain and compare, we don't decide for you. We don't know your income, your goals or your other accounts, so we lay out how things work and compare options by criteria we state up front. The choice is yours.
• No one pays us to say anything. Right now we have no affiliate relationships. If that changes, here's how it will work.

Where to start

Pick the win you want: rewards and points, credit score, debt and interest or fees. Or watch the newest video on YouTube.