Four households, one month of spending each.
Each profile is one month of household spending broken into categories — the supermarket run, the fuel, the dining, the bills — with every card in these tables run against that exact pattern.
It shows which advertised bonuses a given pattern of spending can actually reach, and which sit out of range however long you hold the card.
- Profiles published
- 5
- Smallest pattern
- $1,900/mo
- Largest pattern
- $6,900/mo
The Corporate Consultant
Client dinners, flights and rideshares go on a personal card and come back later as expenses. The spend is lumpy but high, so minimum-spend hurdles clear early — which makes the annual fee, rather than the bonus, the number worth checking.
Everything else $3,100 · Travel $1,400 · Dining out $1,200
The Inner-North Couple
Two incomes, one card, and a car that barely moves. Spending is steady rather than seasonal: a supermarket shop most weeks, dinner out often, utilities on direct debit. Even patterns like this favour a strong base rate over category bonuses.
Everything else $1,500 · Supermarkets $1,400 · Dining out $1,100
The Light Spender
A single income and $1,900 a month going through the card. At that level most headline bonuses are out of reach, because the minimum spends are simply higher than the pattern. What matters instead is the fee as a share of what the card earns, and whether points expire.
Supermarkets $700 · Everything else $350 · Dining out $350
The Overseas Regular
A large share of this card's spend is billed in foreign currency — offshore software and hardware, hotel deposits, and a few weeks abroad each year. Lifted overseas earn rates and foreign transaction fees pull against each other, so the net position depends on the mix.
Overseas spend $1,800 · Everything else $900 · Travel $800
The Suburban Family
Groceries dominate: a large weekly shop, fuel through school term, and bills that arrive in seasonal lumps. Totals run high enough to clear most minimum spends without anyone changing how they spend, so earn caps matter more here than hurdles.
Everything else $2,250 · Supermarkets $1,900 · Utilities & insurers $1,300