Are you missing out on credit card rewards? According to Glyph, you may be losing as much as $600 annually by not optimizing and maximizing rewards.[1]
Glyph was introduced by a Detroit firm in 2012 as a free application to help you as a consumer to choose and manage your credit options in order to get more rewards, and also to help improve your credit score. Glyph’s founders, Mike Vichich and Tyler Felous, call their product “peace of wallet.”
What Glyph does is analyze your purchase trends with your rewards potential. Glyph then recommends three credit cards to serve your needs. This is all done through your iPhone. You check the retailer by location and the program optimizes your rewards for the purchase.
This saves you time and also lets you know what rewards you may have lost.
Currently, Glyph does not require linking a bank account to use their service. The company is working on options that would allow consumers to link with their bank accounts. The company partners with Yodlee Interactive, a company which harnesses financial data to create personalized digital solutions, especially for banks and financial institutions.
When users link in their accounts, the Glyph application is able to access transactions and account data, along with credit balance and utilization.
Then the magic happens. What does this mean for you?
If you’re like most people, the application has to be well worth it if you must pull up an application to decide on which card to use for any purchase to optimize rewards like cashback or air miles. Glyph has the advantage of “doing more” so that you not only see where your rewards are coming from and get a chance to make maximum use of these rewards, but you also keep track and manage your credit as well.
The latter benefit may be the most important one of all.
Although you do have to bring up the application for each location and purchase, Vichich and Felous say that the application is very comprehensive and helps consumers manage their credit as well. As Vichich explains, “…it’ll pull in your credit balance and also your credit utilization.” [2] He adds that most people don’t realize if you have 30% of your credit utilized now, it will have a negative impact on your credit score if you frequently exceed the 30%.
You can also apply for new credit cards through Glyph, with banks partnering with Glyph.
Although Glyph recommends credit cards to users and thus makes a commission when you apply for one, Glyph only proposes the card that is best for your needs. Although Glyph is currently only available for IOS devices, plans are in the works for expansion to new devices and platforms as well!
[1] https://www.paywithglyph.com/
[2] http://betakit.com/2013/02/13/glyph-debuts-updated-app-new-web-app-to-give-consumers-peace-of-wallet
