Card Value

Card Value

Return a compact first-year value estimate for one exact card variant.

When To Use

When the user asks about a card's value, worth, or first-year return. Trigger phrases: "card-value", "is it worth it", "first year value", "value estimate", "how much is the card worth".

Input Format

The user provides a card name followed by an optional spending breakdown:

• card-value Chase Sapphire Preferred — uses default spend profile
• card-value Chase Sapphire Preferred $500/mo dining, $200/mo travel, $3000/mo other — uses provided breakdown

Default moderate-spender profile (if none given): $500/mo dining, $200/mo travel, $100/mo streaming, $200/mo groceries, $2000/mo other.

Workflow

1. Resolve card identity — normalize and match to one exact variant. If ambiguous, return a numbered choice list and stop.
2. Search — use WebSearch by default for current welcome offer and fee details. If BRAVE_API_KEY is available and curl exists, you may use one Brave Search API call instead.
3. Fetch pages — use WebFetch by default to fetch the issuer and approved secondary pages before deciding whether another search is needed.
4. Pace any follow-up searches — if another search is needed, wait briefly instead of bursting requests.
5. Research — collect annual fee, welcome offer (bonus + spend requirement), earning rates by category, and statement credits.
6. Compute — first_year_value = welcome_bonus_value + annual_earn_value + total_credits - annual_fee.
7. Confidence — flag uncertain claims. Use 1 cpp baseline unless a known portal/transfer premium exists.

Step 1: Card Identity Resolution

Common Abbreviations

Only shorthands and ambiguous names need entries here. Cards with full, unambiguous names (e.g., "Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless", "Chase United Explorer", "American Express Hilton Honors Aspire") are resolved via search — no table entry needed.

Supported Issuers

American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, Robinhood, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo.

Step 2: Search

Use the platform's WebSearch and WebFetch tools by default. If BRAVE_API_KEY is available and the runtime also provides curl, you may use Brave Search API instead for faster and more repeatable search results.

Optional Brave template:

curl -sS "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search?q=CARD+NAME+welcome+offer+annual+fee&count=20" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: $BRAVE_API_KEY"

Search Budget Rule

Treat search as scarce and paced. Built-in web search is the default path; if Brave mode is used, it may rate-limit after only a few closely spaced requests.

• Start with one search.
• Fetch the issuer and approved secondary pages before deciding whether any additional search is needed.
• If an extra search is needed, wait about 2 to 5 seconds first.
• If Brave returns 429, wait about 8 to 15 seconds and retry once.
• If Brave is unavailable, continue with WebSearch + WebFetch.
• If it still fails, continue with the best evidence already gathered and note the limitation in ## 📋 Confidence Notes.

Source Policy

• Issuer-first: check the card's official product page first.
• Max 5 secondary sources from: NerdWallet (preferred), The Points Guy (preferred), Bankrate (preferred), One Mile at a Time (preferred), Doctor of Credit (preferred), Upgraded Points.
• Disallowed: Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, referral links, user forums.

Step 4: Fetch Pages

Pick the top issuer URL and up to 2 secondary URLs (prefer nerdwallet.com and thepointsguy.com) from the search results. Fetch in parallel with WebFetch.

An approved secondary page means a URL whose hostname matches one of the approved secondary domains named in this skill. Do not fetch or cite secondary pages from any other domain.

URL Safety Rules

• Prefer WebFetch for page retrieval. Use curl only for the optional Brave Search API calls above, not for arbitrary result URLs.
• Never execute a shell command that interpolates a raw URL taken directly from search results.
• Only fetch URLs when all of the following are true:
  1. scheme is https
  2. hostname matches a supported issuer domain or an approved secondary domain from this skill
  3. the URL is being passed to WebFetch, not inserted into a shell pipeline
• If a result URL fails those checks, skip it and use the next valid result.

Search snippets are too shallow for value calculations — the actual pages have complete credit values, earning rates, and offer details.

Required Output Sections

## 💳 Spend Profile

The spending breakdown being used (default or user-provided), formatted as a compact table.

## 🎁 Welcome Bonus

Bonus amount, spend requirement, qualification window, point valuation used.

## 📈 Annual Earn

Earn by category based on the spend profile, with point values.

## 🏷️ Credits

Statement credits, cash-back rebates, and complimentary subscriptions only — not enhanced earn rates or point multipliers. Show applicable credits with annual total.

## 💰 Net First-Year Value

Show the math clearly: welcome_bonus + annual_earn + credits - annual_fee = net_value.

## 📋 Confidence Notes

Flag any uncertain claims. Note the cpp valuation assumed.

## 🔗 Sources

Numbered list of URLs fetched, as markdown hyperlinks with short "Site - Topic" labels.

Output Rules

• Use one emoji per section heading.
• When listing credits, fees, or any monetary amounts, sort from highest to lowest dollar value.
• Show the math clearly in the Net First-Year Value section.
• Keep content to condensed facts — no prose padding.
• Omit the Card Identity section when the match is confident.
• Do not show YAML blocks in output.
• End every report with a ## 🔗 Sources section listing each URL fetched during research as a markdown hyperlink with a short "Site - Topic" label, e.g. [Chase - Sapphire Preferred](https://...).

Confidence Definitions

• confirmed: supported by issuer terms or multiple approved sources
• unconfirmed: plausible but not fully resolved
• conflicting: sources disagree on a material fact