If you carry many credit cards, you already know the anxiety. Different minimum spend targets, different billing cycles, different deadlines. Miss one and the bonus miles or cashback you were counting on just evaporate. It happens more than most people want to admit.
CardPulse is a free iOS app built specifically for this problem. It automatically tracks your tap-to-pay transactions through Apple Pay, keeps all your minimum spend progress visible in one screen, and handles foreign currency conversion on the fly. No spreadsheets. No bank logins. No manual typing.
It was built by Zhang Qichuan in Singapore, someone who juggles multiple cards to maximize miles and cashback. He hit the same wall everyone does: tracking min-spend manually is tedious and forgetting even once means leaving real money on the table. The app came out of an iOS Shortcuts discovery that let him capture Apple Pay transactions automatically. From that small lightbulb moment, CardPulse was born.
Key Features of CardPulse
Auto-Tracking via Apple Pay
This is the core of the whole thing. When you tap to pay using Apple Wallet, CardPulse captures the transaction automatically. There is nothing to type, nothing to remember, and no manual entry required after a one-time setup. The phone already knows you paid, so CardPulse just listens and logs it.
One-Screen Min-Spend Dashboard
The home screen shows your total min-spend target for the month, how many cards have already hit their target, how many are still behind, and how many days are left until the next deadline. It is genuinely everything you need at a single glance. No digging through menus or toggling between cards.
Automatic Foreign Currency Conversion
Spending abroad adds a layer of complexity most tracking tools ignore completely. CardPulse pulls foreign currency amounts and converts them into your home currency automatically, so your min-spend progress stays accurate even when you are traveling and paying in USD, EUR, or JPY.
Spending Analysis with Auto-Categorization
Beyond just tracking deadlines, CardPulse breaks down where your money is going. Transactions are automatically categorized into food, groceries, health, shopping, and more. You can view the breakdown by day, week, month, or year. It is useful context, especially when you are trying to hit a target in a specific category.
Zero Bank Logins, Ever
CardPulse only reads data from Apple Pay transactions. It does not ask for your bank credentials, does not connect to any financial institution, and does not store sensitive account data. Your information stays on your phone. For a lot of users, this alone is enough reason to prefer it over alternatives that require full account access.
A Morning Routine That Used to Involve Spreadsheets
Marcus, a frequent traveler based in Singapore, keeps four credit cards active at any given time. Each one has a different monthly minimum spend requirement tied to air miles bonuses. Every Sunday morning around 9:00 AM, he used to open a Numbers spreadsheet on his iPad, manually review his bank SMS alerts from the week, and tally up how much each card had accumulated. It took about 20 minutes and he still got it wrong sometimes, especially after trips abroad where currency conversion muddied the totals.
After setting up CardPulse, his Sunday routine changed completely. He opened the app at 9:15 AM one week after a trip to Tokyo. The dashboard showed him exactly where each card stood: two had already cleared their targets, one was S$340 short with nine days left, and one had just four days left with S$1,064 still needed. The Tokyo transactions, which were logged in yen, had already been converted to SGD and counted toward the correct card. He put that card at the front of his wallet for the week and hit the target with two days to spare. No spreadsheet. No mental math. No missed bonus.
How CardPulse Tracks Your Spending
Step 1: One-Time Setup
Download the app from the App Store and complete the initial setup, which involves linking CardPulse to your Apple Wallet through iOS Shortcuts. You add your cards and set the minimum spend targets and deadlines for each one. This takes a few minutes total.
Step 2: Pay as Normal
From that point on, you just use Apple Pay as you normally would. Every tap-to-pay transaction triggers an automatic capture. CardPulse logs the merchant, the amount, and the card used, then categorizes it and adds it to your running total.
Step 3: Check Your Dashboard Anytime
Open the app whenever you want a status check. The home screen gives you the full picture instantly: total progress, cards on track, cards behind, and days remaining. If you spent abroad, currency conversion has already been handled. The analysis tab gives you a deeper breakdown if you want to see spending patterns over time.
Who Should Download CardPulse
If you carry many credit cards with minimum spend requirements tied to rewards, this app is worth downloading immediately. It is free, it is iOS-only, and it requires Apple Wallet, so Android users will need to wait. But for iPhone users in Singapore or anywhere else juggling cards for miles and cashback, it solves a genuinely annoying problem without asking you to compromise on privacy.
You can grab it on the App Store directly from the CardPulse website. Free to download, no subscription required.
