It depends on the program. For some you end up getting half the value when you apply the points for a statement credit versus redeeming for a flight or hotel

Also something else to consider - Birchfinance.com - Lifehacker wrote about us a few months back: http://twocents.lifehacker.com/birch-is-like-a-budgeting-app-for-your-credit-card-rewa-1776299992

Nice feedback Jim!

Hey there! We have info for around 100 of the top reward credit cards. It may not look like it from the front but we have a huge data operation going in the backend. We’re continually adding the “rules” of the cards and weird quirks. Each card is unique!

Hey there! There are indeed apps that do that - Wallaby as an example, like Kristin mentioned. As of now (and more things are coming as we jut launched two days ago) we want to be a tool to manage all your rewards across all your different accounts and help you optimize your redeeming of these rewards.