CardTuned annual-fee database study — October 4, 2026 snapshot

Article: We Analyzed 503 Card Records: Annual Fees in CardTuned’s 2026 Database
Public data package prepared: October 12, 2026
Currency: US dollars. Each row represents one database card record.

HOW TO REPRODUCE
Unzip all files into one directory. With Python 3 installed, run:
  python3 recalculate.py
The script uses only Python’s standard library, reads local files, and makes no network requests or file changes. It prints the fee distribution and segment shares and checks the headline and segment totals. verification-results.txt contains the checked output. SHA256SUMS.txt provides the file checksums.

FILES
- snapshot-source.json: All 503 source records retrieved October 4, with the original fields used by the study. This is a public-safe export of the historical snapshot, not a current database pull. The private spreadsheet URL is omitted. Internal Audit Notes values are blanked; the empty column is retained so the original recalculation script works unchanged. No other row values were changed.
- annual-fee-classification.csv: All 503 records, their recorded fees, inclusion/exclusion decisions, and classified ongoing annual fees. Blank classified fees are excluded or unresolved, never $0 by assumption.
- annual-fee-segments.csv: The 473 included records and their business/commercial and explicit co-brand flags.
- annual-fees-reader-data.csv: The 473 included records in a reader-friendly format, with source URLs and stored verification dates.
- recalculate.py: The original study recalculation script, unchanged.

METHOD
From 503 nonempty source records, select Active = TRUE (483 records), Research Status = Verified, and Annual Fee Data Status = Confirmed. Twenty inactive/discontinued records and 10 unresolved active records are excluded, leaving 473. For these selected records, the final dollar amount in the recorded fee string is the fixed ongoing fee. Seven introductory-waiver records therefore use the later positive fee rather than the temporary $0. This parser is tailored to this snapshot, not arbitrary future fee descriptions.

Business/commercial-labeled means the card name or Card Type contains business, corporate, commercial, or fleet, case-insensitively. Co-brand-tagged means Card Type contains co-brand. The two splits overlap and must not be added together. Each unique card record gets one count. Related product variants are not consolidated into families and cardholder market share is not measured.

RESULTS
503 source records; 483 active; 473 included; 342 zero-fee (72.3%) and 131 positive-fee records.
Fee bands: $0 342; $1–$99 75; $100–$249 18; $250–$499 21; $500+ 17.
Median: all included records $0; positive-fee records $99.
Business/commercial-labeled: 38/69 zero-fee (55.1%). Remainder: 304/404 (75.2%).
Co-brand-tagged: 143/188 (76.1%). Remainder: 199/285 (69.8%).
Missing-data sensitivity among all 483 active rows: 342/483 = 70.8% through (342+10)/483 = 72.9%. This is not a confidence interval.

LIMITS AND DATES
Stored verification dates for included records run from September 4 through October 1, 2026. October 4 is the snapshot date, not a new live verification of every issuer’s terms. The October 12 package check only reproduced the historical calculations. Source links document the stored research and can change. Confirm current terms and application availability with the issuer. This curated database is not a census or random sample of all US credit cards, and these percentages are not consumer or market shares.
