How to Prevent Credit Card Rewards From Expiring
Do you always use your airline or hotel points? Do you even know if they have an expiration date?
If you have no idea, you are definitely not the only loan officer to lose sight of this detail. A new study by Bankrate found that 29% of people receiving credit card rewards have expired.
Only 25% of people were able to name the number of hotel points they had, while 29% knew their number of frequent flyer miles. Thirty-three percent were able to recall their credit card reward balance.
Nobody expects you to know how many points you have. You should know which loyalty programs and reward credit cards you signed up for, but as long as you know how to check your reward balance, you are a star in my book.
But if you’re wondering what points you might have left in your loyalty accounts, you can check their expiration dates. Airlines at a glance: If you earn points or miles with Delta, JetBlue or United Airlines, your points do not expire. Some airlines indicate that your points never expire as long as you have a good branded credit card. Also, if you earn points with a bonus credit card that is not for one airline or hotel, those points are usually valid as long as your card is open and, again, in good standing.
There are no hard and fast rules for expiration dates of rewards.
Some programs like to advertise that their points do not expire, but please note in small print that those points do not expire as long as you show activity, namely earning points, on your account at least once in a given period of time. One of the programs I use, Southwest Rapid Rewards, describes it as follows:
See this star? So do I. Fortunately, I don’t have to track this 2-year cycle myself – I can see my last activity date (last time points applied to my account) when I log into Southwest.
Points Guy has a short list of major airlines and hotels with expiration dates. You can also check your status by logging into your loyalty account as I did above. If you are using a regular bonus credit card, please log into your account and check expiring points on your rewards or benefits portal.
Airlines and other loyalty programs will also usually send you an email several months before the expiry date of your accumulated points.
But keep in mind that your points and miles do not always retain their value over time , so if you have points, you should plan to use them, be it travel or other reward you can redeem them for .