Do Credit Card Points Expire? Inactivity, Closures, and Missed Payments

Do credit card points expire? For many of the largest issuer rewards programs, the answer is no as long as your account stays open and in good standing. Chase Ultimate Rewards points, for example, have no expiration date while your card account is active.¹ That said, points can still disappear through inactivity, account closure, missed payments, program violations, or returns, and recovering them isn’t always possible.

Which Programs Don’t Expire

Several major issuers have adopted policies where rewards last as long as your account remains open. Chase Ultimate Rewards points don’t expire while the card account is active.¹ American Express Membership Rewards and Capital One miles follow a similar approach for cards within their own rewards ecosystems.

Co-branded airline and hotel credit cards work differently. The miles or hotel points you earn are usually deposited into a separate loyalty program with its own expiration rules. American Airlines AAdvantage miles, for instance, expire if your account has no qualifying activity for 24 consecutive months.² That clock runs independently of your credit card. Even if you keep the card open, the miles can still expire if you’re not earning within the airline’s program.

Before assuming your points are safe, check whether your rewards live inside the card issuer’s own system or in a third-party loyalty account. The distinction decides which expiration rules apply.

Inactivity Is the Most Common Trigger

For programs that do expire points, inactivity is the usual reason. Issuers define inactivity as a stretch of time with no qualifying transaction — no purchase, no payment, no redemption. Unredeemed rewards are potentially subject to expiration and forfeiture if a card sits unused too long.³ The specific window varies by program but commonly falls between 12 and 24 months.

Keeping points alive is straightforward. A single small purchase resets the clock. If you have a card you rarely use, putting a small recurring charge on it, like a streaming subscription or monthly donation, prevents the account from going dormant. A qualifying redemption, such as applying a few points toward a statement credit, also counts as activity in most programs.

Closing the Card

Closing a credit card account typically means losing any unredeemed rewards tied to it. Whether you close the card yourself or the issuer shuts it down, points that haven’t been redeemed or transferred are forfeited.¹

Before you close, you have a few ways to preserve your rewards:

Move points to another card with the same issuer. If you hold multiple cards in the same rewards ecosystem, you can usually shift points to a surviving account. Chase, for example, lets you move Ultimate Rewards points to another open Chase card before you close one.¹
Transfer to an affiliated travel partner. Some issuers let you move rewards into an airline or hotel loyalty program. Once transferred, the points belong to that program and survive the credit card closure.
Redeem before closing. Cash back, travel, gift cards, whatever your program offers, use them first.

For co-branded airline or hotel cards, miles and hotel points you’ve already earned usually sit in the loyalty program’s account rather than the credit card account. Closing the credit card doesn’t erase those rewards because the loyalty program holds them separately.

Missed Payments and Program Violations

Missing a payment can cost you more than a late fee. Some issuers withhold the rewards you earned during any billing period where the minimum payment wasn’t made. American Express won’t credit Membership Rewards points for a billing cycle in which you failed to pay the minimum, and you have only 12 months from that statement’s closing date to reinstate them.⁴

Issuers can also revoke points for what they treat as program abuse. Opening and closing accounts repeatedly to collect sign-up bonuses, sometimes called “churning,” is one of the common reasons issuers cite for shutting down accounts and voiding points. Issuers track spending patterns with automated systems and may close accounts they flag as abusive with little warning.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has raised concerns about how issuers handle these situations. In a 2024 circular, the CFPB warned that revoking rewards based on vague catch-all language like “gaming” or “abuse,” especially when those terms are left to the issuer’s discretion, may violate federal prohibitions against unfair and deceptive practices. The agency also flagged sign-up offers denied based on hidden conditions consumers weren’t reasonably aware of.⁵

Returns and Negative Point Balances

Returning a purchase that earned rewards usually means losing the points from that transaction. Once the refund posts, the issuer deducts the corresponding points, including any bonus points, from your rewards balance.⁶

If you already spent those points before the return, your balance can go negative. You’ll keep earning points on new purchases, but you’ll need to work the balance back into positive territory before you can redeem again.⁶

When a Cardholder Dies

When a cardholder dies, accumulated rewards are handled according to the program’s terms, and those terms vary widely. Some issuers forfeit the remaining points entirely, treating them as non-transferable. Others allow an authorized representative of the estate to request redemption within a limited window. American Express, for example, permits estates to submit a formal request to redeem a deceased cardholder’s Membership Rewards balance.

On joint credit card accounts, the surviving account holder generally keeps access to the rewards balance. Authorized users may not. If preserving rewards for heirs matters to you, list your rewards accounts and balances alongside your other estate planning information.

Getting Lost Points Back

Whether you can recover forfeited points depends on the issuer and the reason you lost them. For points withheld because of a missed payment, some issuers offer reinstatement once the account is current. American Express charges a $35 fee per billing cycle per card account and requires the request within 12 months of the statement closing date for the affected period.⁴

For points lost to account closure or extended inactivity, the options are more limited. Some issuers may let you reopen a recently closed account, but restoring the rewards balance isn’t guaranteed even if the account is reactivated. Call your issuer’s rewards department. Ask whether reinstatement is available, what the deadline is, and what fees apply. The answer often depends on how much time has passed.

If You Think Points Were Wrongly Deducted

You can dispute a rewards error in writing. Your dispute letter must reach the issuer within 60 days after the first statement showing the problem was sent to you. The issuer then has 30 days to acknowledge the dispute and 90 days to resolve it.⁷

The CFPB has separately noted that rewards program terms are often not available to consumers until after they apply for a card, and even then, issuers frequently reserve the right to change those terms at any time.⁸ The agency has warned that fine print disclosures alone may not be enough to justify forfeiture if consumers weren’t meaningfully informed of the conditions.⁵

How to Check Your Own Program’s Terms

The surest way to know whether your points are at risk is to read the rewards portion of your cardholder agreement, usually labeled “Rewards Rules,” “Program Terms,” or “Forfeiture.” You can find it through your online banking portal or by calling the issuer. Rewards terms are often in a separate document from the main cardholder agreement, so look for a dedicated rewards link.⁸

Focus on three things: whether the program has an inactivity-based expiration period, what triggers forfeiture beyond inactivity (missed payments, closure, program violations), and whether your rewards sit inside the issuer’s own ecosystem or in a third-party loyalty program. Check your most recent statement for your current balance and note the date of your last qualifying transaction. If your program has an inactivity clock, that date is when it started running.³

1
Chase. Do Chase Rewards Points Expire
2
American Airlines. AAdvantage program terms.
3
FDIC. Rewards Cards – Minimize the Pitfalls, Maximize the Benefits
4
American Express. How to Reinstate Membership Rewards Points
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Consumer Financial Protection Circular 2024-07 – Design, Marketing, and Administration of Credit Card Rewards Programs
6
Chase. How Refunds and Returns Work on a Credit Card
7
Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finds CARD Act Helped Consumers Avoid More Than $16 Billion in Gotcha Credit Card Fees