Easy Ways to Prevent Your Credit Card Rewards From Expiring

If you’ve been racking up points on your favorite rewards card, now may be the time to use them.

Lenders can assign expiration dates on the rewards you earn. While some card issuers allow you to use the rewards you earned as long as your account is in good standing, airline and hotel credit cards work differently.

Some issuers offer expirations dates between one to three years, meaning you'll need to stay on top of when you earn the rewards and when they expire.

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How to keep points and miles from expiring

If your miles or points are expiring sooner than you’d like, see whether you can reset the clock by transferring an amount to another loyalty program. For example, the Capital One Venture card allows cardholders to transfer miles to more than a dozen participating hotel and airline loyalty programs, including those of Air France, JetBlue and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

You can also:

Use your co-branded credit card. Even if the card isn’t your go-to credit card, use it for a small purchase once a month
Donate miles. This option will enable you to push out the expiration date for your points and miles to donate them to charity. Most loyalty programs partner with nonprofits and allow customers to donate points and miles to help various causes
Shop through your loyalty programs’ online shopping portal. If you’re saving up points for a big trip but are at risk of losing them, use some for an item that has a low point value like a magazine subscription. Or use the shopping portal to purchase something you need, and earn some extra points for doing so
Earn elite status with a hotel. Reward programs, like the one offered by IHG hotels, waives expiration dates as long as you maintain elite status. You'll need to stay at least 10 nights annually at one of their branded hotels to maintain silver elite status.
Track your reward expirations: When budgeting, add a section for credit card rewards earned, what you plan to spend them on and when you need to use them. That way you have plans in place months in advance and the expiration date doesn't catch you off guard.

Can you reinstate expired points or miles?

In some cases you may be able to call the credit card or airline or hotel loyalty program’s customer service number and ask for your rewards to be reinstated. It never hurts to ask, especially if they recently expired. Two programs flexible with expired rewards include:

American Express might allow you to get back expired points. You'll have to pay a $35 reinstatement fee and are only entitled to the points lost during the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, American AAdvantage customers need to make a purchase to reactivate miles. Some restrictions apply such as you'll only gain back the miles you earned within the last two years, up to a 500,000-mile cap.

Be polite when making your request — a little friendliness goes a long way.

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Rivan joined Kiplinger on Leap Day 2016 as a reporter for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. A Michigan native, she graduated from the University of Michigan in 2014 and from there freelanced as a local copy editor and proofreader, and served as a research assistant to a local Detroit journalist. Her work has been featured in the Ann Arbor Observer and Sage Business Researcher. She is currently assistant editor, personal finance at The Washington Post.

With contributions from