Do Credit Card Rewards Points Expire?

Worried your credit card rewards points are about to expire? Find out whether you can still redeem them.

One of the questions to ask when comparing credit card rewards is whether the rewards points expire.

If you want to save up your rewards points over a long time period and cash them in on a big ticket item such as international flights, you’ll need to choose a rewards program where points don’t expire before you can use them. It would be heartbreaking to accrue hundreds of thousands of points only to see them disappear.

Do credit card rewards points expire?

Points do not expire for most of the credit cards rewards programs on the Canstar database. However, in some cases where points do not expire, points are capped so that you can only earn up to a certain number of points.

Points do expire for some rewards programs, meaning they disappear from your account and cannot be used. Some programs have both a cap and an expiry date on their points. So it’s definitely worth shopping around before choosing a rewards program.

Frequent flyer rewards points expiry policies

Qantas Frequent Flyer Points and Virgin Velocity Points have their own expiry policies, which are available on their websites. These programs have a ‘soft’ expiry date (your points expire if you do not earn or redeem any points within a certain timeframe) rather than a ‘hard’ expiry date (your points expire within a certain timeframe regardless of your actions). For example, at the time of writing, Qantas requires you to earn or redeem points once every 18 months in order to prevent your points expiring. Velocity points do not expire provided points are earned or redeemed at least once ever 24 months.

Compare Frequent Flyer Rewards Credit Cards

The table below summarises which credit card rewards programs on the Canstar database have an expiry date for their points at the time of writing (17 August 2017):

Company	Product	Reward Points Expiry
American Express	David Jones credit cards	Never expire
	Essential credit cards	Never expire
	Explorer credit cards	Never expire
	Platinum Edge credit cards	Never expire
	Qantas credit cards	Refer to Qantas points policy
	Velocity credit cards	Refer to Velocity points policy
ANZ	Balance Visa Rewards	Never expire
	Frequent Flyer credit cards	Refer to Qantas points policy
	ANZ Rewards credit cards	3 years from end of year points were earned
Auswide Bank	Platinum Rewards	Never expire
Bank Australia	Platinum Rewards	Refer to Qantas points policy
Bank of Melbourne	Amplify Classic credit cards	Never expire
	Amplify Platinum credit cards	Never expire
	Amplify Signature credit cards	Never expire
BankSA	Amplify Classic credit cards	Never expire
	Amplify Platinum credit cards	Never expire
	Amplify Signature	Never expire
Bankwest	More credit cards	3 years from date points were earned
Bankwest	Qantas credit cards	Refer to Qantas points policy
bcu	Rewards	Never expire
BOQ	Blue Rewards credit cards	Never expire
BOQ	Platinum Rewards credit cards	Never expire
Citi	Classic credit cards	Never expire
	Emirates World credit cards	Never expire
	Prestige credit cards	Never expire
	Qantas credit cards	Refer to Qantas points policy
	Rewards credit cards	Never expire
Coles	Low Rate credit cards	Refer to Flybuys policy
	No Annual Fee credit cards	Refer to Flybuys policy
	Rewards credit cards	Refer to Flybuys policy
Commonwealth Bank	Diamond Awards credit cards	Never expire
	Gold Awards credit cards	Never expire
	Platinum Awards credit cards	Never expire
	Standard Awards credit cards	Never expire
CUA	Platinum	Never expire
Diners Club Australia	Personal credit cards	Never expire
Diners Club Australia	Frequent Flyers credit cards	Never expire
First Option Credit Union	Cash Rewards	Never expire
G&C Mutual Bank	Platinum Visa	Never expire
HSBC	Platinum Qantas	Refer to Qantas points policy
HSBC	Platinum	3 years from date points were earned
Hume Bank	Clear	Never expire
IMB	Platinum	Never expire
Jetstar	Mastercard	Never expire
Latitude Financial Services	GO Mastercard	3 years from date points earned
Macquarie Bank	Hilton HHonors	Refer to HHonors points policy
Macquarie Bank	Macquarie Rewards credit cards	Never expire
MyState	Platinum Rewards	Never expire
NAB	FlyBuys Rewards	Refer to Flybuys policy
	Qantas credit cards	Refer to Qantas points policy
	Rewards credit cards	3 years from date points earned
	Velocity Rewards credit cards	Refer to Velocity points policy
QBANK	Bluey Rewarder	Never expire
QT Mutual Bank	Platinum Rewards	Never expire
Qudos Bank	Visa Platinum	Refer to Qantas points policy
Queenslanders CU	Platinum MyCard	Never expire
St.George Bank	Amplify Rewards credit cards	Never expire
Summerland Credit Union	Credit Card Rewards	Never expire
Suncorp Bank	Clear Options credit cards	Never expire
Virgin Money	Velocity Rewards credit cards	Refer to Velocity points policy
Westpac	Altitude Rewards credit cards	Never expire
Westpac	Altitude Qantas credit cards	Refer to Qantas points policy
Woolworths	Everyday Rewards	Never expire
Woolworths	Qantas Frequent Flyer	Refer to Qantas points policy
Source: www.canstar.com.au Information correct as of the time of writing, 17 August 2017.

If you’re interested in a new rewards credit card, you can compare on the Canstar website. You can see a snapshot of the current rewards credit cards available on the comparison table below, with links direct to the providers’ website. Please note that this table has been generated based on a $2,000 monthly spend, and is sorted by Star Rating (highest first).

Compare Rewards Credit Cards

Canstar provides an information service. It is not a credit provider, and in giving you information about credit products Canstar is not making any suggestion or recommendation to you about a particular product. See Canstar’s Financial Services and Credit Guide for more information.

Do rewards points expire when I close my account?

With most credit card providers, rewards point expire when you close your account and that credit card is cancelled. With some credit card providers, you have a certain amount of time in which you can still redeem your rewards points after closing a credit card account (e.g. 90 days after cancelling the card).

With other credit card rewards programs such as Qantas Frequent Flyer points or flybuys points, the rewards program is actually a separate account to your credit card, so when you cancel a credit card, your rewards points do not expire. You can still redeem your rewards points and continue to earn more points if you have the loyalty card for that program or if you hold a different credit card that also earns points in that rewards program.

If you are interested in comparing rewards credit cards available on the market, check out the table below which displays a snapshot of 5-Star Mastercard rewards credit cards on Canstar’s database, sorted by provider name (alphabetically). The products and Star Ratings displayed are based on a monthly spend of $1,000.

Compare Rewards Credit Cards