Credit Card Reward Points Expiry: What You Need to Know

Reward points feel like free money until you discover, right when you try to redeem them, that a chunk of your balance has already expired. It's one of the most avoidable ways cardholders lose value on cards they otherwise use well.

How expiry policies typically work

Most Indian issuers set reward points to expire after a fixed period from the date they were earned — commonly somewhere between two and five years, though this varies significantly by card and issuer. Some cards expire points at the end of a fixed calendar or financial year rather than on a rolling basis from the earning date, which means points earned early in the year effectively have a shorter shelf life than points earned near the end of it. The exact rule for your card is buried in the terms and conditions document, not usually mentioned in day-to-day statements, so it's worth checking once rather than assuming.

Why this catches people off guard

Reward points don't show up as urgent the way a bill due date does — there's no notification most people notice until the balance has already shrunk. Cardholders who redeem points rarely, saving them up for something specific like a flight or a big-ticket item, are the most exposed, since the points can expire well before they accumulate enough for the redemption they were waiting for. This is a particularly relevant risk on cards where you're building toward milestone benefits, since milestone tracking and points expiry can run on different clocks.

How to avoid losing points

The simplest fix is to check your card's rewards balance and expiry dates at least twice a year, ideally through the issuer's app rather than relying on statement summaries, since not every issuer surfaces expiry dates clearly on the monthly statement. If you're holding a large balance nearing expiry, most issuers let you redeem for a range of options beyond flights or big-ticket products — cashback, vouchers, or bill payments — so even a partial redemption before expiry is better than losing the points outright. Being deliberate about your reward points expiry timeline matters even more if you're managing multiple cards, since tracking expiry across several reward programs at once is exactly the kind of thing that falls through the cracks.

Does closing a card forfeit points

Yes, in almost every case — when you close a credit card account, any unredeemed reward points are forfeited immediately, regardless of how far they were from their original expiry date. If you're planning to downgrade or cancel a card, redeeming your points balance before initiating the closure should be one of the first things you do, not an afterthought.

The bottom line

Reward points are a real financial asset, but only for as long as you actually redeem them. Set a recurring reminder to check your balance and expiry window on every card you hold reward points on, and treat a large unredeemed balance as unfinished business rather than a rainy-day fund you can tap indefinitely.