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Million Mile Secrets reader Toby writes in with a common question:
Love your website, and have 5 cards between my girlfriend and me. What are the rules in cancelling a card? I don’t want to pay the $89 yearly fee, but will it wipe away any unused miles?
The short answer is that it depends!
You will NOT lose airline miles or hotel points already in your airline or hotel account by cancelling a card.
But you’ve got to be careful with points issued by banks such as American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Citi Thank You points because you can lose ALL the points in your account by cancelling them.
Airline Miles & Hotel Points
If you cancel an airline or hotel credit card, you will NOT lose the miles or points which are already in your airline or hotel loyalty program account.
For example, if you cancel your Citi American Airlines credit card 10 months after getting the 50,000 mile sign-up bonus, you will not lose the 50,000 American Airlines miles which are already in your American Airlines account.
Often times, customer service representatives lead folks to believe that cancelling a card will result in you losing your miles. What the representatives are really trying to say (besides scaring you into keeping the card) is that you will lose the miles and points which haven’t yet posted to your account.
For example, let’s say that your credit card billing cycle is from August 20 to September 15, but you cancel your card on September 10th. In this case, you will lose the miles which you earned from August 20 up to September 10, and which would have posted to your account around September 15.
But you won’t lose the miles and points which are already in your account.
That said, some cards do have provisions in the terms and condition to take back the sign-up bonus if you cancel the card in 3 or 6 months. I’ve read very few reports of this actually being enforced, but I usually don’t cancel a card for at least 6 to 8 months.
- Miles & Points Expiration
However, the miles and points in your airline or hotel account will still be subject to the regular expiration policy of the airline or hotel. For example, American Airlines miles expire after 18 months.
But it is very easy to keep the miles “alive” because most earning and redemption activity will extend the expiration date of your miles by 18 months.
For example, you could redeem an award, use miles to buy magazines, buy or transfer miles, earn miles for dining, or buy something for $1 or $2 on the American Airlines shopping mall. You could even earn miles by flying!
I use Award Wallet to track the expiration of my miles and points. However, Award Wallet doesn’t track the expiration of American Airlines, Southwest & Delta miles.
Bank REward Program Points
You usually will LOSE the points earned from a banks’ own reward program which are already in your account, such as American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Citi Thank You points, when you cancel a card unless you transfer the points out or have another credit card which earns points in that program. You can transfer points online or by calling the banks.
You can find a list of Bank Reward points credit cards issued by the different banks in the Bank Rewards Points credit card tab.
The rules are a little different for each bank reward point program.
American Express Membership REwards points
You will lose ALL your points, if you cancel a card which earns Membership Rewards points.
However, there are 4 ways to save your points already in your account.
American Express Membership Rewards
1. Have another Membership Rewards card. You won’t lose your points if you have another American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points AND which is linked to the same Membership Rewards points account as the credit card which you cancel.
Sometimes, business and personal cards result in separate Membership Rewards accounts, so make sure that you have both your personal and business cards linked to only 1 Membership Rewards account.
2. Transfer to Airline Partners. Transfer your Membership Rewards points to airline or hotel partners before cancelling the card. You can even transfer Membership Rewards points to anyone else’s airline or hotel accounts.
3. Grace Period. The terms suggest that you have 30 days to transfer the points out of your Membership Rewards account if you cancel all your Membership Rewards cards, but have at least one open (non-Membership Rewards) American Express card.
If you voluntarily cancel enrollment in the program or cancel all Linked Accounts enrolled in the program but keep at least one AMEX Card open and in good standing, you will have up to 30 days from date of cancellation to redeem the points accrued in the program account.
I interpret this to mean that you can cancel all your American Express Membership Rewards points, but still have 30 days to transfer points as long as you have another American Express card such as the Starwood or Hilton card.
However, if you do decide to take this route, I would confirm with the Customer Representative that you do indeed have 30 days from cancellation to use your points before losing them. This could be risky!
4. Reinstatement. If you get a new Membership Rewards card within 1 year after cancelling, you *may* be able to request your points be reinstated by writing a letter to the Membership Rewards Correspondence Unit.
Their address is: Membership Rewards Correspondence Unit, AMEX Membership Rewards, PO BOX 297813, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33329-7813.
Their telephone number is 1-800-567-1083.
Be sure to highlight your previous history with American Express, high credit score, and responsible credit usage in the letter. Telling them you’ve seen the light and are returning to American Express shouldn’t hurt either!
Again, I wouldn’t use this as my primary way to avoid losing points and there is no guarantee that American Express will reinstate your points.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Chase Ultimate Rewards
You will lose ALL the points in your account if you close a credit card which earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points. There is NO grace period to transfer the points out of your account after you cancel the card. You can’t transfer or use them immediately after cancelling.
However, there are 2 ways to save your points.
1. Transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to airline or hotel partners before closing your card.
You can only transfer Ultimate Rewards points to airline or hotel partners if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Bold, Chase Ink Plus, or JP Morgan Select.
You can also transfer Ultimate Rewards points to anyone else’s airline or hotel account instantly on the Ultimate Rewards website. Technically, the terms say that you should do this only to transfer points to your spouse or domestic partner, but it appears to work for transfers to any account.
There is no cost to transfer points.
2. Transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to another Ultimate Rewards card before closing your card.
For example, if you are closing your Chase Ink Bold card, you can transfer the 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points in your account to your Chase Freedom card.
You can also transfer Ultimate Rewards points to anyone else’s Ultimate Rewards credit card account if you have their credit card card number.
There is no cost to transfer points.
Ultimate Rewards Points Bottom Line: Don’t cancel a Chase Ultimate Rewards card unless their are NO points in your Ultimate Rewards account associated with that credit card!
Citi Thank You Points
Citi Thank You Points
You usually have 30 days to use your Thank You points earned from a credit card before losing the points in your account. There are lots of ways to earn Thank You points, but this post only discusses the expiration for Thank You points earned from credit cards.
1. Grace Period. The terms suggest that you have 30 days after cancelling your Thank You credit card account to use your points.
2. Transfer to Another of Your Accounts. You can call Citi (1-800-THANKYOU) or transfer online your Thank You points earned from one credit card to another of your credit card’s Thank You point account. But you have to use those transferred points within 90 days.
However, if you cancel the Thank You Point credit card which earned the points which you transferred, the transferred points will expire in 30 days even though they are in another account!
3. Transfer to Another Person’s Account. You can transfer Thank You points from your account to another person’s Thank You points account. But you have to use those transferred points within 90 days.
However, if you cancel the Thank You Point credit card which earned the points which you transferred, the transferred points will expire in 30 days even though they are in another account!
For example, if Emily transfers her Thank You points to my account, the points will expire in 90 days.
But if she cancels her card within those 90 days, I will have only 30 days from when she cancelled the card to use the transferred Thank You points in my account.
Bottom LIne
You won’t lose airline or hotel points which are already in your airline or hotel account when you cancel a credit card.
But you could lose points earned in a Bank Rewards program such as American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi Thank You Points.
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I have earned and redeemed millions of airline miles and hotel points to travel the world for free. Now I'm blogging to help more people do the same! 
Maybe this is considered too elementary for your readers, but if you want to close your Chase Freedom account, you can just use the points like cash to pay part of your last bill. For example, 10K points pays $100. Since it’s a free account, you may wonder why anyone would cancel it, but we are considering it because for some reason its website is just too slow and hard to use, and we really like to be able to pay our credit card bills online. So we’re probably going to have to give up on this one since we haven’t been able to figure out what the problem is.
As for Membership Rewards, I’m sorry to say that this program is not the program I signed up for. It seems to have lost all value. I’m wondering if you have any suggestion for something someone could do with a bit more than 10K points. Thanks…when I first got the card, I was thrilled, but these orphan points seem useless and discourage me from wanting to use it any more since I’m afraid the points will never amount to anything worthwhile.
@peachfront – I got the card to transfer points to United miles. Seems fair enough to me.
@ Daraius, you must be careful with the Chase Ultimate Rewards. When you transfer the points to someone else, the recipient has only 60 days in which to use them (transfer, spend or whatever) or they will disappear.
I nearly was caught by this when I transferred my wife’s points to my account and I got very annoyed with Chase until CS rep changed them from “clock ticking” category into my general general pool of points.
Sorry, I meant to say Citi’s Thank You points above.
And, I made another error – it is 30 days, not 60. So don’t transfer unless the recipient is planning to use them right away. I now value these points quite low and will transfer my 50,000 to an Amazon gift certificate (and then get another Thank You card …
)
Here is their exact wording, point 7 in the T&Cs:
“Transferred Points received expire 90 days from the date they are received.”
Too early for me – it is 90 not 30. Maybe I should go back to bed.
This is a off topic, but my Hilton points were about to expire. I called Hilton and they told me to buy 1,000 points for $12.50. I did it and now my points are safe.
Frank, Darius states all of this in the article. Thanks for cluttering up the comments with confusing nonsense.
Thanks, Frank, but, silly me, I don’t fly United. I fly Delta, and I thought Amex had a relationship- with Delta. However, the last time I logged in, I was unable to find a way to transfer a small amount of miles, roughly 11K MR to Delta…any other suggestions? I’m probably going to go try again while I’m all fired up.
Hi there,
I got 2 southwest cards from chase with 100k bonus, I want to close the cards but afraid that my pints will disappear. According to your post, it wont, right?
Thank you
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Darius, are you sure Amex Reward gold points can be transferred to anyone’s Hotel or Airline account? I thought the names have to match?
@peachfront – You can always cash out the points before cancelling, but I didn’t include that in the list. I’m surprised that you are having a tough time with the Chase website – I think it is one of the best credit card websites and I’ve been banking with Chase online for over 10 years!
Which Membership Rewards card do you have? Not all of them let you transfer points to airline or hotel partners. Transferring to British Airways could make sense since you can redeem for short distance American Airlines flights starting at 4,500 Avios. If none of these options are appealing, you could cash out for gift cards or use the “Pay with Points” option.
@Frank - Ha! It is early on the West Coast, but thanks for helping out.
@Sal – Easy. Frank was trying to help!
@Pelp - If the points are already in your Southwest account, you shouldn’t lose them when you cancel the card.
Hello! I’m planning to apply for Citi Hilton Reserve card today using Darius’s link today. I would like to cancel at least one of the two Citi AA cards (one Visa, one AMEX) that I would like to cancel as well. I’m glad I read this, because it seems like I can cancel both and keep my AA miles, unless they give me a really good retention offer.
I have about $10K credit limit on each Citi AA cards. When I do apply for the Citi Hilton Reserve card using Darius’s link and get approved immediately, but have a low CL, should I call Citi to transfer my credit limit over? Or do people generally only call when the app is put on “hold?” I have not applied for a citi card since May 2012. Thanks!
I canceled my American Express card after transferring all my Membership Rewards balance to my delta program. About 40 days later, Amex sent me a $50 check reimbursement for some points that I earned and they have not being posted to my account at the time of cancelation.
Does anybody have similar experience?
How does it work with US airways card I had the card 3 months and was rejected when trying to churn saying I already had the card . So thinking of canceling the 3 month old card and try to apply again in few months. I am hoping miles earned will be safe as I didn’t see any 6 months condition in the terms.
@peachfront – With AM 10K, you can always get a HomeDepot $100 gift card. Thanks.
I was told by an AMEX rep that when I cancelled my SPG card I had one year to use the points before they eliminated them. Have you heard of that?
@Frank- You had me completely freaked out this morning. According to the Chase rep I spoke with this morning, you are COMPLETELY WRONG regarding combined points expiring. I realize now you made an incorrect reference, and were referring to Thank You Points – but I think this needs clearing up-
I transferred over 100K in Ultimate Rewards from my wife’s account to my account to keep them all in one place – in anticipation for an upcoming trip to Europe this April.
The rep says they are safe and will NEVER expire.
SO TO REASSURE OTHERS WHO WERE ON THE LEDGE LIKE ME- Ultimate Rewards Points (either transferred or combined DO NOT EXPIRE!
Rob: I also freaked out! But then I read Frank’s other posts and it literally made me LOL. I am planning on sending all my points to my husband’s account, so initially it worried me.
What is missing from today’s blog is the (daily) photograph of Emily.
Ha,Ha.
See you ( I hope ) at the Chicago seminar.
Michael
@Stephen S - If the miles are in your account, you will get to keep them after cancelling. However, it could be worthwhile to hang onto to the Citi American Airlines AMEX card since you get 10% of your AA miles redeemed back (up to 100K a year). You can also use the AMEX for various AMEX promotions throughout the year. In my experience, Citi isn’t that great with transferring the credit line over, but it doesn’t hurt to call and ask.
@Josinei - Very interesting. I wonder if these were for the points pending from your previous status, since AMEX posts points a bit later than other banks.
@Brian – If the US Air miles are in your account, you won’t lose them by cancelling.
@Rod - They were likely referring to Starwood’s point expiration policy which is 12 months unless you have earning, redeeming, credit card or other activity. You can do an audience rewards trivia survey to keep your points alive.
@michael thaler – Ha! Emily and I look forward to meeting you in Chicago!
@Danny Lee – I believe that’s the case for SPG, but it is ymmv with AMEX and should work.
1) Actually Amex MR has another option – you can transfer your MR points to someone else’s MR account that you trust (wife, siblings, trusted friends and etc).
2) @ Daraius – I have personally transferred my SPG to my wife’s US Airways and my MR points to my brother’s Air Canada Aeroplan accounts without any issue.
@ Daraius,
If you have not already done so…maybe you might do an article some day on the expiration policy of airline/hotel miles. You touched on it a bit by referring to the 18month policy of American Airlines. Maybe you could put them all in one blog posting w/ideas on how to “keep them alive” and kicking.
I know I’m siting on US Air Miles, Delta Miles, and United Miles right now. I would have to look them up but I know one of those three never expires and the other two will (I think 2 years after their last activity).
Hi,
I didn’t know where to ask this question, I wish there was a forum
But does anyone have a Delta Promo Code so that I can get a discount on purchasing tickets? Where can I acquire one of those?
Thanks!
Thanks, all. Yes, our problem with the Chase website has us perplexed too. But we can’t seem to get it fixed. Every time we want to pay a bill, we have to jump through a huge hoop just to get logged in, and any “fixes” don’t stay fixed. I’ll sleep on it awhile, but we’re probably going to have to give up on it.
I discovered that the Home Depot gift cards were on sale, and I was able to purchase five $25 GCs with the orphan MR Amex points. Total cost was something like 10,650. Maybe not the most sophisticated use of the points but I am happy. Even comes with free shipping.
@Million Miler - You have to call to have them transfer to someone else’s account, and it is ymmv, but good point! Let me know if you figured out how to transfer MR points to another MR account online. You can transfer some Starwood points to other airline programs without the names matching, but not all.
@BillyBob – That’s a good idea for a future post! Delta miles have no expiration date (as of now). US Air and United miles expire in 18 months of no activity.
@Nissim – I don’t know of any codes, but this thread on FlyerTalk may help.
@peachfront - The whole point about collecting miles and points is to use them in a way which makes you happy, so enjoy the gift cards!
@Daraius – Transferring points from one MR account to another can only be done over the phone. You are right it’s YMMV, but if the agent doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to allow you to transfer, just use the old trick to politely hang up and call again. Always worked for me!
- Re SPG transfers only work with some programs, which ones have you seen not working out of curiosity?
@MillionMiler – I was debating whether to add the AMEX MR transfer from account to account since it is so ymmv. Perhaps I’ll do a separate post later. I don’t believe the points transfer to AA if the names are different.
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quick question: I am considering cancelling my Alaska Airlines Signature card because I don’t charge enough to make the fee worthwhile. I put all my spend on UAL. They have cancelled the route I need. In order to preserve approx. 80K miles, can I buy a minimum of Alaska miles with a different credit card to keep my account active. Is there another solution??? Thank you!
@Sharon Jones – Sure, you can buy miles from Alaska using a different credit card. You can also buy flowers or take part in their dining program to earn Alaska Air miles to keep your account active.
Hi Daraius,
I’m a huge fan of Million Miles Secrets and have benefited tremendously from your insider tips and suggestions. I confess that I look forward to reading your new entries on my way to work on the subway! I recently booked a flight on U.S. Airways to Brazil using the sign-on bonus. Since I don’t foresee myself traveling on another U.S. Airways flight before Brazil, should I close my card before my trip to avoid the $85 annual fee or wait until after my trip? I also don’t have much loyalty to U.S. Airways since I’m trying to build up my mileage on United and AA. I doubt the airline will void my flight, but I’d like to be safe than sorry. Thanks for your feedback!
@DealsguyinDC - Your flight won’t get cancelled if you close the card. Thanks for reading and safe travels to DC!
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Darius,
I am planning to close my southwest premier card. 2nd year annual fee charged on Oct 1. I am told by Customer relationship, I can collect the annual fee back within 60 days after the cancellation.
I have accumulated 29k miles which i assume I will not lose when i closed the account. But, some member comment that the option to exchange to miles to a gift card will not be available if the chase southwest card are closed.
Is this correct?
** correction ** 60 days after the annual fee charged.
@CHRIS – I believe you can’t redeem Southwest points for gift cards if you don’t have any Southwest credit card. But you won’t lose the miles you’ve already earned.
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@Chris, I just paid my 1st annual fee for the SW premier card. How do you go about collecting the annual fee back if I cancel the card within 60 days?
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I think my citi thank you points expire 2 years after earned.
Transferred points expire in only 90 days.
You can look up when your points are expiring at
http://www.thankyou.com under My Account / Points Summary / Expiring Points
https://www.thankyou.com/helpTopic.jspx?itemId=10148&topic=Expiring%2BPoints
Phil, usually the refund period for the annual fee is in the terms under “annual fee”. I think the normal period is more like 30 days.
Darious,
Has this logic changed for United or are they trying to ‘scare’ me in reference to your article? I have United miles thanks to the United Explorer card that have not yet been used. The annual fee is coming up so I’m looking to cancel but retain my points of course. However, when I logged into my United.com account and click on the ‘Mileage Expires’ hyperlink, a text box saying the following displays: “Thank You for being a Chase MileagePlus cardmember. Your miles will not expire as long as your credit card account is active, your annual membership fee has been paid and the card is not in default. Upon cancellation of your credit card account, your miles will expire in accordance with the MileagePlus program rules.”
By them expiring, I’m assuming that’s if I have no additional activity after a set amount of time and that they won’t be automatically removed. Is this assumption correct?
@Brian – What they mean is that if you cancel the United card, your miles are subject to the normal expiration policy. For United, they miles will expire if you have 18 months of no activity. And they are trying to get you to keep the card as well!