When do Citi ThankYou points expire? Here’s what you need to know

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Citi ThankYou points are handy because you can transfer them to airlines if you have either the Citi Prestige® Card or Citi Premier® Card. This can give you a lot of flexibility when it comes to booking that next award flight.

If you don’t happen to have one of the Citibank credit cards that allows for transfers to airlines, you can share your points with an account that does. But you’ll want to be aware of when Citi ThankYou points expire before you share your points.

When do Citi ThankYou points expire?

You can earn Citi ThankYou points with cards like:

• Citi Premier® Card
• Citi Rewards+® Card
• Citi Rewards+℠ Student Card
• Citi Prestige
• Citi® Double Cash Card (if you have one of the other ThankYou cards)

The information for the Citi Double Cash Card, Citi Prestige, and Citi Rewards Student card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The expiration policy for Citi ThankYou points can vary depending on a few different factors, including which Citi ThankYou credit card you have. But if you earn ThankYou points with any of the most popular ThankYou cards listed above, they won’t expire as long as you have the card open. That said, if you close your credit card account, your ThankYou points will expire in 60 days.

One way to get around this is to downgrade a card instead of canceling it. I downgraded my Citi Premier Card to the no-annual-fee Citi Rewards+® Card. Now my ThankYou points won’t expire.

One big caveat to this is that all ThankYou points you share expire 90 days after they were shared. This is important to realize because if you don’t have either the Citi Premier or Citi Prestige, you’ll need to share your ThankYou points with an account that does if you want to transfer them to airlines. So you should only share them when you’re ready to actually use your ThankYou points for travel.

If you happen to have an older or more obscure ThankYou points earning card, check out this list of expiration policies. Some of these cards have very specific terms, but it won’t apply to most of you.

Also, if you’ve earned Citi ThankYou points from a targeted Citibank checking account bonus, those points expire three years from the end of the year in which they were awarded. So, for example, if you earn a ThankYou point bank account bonus in February 2020, then those points would expire on December 31, 2023.

In addition, purchased Citi ThankYou points have an even shorter expiration than points earned through bank bonuses. They expire one year from the end of the year in which you purchased them. So if you purchased ThankYou points in August 2020 they will expire on December 31, 2021.