What Happens to Your Points When You Close a Credit Card

Whether you keep your points when you close a card depends on one thing: where the points live. Some live on the card account and go when it closes. Some live in a separate loyalty account and stay. Find out which before you close, because the order of the steps is the whole answer.

Points that live on the card: move or use them first

Bank points belong to the card account or to the bank's rewards account tied to your cards. Close the only card that holds them and you can lose them.

• Chase Ultimate Rewards. Points sit on each card. Before you close a Sapphire, a Freedom or an Ink card, move its points to another Ultimate Rewards card you keep. Chase lets you combine points between your own cards in a few clicks.
• Amex Membership Rewards. Points sit in one Membership Rewards account shared by your cards that earn them. Close one card and keep another that earns Membership Rewards, and the points stay. Close the last one and they go with it, so transfer or redeem them first.
• Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou points. Same idea: keep another card in the same program, or move or use the points before you close the last one. Each bank sets its own rules for moving points between accounts; check them before you rely on it.
• RBC Avion and other Canadian bank points. Held in the bank's rewards program for your cards. Keep another card in the program or redeem first.

One more reason to move Chase points before closing: points on a Freedom card are worth a cent each until they sit on a Sapphire or an Ink Business Preferred, which can transfer them to partners. Churn values Ultimate Rewards at 1.7 cents when you hold one of those cards.

Points that live in a loyalty account: they stay

Co-branded airline and hotel cards earn straight into the program's own account: Delta SkyMiles, United, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, and in Canada Aeroplan from the TD, CIBC and Amex Aeroplan cards. Scene+ points from Scotiabank cards live in your Scene+ account too.

Closing the card doesn't touch those points. What changes is that the card no longer keeps the account active, so the program's own expiration rule starts to apply. See points expiration rules by program before you close the only card that earns into a program.

Cash back that hasn't paid out yet

Some cash back cards pay out once a year, or only once you reach a minimum. Close the card before the payout and the amount you have built up may be lost. Read the card's rewards terms, and redeem or wait for the payout before you close.

A checklist before you close any card

1. Where do the points live? On the card, in a bank program, or in a loyalty account.
2. Do you hold another card in the same program? If so, move the points to it, or confirm they already sit there.
3. Is a payout pending? Cash back, an anniversary bonus or a spending bonus that posts after the statement closes.
4. Is the card under a year old? Read the welcome offer terms first. Some issuers, Amex among them, can take back a bonus they decide was gamed, and closing a card soon after earning it is the pattern that draws that.
5. Would a downgrade do? It keeps the account, the credit history and usually the points.
6. Check that the points arrived before you call to close. A transfer between your own cards is usually instant, but look.

The short version

Points on a bank card go when the last card in that program closes, so move or use them first. Points in an airline or hotel account stay, but start to follow that program's expiration rules. When in doubt, downgrade instead of closing. For what your points are worth once they are safe, see Churn's valuations.