Can You Keep Your Credit Card Points When You Return a Purchase?

The quick answer? Generally not.

One of the biggest benefits to using credit cards is getting to rack up rewards for the purchases you're making. If you routinely spend $800 a month at the supermarket, paying for your groceries with a credit card versus cash could mean getting a percentage of that money back, whether in the form of cash back or rewards you can redeem for different options.

But what happens if you make a purchase, see your rewards balance increase, and then make the decision to return the item in question? Will you lose the reward points associated with that purchase?

Generally speaking, the answer is yes. And that's an important thing to keep in mind if you're chasing a credit card sign-up bonus.

How reward points work

When you make purchases that are eligible for rewards, those rewards are commonly credited to your balance once you pay the associated bill. But if you then return an item you accrued reward points on, just as you'll get your money back from the retailer in question, so too should you expect to see those reward points deducted from your balance.

The exact way those reward points get subtracted from your balance will depend on your specific credit card. In some cases, you might see those reward points deducted right away. In other cases, that deduction in reward points may not show up until your next billing cycle.

How returns could impact a sign-up bonus

Many credit cards offer sign-up bonuses that allow cardholders to snag extra cash back or rewards for meeting a certain spending requirement. You might, for example, get a new credit card offering $250 cash back for spending $2,500 within three months of opening your account.

If you're only just able to meet that spending requirement, you'll need to be really careful when returning items you've purchased on that card. Let's say you change your mind about a $100 kitchen gadget and decide to take it back to the store. If that $100 return puts your spending at $2,400 for the first three months after opening your card, it might actually cost you $250.

Should you make purchases for the express purpose of racking up rewards?

That's generally an unwise idea. What you accrue in rewards might amount to just a fraction of the cost of an item you're not so keen on. Or, to put it another way, you shouldn't push yourself to spend $100 to accrue $2 in reward points.

However, if you're close to snagging a sign-up bonus, you may want to do things differently. Going back to our example, let's say you're nearing the end of your three-month period and have only spent $2,400 during that time. You need to spend an extra $100 to score a $250 payday. In that case, it actually does pay to buy something for $100 so you can snag all of that cash back.

But that doesn't mean you need to blow that $100 on nonsense. If you have a decent amount of storage at home, buy $100 worth of non-perishable essentials, like tissues and toilet paper. Those are items you're apt to need eventually and therefore shouldn't feel compelled to return.