Here’s What Happens to Your Points if Your Credit Card Gets Closed

Rewards credit cards are an easy way to earn points on your everyday expenses. If you're good at taking advantage of bonus opportunities, you could end up with a healthy balance of credit card points. You might also find yourself wondering what would happen to those hard-earned points if your credit card got closed, either by you or the card issuer. The answer depends on the type of rewards card you have.

With airline and hotel credit cards, your points are safe

You don't need to worry about losing your points (or miles) if you have an airline or hotel card. Airlines and hotels operate their own loyalty programs. The rewards you earn are deposited to your account in the loyalty program, and they stay there even if your credit card is closed.

With airline credit cards, your miles or points get deposited to the airline's frequent flyer program. For example, if you earn 50,000 miles using a Delta Air Lines credit card, those miles will be in your Delta SkyMiles account. Even if your Delta credit card gets closed, that won't affect your SkyMiles account or the miles in it.

The same is true with hotel credit cards. If you have a The World of Hyatt Credit Card, it will earn points that go directly to your World of Hyatt account. No matter the status of your credit card, those points will be available for you to use.

One thing worth noting is that points can expire in some airline and hotel loyalty programs. In most cases, your points won't expire if you have a credit card in that loyalty program. But if the credit card gets closed, you won't have that protection anymore. You'll need to check the expiration policy on your points so you don't lose them.

If your card is in a credit card issuer's rewards program, you could lose your points

The rules are different if you have a card that's part of the credit card issuer's own rewards program. In that case, you only have an account in that rewards program as long as your credit card remains active. If it gets closed, you lose access to the rewards program and any unused points.

This is how it works with any credit card rewards program, also including cash back programs. To give you some examples, here are a few of the biggest credit card rewards programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Capital One Venture Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Rewards

Let's say you have a Chase credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards points. If that card gets closed, you effectively lose any points you haven't used yet. You'd need to find a way to redeem those points before your card is closed so they don't go to waste.

Make sure to use your points before closing a rewards credit card

It's good to get into the habit of checking for unused rewards before closing credit cards. If it's an airline or hotel card, you don't need to do this. But with any other type of rewards card, you should redeem your points first.

When you close a credit card yourself, it's easy enough to check for and redeem your points. However, there are also situations where the card issuer might cancel your credit card. Some of the most common reasons this can happen are:

• Inactivity (card issuers normally notify you before closing your card for this reason)
• Failure to make your credit card payments
• Gaming the system with its rewards program

As you can see, these are all avoidable issues that won't be a problem for most cardholders. If your card issuer closes your credit card before you're able to use your points, you can call and ask if it will let you redeem them. This doesn't always work, but it's worth a shot.