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American Express and its points currency — Membership Rewards — are one of the oldest flexible points currencies around. Over the years, the program has built a long list of valuable Amex transfer partners.
Considering the value of American Express Membership Rewards points, many members may wonder whether Amex points expire. So, here is everything you need to know about keeping your points safe and active.
Do Amex Points Expire?
Generally, Amex points do not expire. This is excellent news, as it lets you build points toward your travel goals without worrying about your Membership Rewards points expiring due to inactivity or a limited lifespan of points. However, per the Amex FAQs page, you can forfeit your Amex Membership Rewards points in certain circumstances.
“Membership Rewards® points have no expiration date. However, points may be forfeited as described in the program Terms and Conditions.”
Track your points and miles expiration for 630+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.
American Express Points Don't Expire, But You Can Still Lose Them
Although American Express points don't expire, you can forfeit them in several ways:
- Closing your Membership Rewards account: If you cancel your Membership Rewards-earning card, you have 30 days to use your points before they disappear.
- Making late payments: You must make on-time payments. Late payments may result in the forfeiture of all points earned during that billing period. After making your payment, you can pay a $35 fee to reinstate the points from that billing period.
- Returning items purchased with your card: You receive a statement credit, and Amex will debit the points you earned from your Membership Rewards account.
- If you engage in or attempt to abuse, misuse, or game Membership Rewards: Abusing your account can result in account closure and forfeiture of all of your points.
- Suspension of your corporate card: If your Membership Rewards card is a corporate card and it's suspended, you will lose the ability to earn and use the points in your account.
- A negative points balance: If you have a negative points balance, any newly earned points will be applied to the existing negative balance first.
- Canceling your card account: There are several scenarios where a card account could be canceled, both voluntarily or involuntarily. The terms fully cover these scenarios, including the loss of points upon your death. Since the value of the points in the account can be significant, American Express has a procedure for one of your family members or beneficiaries to take over your account and restore the points balance.
So, although Amex points don't expire, there are still several ways you can lose your Membership Rewards points.
Related: What Happens to Bank Rewards Points When You Die?
How To Earn Amex Points
Since American Express Membership Rewards points don't expire from inactivity, you can confidently build up your rewards stash. You can earn American Express Membership Rewards points with consumer credit cards like these:
You can also earn American Express Membership Rewards points with small business cards like these:
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
- American Express® Business Gold Card
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
(Terms Apply)
- Earn 2X points on everyday business purchases such as office supplies or client dinners. 2X applies to the first $50,000 in purchases per year, 1 point per dollar thereafter. Terms and limitations apply.
(Terms apply)
- 4X Membership Rewards® Points at restaurants worldwide, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S. (on up to $50,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com
- 2X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels and other eligible travel booked on amextravel.com
- 1X on other eligible purchases
(Terms apply)
- Earn 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase with U.S. construction material and hardware suppliers.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase with U.S. electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers.
- Earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on each eligible purchase with U.S. shipping providers.
- 1.5X earning rates are subject to a cap of $2 million in purchases per calendar year.
Use AwardWallet to Track Your Membership Rewards Balance
Even though Amex points do not expire, it still pays to keep track of them using AwardWallet. This way, you will have all your points and miles data in one place. Allowing you to easily plan with the relevant information at your fingertips.
To add your Amex account to AwardWallet, log into your account and link your American Express Membership Rewards account. Then, you'll get alerts about balance changes, as well as expiration notices about Amex card benefits.
Related: How to Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet
Our Take on Amex Points Expiring
The simple answer to “do Amex points expire?” is no. But beware of the ways that you can forfeit Membership Rewards points — from closing accounts to breaking Amex rules.
Great Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners provide excellent options for maximizing the value of your Amex points. While you need a good credit score to be approved for a premium card from American Express, it can be worth pursuing as Membership Rewards provide exceptional value.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), American Express® Gold Card (Rates & Fees), and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Tengo entendido que en Argentina no vencen
I didn’t know American Express has a special procedure to restore the points balance in case of account holder’s death.
Very important to keep the family informed about it.
Whilst some other regions probably have a wider range of partners, there are still some good partners in the UK including BA, Qantas, Emirates, Hilton, Marriott etc.
Are corporate card included in this programm?
thank you!
The full terms of the Corporate program are here, and there’s no expiration of points in the terms – https://www.americanexpress.com/us/rewards/membership-rewards/terms/corporate-terms-conditions.html
Points that do not expire, this is why Amex is my favourite
I love earning MR points. I don’t believe I would be doing anything to lose access to them. Quite easy to earn. I get mine through the everyday card and Rakuten right now and later I will be getting the Plat card with Amex.
wow, they’re so sneaky with this.
Thanks for making this clear for folks like me
🙂
Good news is points don’t expire. Just pay on time and use your points before you cancel your account.
I like Amex MR but here in U.K. the number of partners is very limited
Good to know not to do those naughty things that might lose us our points!
Get a blue business preferred card which you can use to hold onto your MR.
Its speadsheet time again, tough to keek all these numbers in my head.
I’ve accumulated a ton of points but haven’t figured out the best way to use them yet, I feel I get better award deals from the airlines and hotels directly.
A friend of mine got sloppy with handling her finances and failed to make her credit card payments or minimum payments and incurred all of the penalties and fees associated from Amex associated that type of mistake. Then when she paid off her account in full, Amex immediately closed her account and she lost over 120,000 points. I think of that as a reminder to use your points and not collect them indefinitely.
Perfect! Time to change to an american express account!
This is probably my favorite rewards program. I get excellent value from using my points for business class flights, particularly as I get 35% of the points back. I know that transferring to an airline program gets even better value but I also want to earn status through my flights. I have the Blue Business plus card that I will never cancel so I will never have to worry about the points expiring, even if I do get rid of the business Platinum card.
Can you transfer your points to another persons account that is a spouse or in the same household like Chase?
You cannot transfer Membership Rewards to someone else but you can convert Membership Rewards to someone else’s loyalty account (such as Delta or British Airways) if they’re an authorized user on the card account.
Perfect! So I’m going to have my fiancee open an Amex and have me as an authorized user. Then she can transfer points to the same loyalty program I will use to redeem the points. Thanks!
Exactly. That is how things worth in my house with my Platinum Amex.
Can points be transferred between countries? I want to move my Amex account from Germany to Austria. Should I transfer all my points to miles first?
Honestly, that is not something we’ve ever looked in to doing. I would recommend contacting American Express directly on this. Both in Germany and Austria to confirm their practice. Please share the results.
I certainly will. Thanks.
I called Amex in Germany this morning and they can transfer my points to my new Austrian account.
more reason to get the amex everyday card to keep points active.
I have been looking into the American Express but places I visit often do not take American Express and I have the Delta Amex anyway. It is very tempting to get a new Amex with membership rewards though! But I really, really, really love the Chase Sapphire I just got! I’ve found it’s SO useful and accepted everywhere I go.
Good reason to have AMEX Everyday Card so you have a no annual fee version to keep stockpiling points
I want to close my Amex card and so need to cash out 150k Amex MRs.
Already have enough Avios, don’t really fancy the exchange rate to AA miles, was wondering about SQ Krisflyer miles …
Anyone care to list their favourite Amex MR > Airline miles exchanges?
I’m a fan of Air France or Delta (to redeem on Delta), or Air Canada/Singapore for flights on United and their partners
Looks like mainly human error will only make your points expire with amex TBH.
it will be there as long as u keep a card that can accumulate MR points right
Correct.
mr rewards are great now that you get 50% point discount on tickets if you have the platinum business card
Indeed, expiring transferable points would greatly undermine the whole *point* of earning such currencies, which are most useful as hedged stores of value until one is ready to redeem/transfer them.
Is there any info how the AMEX rewards system compares to Chase?
The programs at a high level are relatively similar. The ability to transfer points to airline/hotel partners and the ability to book travel directly through their website/online travel agency. The real differences come with the nuances of each program, mainly which transfer partners exist and who/how you transfer.
My points have no risk of expiry, they’re so useful I can’t earn and burn them fast enough! Good to know the policies though.
Good to know about the late payments related forfeiture!
I <3 Amex rewards. If I could direct transfer points to AA I would be over the moon.
But I assume you can do it via SPG that takes only a few days longer?
When you have multiple AmEx cards that earn MR points, and you close one of them, can you move the MR points from the closed account to another one that’s open?
Short answer, Yes (sorta)
Longer answer:
When you open up a Membership Rewards earning card you either get a new Membership Rewards account # or Amex simply links it to an existing one. As long as you have an eligible Membership Rewards earning credit card linked to a Membership Rewards account, if you have another card you can cancel that one and your points will stick around and obtain the value associated with the card you currently have.
This blog post is very timely.
I got an Everyday card against the possibility that I would not renew my Amex Plat, the likelihood of which is now pretty high given the combination of AFs being raised and lounge benefits being reduced. How can I confirm that they are both attached to the same MR number?
And do the MR redemption benefits change if I drop the Amex Plat?
Thanks
As long as both of your cards are part of your same Amex login, they should be combined for Membership Rewards points.
You lose a few redemption options when redeeming points through the Everyday card vs. Amex Platinum – like using points to book Fine Hotels & Resorts. You can see all of the redemption options and rates for any Amex card by using the Rewards Points Calculator: https://global.americanexpress.com/rewards/calculator
I hear there are special Promos for US-Cards – is something similar planned for Germany?
Not that we know of.
I’m assuming that if one MR card is cancelled involuntarily, all other MR cards will be cancelled as well?
I cannot confirm that the assumption you have made is correct and I would not assume that to be the case. Perhaps you were delinquent on a single account but not on others; that could be a different scenario where they wouldn’t cancel all.
That is not always true.
The answer to your question is no. Cancelling one card will not get your membership rewards shut as long as you have other cards that are under the same membership rewards account number.