National Rental Credits don\u2019t expire. However, once you earn enough credits for a Free Day, that Free Day has a hard expiration date. Per the National FAQs page<\/a>:<\/p>\n “Rental credits do not expire.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Once you earn enough credits for a free day, the free day is valid through December 31st of the following year.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So while your unused credits remain valid indefinitely, the Free Day you earn from them expires at the end of the next calendar year. Once that Free Day hits its expiration date, it\u2019s gone for good \u2014 there\u2019s no way to reinstate it.<\/p>\n Track your points and miles expiration for 600+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The number of credits required depends on your Emerald Club status level:<\/p>\n National\u2019s credit-earning structure is a bit unusual:<\/p>\n That means shorter, more frequent rentals earn credits faster than one long rental. For instance, four separate 3-day rentals earn four credits, while a single 12-day rental only earns three. It\u2019s not always practical to split rentals, but if you\u2019re chasing status or Free Days, the math matters.<\/p>\n This combination of non-expiring credits and expiring Free Days means timing is important.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re close to earning a Free Day but don\u2019t plan to rent again soon, it may actually make sense to wait to earn that final credit. Your credits won\u2019t expire, but once converted into a Free Day, the clock starts ticking toward December 31 of the following year.<\/p>\n By keeping your balance in credits instead of Free Days, you effectively preserve their value for future trips.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong>How To Get Rental Car Elite Status for Free<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n When you consider that National Car Rental Credits don\u2019t expire but Free Days do, keeping track of your National Car Rental account is more important than ever. The best way to achieve this is by using AwardWallet. That way, you'll receive a timely reminder if you have Free Days about to expire. Then, you can take action to prevent the loss of your hard-earned Free Days.<\/p>\n To add National Car Rental to your AwardWallet account, all you need to do is log in and then link your National Car Rental account<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0How To Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n With unusual earning and expiration policies, the National Car Rental Emerald Club is a unique program. To get the most out of your rentals, keep them as short as possible (one or two days). To maximize the lifespan of your credits, you should time your rentals to maintain your balance as credits for as long as possible. This allows you to leverage the rule that National Car Rental credits do not expire, whereas Free Days do.<\/p>\n Page Contents<\/p> National Car Rental uses a complicated expiration policy where rental credits don’t expire but Free Days have a hard expiration policy. Here’s what to know and why you might want to carefully plan your rentals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":226015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12068],"tags":[36456,12689],"coauthors":[36383],"class_list":["post-66666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-award-programs","tag-expiration-policies","tag-national-emerald-club"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66666"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249751,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66666\/revisions\/249751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66666"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=66666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2](\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Amex-and-National.jpg\")
How Many Credits Do I Need for a Free Day?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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How National Credits Are Earned \u2014 and Why Rental Length Matters<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Plan Your Rentals Carefully<\/span><\/h2>\n
Track Your National Car Rental Credits and Free Days with AwardWallet<\/span><\/h2>\n
Our Take<\/span><\/h2>\n