I hope everyone had a fruitful points earning Thanksgiving weekend … along with of course some time to reflect and be thankful 
Thanksgiving for me is time with family and friends; which always somehow ends in a discussion about travel / points and miles. Sure we talk sports, and all that jazz … but points and miles are the fun things; well I think so.
The two questions that came up were:
Won’t opening up all these credit cards destroy my credit? and Won’t I lose all my points when I close these cards? I don’t want to pay fees year after year for all of the cards?
Day after day we try to help reinforce that opening (and in some cases eventually closing) credit cards (methodically) won’t destroy your credit, but will in fact help over time. The second question, on losing points isn’t as easy an answer … but there are the absolute basics:
- If you have a loyalty program co-branded credit card (such as: PriorityClub Chase or SPG Amex), once the points post to your PriorityClub or SPG account they are yours.
- If you have a bank rewards branded credit card (such as: Chase Sapphire Preferred (earns Ultimate Rewards), American Express Platinum (earns Membership Rewards), or Citi ThankYou Premier (earns ThankYou points), if you close your account you LOSE all of your points.
- Always read the terms and conditions when you receive your card – On my last look at Chase’s T & C, if you close your account within 6 months of opening, Chase reserves the right to take back your signup bonus points (and other earned ones too?). That said, I never close an account prior to month 1; I’ve yet to find a valid reason to do so. Have you?
- Assume if you have any charge-backs / returns you’re going to lose that amount of points from your account.
- Whenever I call to close a card the agent tells me I’m going to lose my points; is that true?
- Yes, and no. I really think this is just a bit of customer service agents not being educated. What I’ve found they mean is that any points earned in the last spending period will be lost. … which is indeed the case. Any points previously deposited are yours … (keep in mind if they’re bank rewards points and you close the account, you will lose them all); the miles / hotel points though, in general are safe.
- I want to close my bank rewards card but I don’t want to lose my points.
- You can do this … sorta. Don’t close the account; but instead convert it. An open credit account is an asset. If a card has no annual fee, never close it without reason. ”Just because” isn’t a good reason; because in the end you’re actually hurting your credit. Take that platinum card and downgrade to gold. Or gold and downgrade to a basic card. Keep in mind, you may lose some benefits / transfer options, but the points will still be yours.
Deal of the Day
For today’s Deal of the Day TopCashback is donating $50 cash (to be deposited to your TopCashback.com account) for the best overall travel deal submitted. A great mileage run, mistake fare, partner promo, new card sign-up offer, or the special twist you figured out on a deal today. Add it to the comments section of this post (along with your First Name, Last Initial, and Airport Code) or this afternoon’s Deal of the Day post by TOMORROW at 11:59pm ET to be eligible to win. That gives you two days to win!
