Will I Lose Points Earned on a Chase Card If I Close the Account?

Aug. 24, 2014

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3 min read

Will I Lose Points Earned on a Chase Card If I Close the Account?

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TPG Reader William emailed The Points Guy asking:

"I have all three Chase cards now (Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Ink Plus) and have points balances for each. I was thinking about cancelling one of the Ink cards and possibly the Sapphire so as not to pay the annual fees on three cards. Would I be able to do so and keep the points from the cancelled card, or do I need to forfeit those points when I close one or two of the accounts?"

One of the things I like most about Chase Ultimate Rewards cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, the Ink Bold, and even the Chase Freedom card (No longer open to new applicants) is that I have them all under one login and I can transfer points in between accounts. So those Chase Freedom points that I am getting 5X points per quarter go into my Freedom Ultimate Rewards account, but through Chase's account management system I can combine all my points, meaning I can combine those Freedom cash back points into my Sapphire Preferred Ultimate Rewards account and then transfer them on to the 11 different Chase Ultimate Rewards partners.

Make to leave one Chase card open and put all your points under that card in your Ultimate Rewards account. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

TPG reader William emailed me to say he has several Chase cards and is considering canceling one or two of them. William, all you need to do is combine the points from the card(s) you want to cancel into one of the other Ultimate Rewards accounts you'd like to keep open and they will be safe there.

However, if you choose to cancel your only or last remaining Chase account, or even an Amex Rewards account, in this case I would always recommend to use the points. You should transfer them out to one of the partners, because if you do cancel all existing Ultimate Rewards cards, you will lose those unused points.

In conclusion, use them or lose them, or simply keep one of the cards open, like one with no-annual fee and keep them in that account.

If you have any other questions, please tweet me @thepointsguy, message me on Facebook, or send me an email at info@thepointsguy.com.

Featured image by Make to leave one Chase card open and put all your points under that card in your Ultimate Rewards account. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.