What happens to my points when I cancel a credit card?

Planning to cancel your credit card? You might have to cash out all your points first- or not, depending on which card you have.

I often warn people that they shouldn’t get too attached to their credit cards, because cancellations are part and parcel of the miles game.

Maybe the bank refused to waive the annual fee. Maybe you signed up for the welcome bonus, and don’t use the card anymore. Maybe the card got nerfed. Whatever the reason, when that day comes the big question you’ll need to address is “what happens to my points when I cancel a credit card?”

It depends. With some banks, you’ll need to cash out all the points you earned on that card, or else forfeit them. With others, it’s business-as-usual, assuming you have other cards with the bank. 

In this post, we’ll look at the different scenarios. 

💳 Credit Card FAQs

How pooling affects cancellation

In general, whether you need to cash out your points before cancelling a card depends on whether or not the bank pools points across cards.

Here’s a quick summary of which banks pool credit card points, and which don’t.

Bank Pools Points?
✓ Yes
No
No
✓ Yes
✓ Yes
✓ Yes
✓ Yes
(OCBC$ and 90°N Miles pool with each other)
✓ Yes
(VI with VI, non VI with non VI)
✓ Yes
  • If your bank does not pool points, you must convert all the remaining points on the card, or else forfeit them
  • If your bank pools points, you do not need to take further action unless it’s your last points-earning card with the bank
    • However, this does not apply to DBS, HSBC and StanChart, where you must convert the remaining points before cancelling

If the bank does not pool points

Let’s start with the more straightforward scenario.

If you have a Bank of China or Citibank card, where points do not pool, you must redeem all the points on the card you intend to cancel. Any points left over will be forfeited. 

For example, suppose I have a Citi Prestige Card with 100,000 ThankYou points and a Citi Rewards Card with 50,000 ThankYou points. If I cancel the Citi Prestige Card, I will need to transfer out the 100,000 points associated with the card first.

If the bank pools points

Now the more complicated scenario. 

If you have an American Express, Maybank, OCBC or UOB card, there is no need to convert your points before cancelling a card, provided it’s not your last points-earning card with the bank.

For example, if I have a UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard with 100,000 UNI$ and a UOB Preferred Platinum Visa with 50,000 UNI$, and I wish to cancel the PRVI Miles, I don’t need to convert any UNI$ prior to doing so. My remaining balance after cancelling will still be 150,000 UNI$.

However, if I have a UOB PRVI Miles Mastercard with 100,000 UNI$ and a UOB One Card, and I wish to cancel the PRVI Miles, I must convert all the UNI$ because I won’t have any UNI$-earning card remaining after cancelling it. 

⚠️ OCBC’s three points currencies

OCBC has three different points currencies:

  • 90°N Miles (earned by the OCBC 90°N Mastercard and 90°N Visa)
  • OCBC$ (earned by the OCBC Rewards and OCBC Premier Visa Infinite)
  • VOYAGE Miles (earned by the OCBC VOYAGE Cards).

Similar currencies pool with each other, but different currencies do not. For example, if you have an OCBC 90°N Visa and OCBC Rewards Card, and wish to cancel the 90°N Visa, you must convert all the 90°N Miles before cancelling.

If you have a DBS, HSBC or StanChart card, you must convert the remaining points associated with the card you’re cancelling, or else forfeit them. These cards pool points for the purposes of redemption, but otherwise keep them in separate silos, and cancelling a given card will also delete its silo.

I know there are several data points from HSBC cardholders who cancelled their card, and still see their remaining points as part of their combined balance. I would urge caution here, because HSBC’s official policy is that points on a cancelled card are forfeited. Even if you see the points now, there’s no guarantee they won’t be “adjusted” out of your account at some point down the road (HSBC’s IT systems are notoriously bad anyway).

What to do with orphan balances?

If you need to transfer out your points before cancelling a card, you may very well run into an issue with orphan points. This refers to the points that can’t be converted into miles because they fall short of the minimum conversion block. 

✈️ Min. Conversion Blocks for KrisFlyer Miles
Currency Points
Miles
AMEX Membership Rewards
Pool
400
(Plat. Charge, Centurion)
250
450
(All others)
BOC Points 45K 10K
Citi Miles 10K 10K
Citi ThankYou Points 25K 10K
DBS Points
Pool
5K 10K
HSBC Points
Pool

25K
(+5 beyond this)
10K
(+2 beyond this)
Maybank TREATS
Pool
25K 10K
OCBC$
Pool
25K 10K
OCBC 90°N Miles
Pool
1K 1K
OCBC VOYAGE Miles 1 1
SC 360° Rewards Points
Pool*

25K
(Visa Infinite & Journey)
10K
34.5K
(Non-Visa Infinite Cards)
UOB UNI$
Pool
5K 10K
*Points earned on Visa Infinite/Journey cards cannot be pooled with points earned on non-Visa Infinite cards

Orphan points aren’t a complete lost cause though; you can use Kris+ to transfer out smaller blocks of Citi, DBS and UOB points to KrisFlyer miles, albeit at a 15% haircut compared to using the bank portal.

Bank Conversion
4,000 Citi Miles = 3,400 miles
10,000 ThankYou Points= 3,400 miles
100 DBS Points = 170 miles
1,000 UNI$ = 1,700 miles

If your points are with other banks, then all you can really do is look at what other redemption options are on offer. Shopping vouchers, cash rebates and merchandise are poor value for points, but poor value is better than no value at all!

It’s also worth doing the math to see whether you’re just shy of the next conversion block, and whether some incremental spending on the card you’re planning to cancel can help put you over the finish line. 

For more strategies on combatting orphan points, refer to the article below. 

What are orphan miles, and how do you avoid them?

What if I have a cobrand card?

If you have a cobrand card, like the AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend, AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card or KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, miles are automatically batched and transferred to your KrisFlyer account at the end of each statement period. 

So all you need to do is ensure you don’t charge anything to the card in the month before you plan to cancel, to remove the possibility of miles being “lost in transit”, so to speak. 

Special caution applies to the KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card, however. Remember that this card earns 3 mpd on dining, food delivery, online shopping and travel, and transport spend, but of this figure, only 1.2 mpd is credited upfront. The remaining 1.8 mpd is credited within two months after the end of the membership year.

  Earn Rate Remarks
Base Miles 1.2 mpd Credited when transaction posts
Accelerated Miles 1.8 mpd Credited within two months after end of membership year
Total 3 mpd  

If you cancel your card before this amount is credited, any pending miles will be forfeited!

Conclusion

Cancelling your credit card is rather straightforward if your points balance remains untouched, but where points don’t pool, or where points pool but you’re with DBS, HSBC or StanChart, you will need to cash them out first. 

This may mean paying an additional conversion fee, and possibly dealing with orphan points, depending on the bank. But that’s still better than losing all your hard-earned points, so think of it as your “breaking-up fee”.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Mindblown

For scenario B, are the points listed the minimum amount required for miles conversion, or is it a block amoung that you need to hit everytime you want to convert an amount.

In other words, if I have 22,222 Citi Miles, can convert all of it, or just the 20,000 and I have remaining 2222 which I then have to hit another 10,000 again.

Wayne

Citi doesn’t have a requirement to convert in blocks. I converted an odd amount last week for my rewards card.

Wayne

Yup that’s right. I converted my entire balance which could explain why the odd lot was allowed.

M Lam

So in this case, it will be considered as 2 transfer fees for 2 different transactions?

Beans

Question please: suppose I receive the annual fee bill, then I call and have my waiver request rejected – would I still have enough time to redeem my points before I cancel the card?

Beans

thanks so much!

this means I can afford to wait for the annual fee notice; if they waive it, I can roll over the points; if not, i’ll redeem them and then cancel the card.

Sos Cili

I had DBS Altitude and WWMC cards and wanted to cancel the Altitude card. Problem is, WWMC points have an expiry date whereas Altitude’s doesn’t.

DBS redeems miles that are expiring first, which means WWMC earned points will always be redeemed first. Therefore, one has to redeem the entire balance in order not to leave any behind, which I find sucky.

Theo

Cancelled my last UOB card in Jan 2023, with a bit of UNI$ left that was too little to redeem anything. Applied for a UNI$ earning UOB card in Jul 2023, and was surprised to see that the UNI$ was still there. 😮

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