Which credit cards earn non-expiring points?

“I want a credit card with points that don’t expire.”

That’s something I hear from many first-timers to the miles game, and to be fair, it’s a perfectly reasonable ask. After all, it may take a while to save up for your first big redemption. Non-expiring points can be converted when you’re good and ready, minimising transfer fees and removing the risk of expiry.

Even though I don’t think expiring points should be that big a concern (read on to find out why), let’s deal with the question at hand first.

How long are credit card points valid for?

Here’s each bank’s expiry policy for rewards points. Note that some banks may have more than one currency, each with a different policy (e.g. Citi Miles vs ThankYou points).

Bank	Currency	Expiry
	Membership Rewards	No expiry
	Rewards Points	12-24 months
	Citi Miles	No expiry
	ThankYou Points	Up to 5 years
	DBS Points	1 year
	Rewards Points	37 months
	TREATS	1 year
	OCBC$	2 years
	Travel$	No expiry
	VOYAGE Miles	No expiry
	360 Points	Up to 3 years
	UNI$	2 years

But that’s not the whole story! Where it gets confusing is that even within the same bank, the same points earned on different cards may have different expiry policies.

For example, DBS Points earned on the Woman’s World Card expire after one year, but DBS Points earned on the Altitude cards never expire. Similarly, ThankYou points earned on the Citi Rewards Card expire after five years (or more accurately, up to five years), but ThankYou points earned on the Citi Prestige Card never expire.

So in addition to the general rules above, it’s helpful to set out which specific cards earn non-expiring points:

💳 Cards with Non-expiring Points
Card	Local Earn Rate (MPD)	FCY Earn Rate (MPD)
SCB Visa Infinite	1.4*	3.0*
OCBC VOYAGE	1.3 (Premier, PPC, BOS earn 1.6)	2.2 (Premier, PPC, BOS earn 2.3)
Citi Prestige	1.3	2.0
DBS Treasures AMEX	1.2	2.4
OCBC 90N Mastercard	1.2	2.1
Citi PremierMiles	1.2	2.0
DBS Altitude	1.2	2.0
SCB X Card	1.2	2.0
Maybank Visa Infinite	1.2	2.0
OCBC 90N Visa	1.0	4.0^
AMEX Platinum Charge	0.78	0.78
AMEX Platinum Credit Card	0.69	0.69
Maybank World Mastercard	0.4	0.4
*Min S$2K spend per statement month, 1 mpd for both otherwise ^Upsized to 4 mpd until 15 Jan 2022, capped at S$2,500 per calendar month. Regular rate 2 mpd

Are non-expiring points really that important?

Although it’s nice to earn points that don’t expire, I don’t believe this should be your key criteria for choosing a card. That’s because:

1. You actually have more time than you think
2. You shouldn’t be holding on to points so long that expiry becomes an issue

You have more time than you think

Most credit cards in Singapore earn points that are valid for at least 2 years. After that, you can transfer them to KrisFlyer where they’re valid for a further 3 years. 

Therefore, in most cases, you have at least 5 years to save up for your desired redemption. If you’re not able to accumulate enough miles in that period for at least one award flight, it suggests that:

1. you’re not optimising your miles collection strategy
2. your miles goal is too ambitious relative to your spending (e.g. trying to redeem for too many people, or in too high a cabin)
3. your absolute spending levels are too low (but before you write off the miles game as only for big spenders, consider whether you’re truly optimising your miles collection in the first place)

You shouldn’t be holding on to points indefinitely

Non-expiring points can be a bad thing, if they encourage you to hold them indefinitely without any clear redemption plan. The longer you hold your points, the more vulnerable you are to devaluations.

Take KrisFlyer, for example. Historically speaking, KrisFlyer devalued every 4-5 years. However, recent events suggest that the gap between successive devaluations has shortened to 2-3 years. While I don’t expect a devaluation to happen anytime in the next 12 months, there’s an air of inevitability about it. 

Saving up your miles for retirement might have been viable in early days of frequent flyer programmes, but it’s unthinkable today. Given how airlines are handing out miles for everything from opening a credit card to buying flowers, the pace of devaluations is only likely to accelerate in the future.

To put it another way, miles are amazing, but they’re the worst investment to hold. They don’t earn interest, they’re not protected by deposit insurance, and they can only be devalued. Earn and burn, not earn and hold!

But what about transfer fees?

It’s certainly true that non-expiring points help minimize transfer fees, because there’s no pressure to cash them out before you’re ready. For example, if you hold a DBS Woman’s World Card, you’ll have to transfer points at least once every 12 months, or else forfeit them.

While transfer fees are annoying and you should be doing all you can to minimize them, I feel they’re ultimately insignificant in the grand scheme of things. To put it another way: I wouldn’t actively avoid the DBS Woman’s World Card or the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa just because they earn points with 1-2 years expiry. The opportunity cost of foregone miles far outweighs any additional transfer fees.

Conclusion

As nice as non-expiring points are, it ultimately isn’t that big a factor in my decision whether or not to get a particular card. 

So my advice is not to get too hung up about this. Pick cards on the basis of their earn rates and transfer partners, and with the right accumulation strategy, you’ll be earning and burning points so fast that expiry won’t even be an issue.