Credit Card Credits Expiring December 31, 2026 — $2,004 Across 14 Benefits
Fourteen recurring credits across six premium cards die on December 31, 2026 — $2,004 in total. Here's every one, what it takes to actually trigger it, and the four credits everyone thinks expire December 31 but don't.
Seasonal · 9 min read · 2026-07-12
December 31 is the biggest single expiration date in the premium credit card calendar. On that one day, 14 recurring credits across six cards expire — $2,004 in total — and every dollar you haven't used simply evaporates. We track 39 recurring credits across 8 premium cards, so we counted precisely. This is the full list, sorted by what it costs you to forget. But start with the most important thing on this page, because it is the one almost every guide on the internet gets wrong — including, until today, one of ours. The $500 credit that has no mid-year deadline (and needs two bookings) The Edit by Chase Travel credit on the Sapphire Reserve is $500 per calendar year, and December 31 is its only deadline. You will read, in a lot of places, that it is "semiannual" — $250 for January–June, $250 for July–December, with a use-it-or-lose-it cliff on June 30. That is false. There is no mid-year forfeit. The full $500 stays claimable right up to December 31. Here is the part that actually matters, and it is not the part people worry about: > The $500 is capped at $250 per booking. It is not one spendable $500 pot. Each qualifying prepaid stay of two or more nights earns up to $250 back — so capturing the full $500 takes two separate bookings. That reframes the deadline completely. The risk was never that you'd miss a June cliff that doesn't exist. The risk is that you reach mid-December with $500 of headroom, book one nice hotel stay, collect $250 — and discover you needed to have booked two trips. You cannot make up the second $250 with a bigger single booking. If you have used