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 none of it and it's December, you need two qualifying stays before the 31st. Book the second one now, even if it's a refundable rate for January travel that posts in December.

What triggers it: a prepaid booking of 2+ nights through The Edit by Chase Travel. The credit posts against the room charge. What does not: a one-night stay, a pay-at-hotel rate, or a booking made outside The Edit portal.

Everything that expires December 31, 2026

The hard cliff — $2,004 across 14 credits

Note which credits are not marked semiannual. The Edit credit is annual — a single $500 cap for the whole year. The four genuinely semiannual credits (Aspire Resort, StubHub, Sapphire Dining, Amex Gold Resy) really do run in halves, and what expires December 31 is their second half.

Three different clocks all happen to stop on the same day, which is why December 31 hits so much harder than June 30:

• Annual credits on a calendar-year cycle reset January 1.
• Semiannual credits — the H2 half, running July through December.
• Quarterly credits — the Q4 window, running October through December.

What you lose by card

A Sapphire Reserve + Amex Platinum + Hilton Aspire holder is looking at $1,754 expiring in a single day.

December's monthly credits — a further $177

Separately, the December allotment of every monthly credit expires with the month: Amex Platinum's Digital Entertainment ($25), Equinox+ ($25), Uber Cash and Walmart+; the Sapphire Reserve's DoorDash, Lyft and Peloton credits; Amex Gold's Uber Cash, dining and Dunkin' credits; and Marriott Brilliant's dining credit. About $177 in total.

These are worth a sweep on December 30, but they are a different kind of thing — they recur every month, so forgetting December's is a small, bounded loss. The $2,004 above is the one that only comes around once.

The four credits everyone thinks expire December 31 — and don't

This is where people waste their December. These credits are not on a calendar-year clock, and scrambling to use them before the 31st is effort spent for nothing:

• Sapphire Reserve $300 Travel Credit — resets on your cardmember year, not the calendar. If your account anniversary is in April, this credit's clock runs April to April. December 31 means nothing to it.
• Capital One Venture X $300 Travel Credit — same story. Cardmember year, not calendar year.
• Sapphire Preferred $50 Hotel Credit — cardmember year.
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Free Night — issued on your card anniversary.

And one that no longer exists at all:

• Amex Platinum Saks Fifth Avenue Credit — discontinued as of July 1, 2026. If you are working from a guide that still lists a $50 Saks credit expiring December 31, that guide is out of date. There is nothing to use.

The Global Entry / TSA PreCheck credits on the Sapphire Reserve, Venture X and Marriott Brilliant are also not annual — they run on a four-to-five-year application cycle. Nothing expires December 31.

A December that actually works

By December 1 — the one that needs lead time. Check your Edit by Chase Travel balance. If you have $500 of room, you need two separate prepaid stays of 2+ nights, and hotel availability in late December is the worst it gets all year. This is the only credit on the list where waiting can make it structurally impossible to capture, not just inconvenient.

By December 15 — the ones that need a booking. Fine Hotels & Resorts ($200) needs a qualifying FHR stay. The Hilton Aspire resort credit ($200) needs an eligible resort stay. Citi Strata's $100 needs a hotel booking of $500+ through Citi Travel. Marriott Brilliant's $100 luxury property credit needs a Luxury Collection or Ritz-Carlton stay. Refundable rates for January travel still count if the charge posts in December.

By December 27 — the ones that are just a transaction. Amex Platinum Resy ($100) and Lululemon ($75). Sapphire Reserve dining ($150) and StubHub ($150). Amex Gold Resy ($50). Hilton Aspire's airline credit ($50). Each of these is a single qualifying purchase; none needs planning.

By December 30 — the sweep. CLEAR Plus ($209) if you haven't enrolled. Then the monthly credits: DoorDash, Lyft, Peloton, Uber Cash, Dunkin', Equinox+, Walmart+, digital entertainment.

Do not leave anything for December 31 itself. A statement credit triggers when the charge posts, not when you make it, and a purchase made on the 31st can post on January 2 — against next year's allowance. That is a real way to lose a credit while doing everything else right.

Why we're publishing this in July

Because the Edit credit needs two bookings, and because the single most expensive mistake in this niche is discovering a constraint in late December that you could only have solved in October.

If you take one thing from this page: the $500 Edit credit does not expire in June, it is not one $500 booking, and December 31 is the only date that matters. Two stays. That's the whole game.

Pointsmiths tracks all 39 of these credits across 8 premium cards and tells you what expires next. Every figure on this page comes from that dataset — including the four credits we excluded because they don't actually expire December 31, and the Saks credit that no longer exists.

All benefit strategy guides

Updated 2026-07-31