Feb 19, 2026
Some people like to save their credit card rewards for a rainy day. But one expert is warning consumers against hoarding large stashes of unused points.
“You don’t know what the future is going to hold,” Nick Ewen, senior editorial director at The Points Guy, told CNBC Make It, adding that stockpiling points “can really come back to bite you if something changes significantly in the program that you are holding them in (1)."
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There are two reasons why you should spend your points sooner rather than later, according to Ewen. Here’s what you need to know.
2 reasons to spend your points
Credit card rewards systems allow you to earn points on kilometres or on purchases that can be redeemed for benefits like travel and merchandise. With cash-back cards, you’re refunded a percentage of your purchases, usually within the range of 0.5% to 5%.
Many Canadians treat their credit card rewards like cash savings, assuming that they’ll gain in value over time or they’ll never expire. But rewards aren’t a guaranteed store of value; rather, they’re a depreciating asset. They’re not CDIC-insured. And, in many cases, they can expire.
Ewen told CNBC there are two reasons to spend your points now: Credit issuers can change their policies, and points can lose their value over time.
Credit card, airline and hotel reward cards can change their redemption policies at any time and essentially devalue their loyalty programs. That means your points are worth less over time, especially when you factor in inflation.
So, if it seems like you need more points to make a redemption these days, it’s not your imagination. It’s ‘pointsflation.’
For example, Air Canada rolled out major changes to its Aeroplan program at the start of the year, switching to a revenue-based model that rewards members on spend, not distance travelled — prioritizing top spenders, devaluing points for long-haul economy travellers and making it harder to achieve and maintain top-tier status.
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Over the past year, several airline loyalty programs (including Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines) moved toward dynamic pricing, meaning the points required for a flight could skyrocket during peak travel periods. Others are limiting premium seats and redemptions to more elite card members.
All of this means that the average consumer is getting squeezed, both on the ‘earn’ side and the ‘spend’ side.
On the other hand, if you put cash into a high-interest savings or investment account, you earn interest, which compounds over time, helping to combat inflation. But points don’t earn interest; their value tends to erode.
So consumers who stockpile rewards may be unknowingly losing their buying power.
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Making the best use of your rewards
That doesn’t mean you should cash out all your points immediately. Rather, it’s about keeping a ‘healthy’ points balance — and that number will be different for everyone. So, instead of hoarding them, come up with a strategy to redeem your points regularly and consistently.
Ewen believes it may make sense to hold onto more points if you travel regularly or if you’re saving for a big trip, like a honeymoon. But if you take one vacation a year, collecting travel points probably isn’t worth it.
You might also want to save points for last-minute emergency flights (say, a family member in another city gets sick).
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Yet, it can sometimes be hard to let go of those points — what some refer to as ‘redemption anxiety.’ Say, for example, you keep waiting for a better redemption deal to maximize the value of your points, so you end up never spending anything.
Coming up with a strategy to use your points can help you overcome that apprehension that comes with redeeming them.
For example, consider more flexible reward programs that don’t lock you into a particular airline or hotel, so they’re easier to redeem. Or, if a program is simply too complex or doesn’t provide enough value anymore, consider switching to a cash-back card, which is usually more straightforward.
Make sure to check expiration policies. In some cases, you could lose all your points if your account is inactive for a period of time, like 12 or 18 months.
Unlike cash, points are pretty much worthless unless you actually use them. While most financial advice tends to focus on saving and investing, this is one area where you might want to spend what you earn sooner rather than later.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
CNBC (1)
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Vawn Himmelsbach is a journalist who has been covering tech, business and travel for more than two decades. Her work has been published in a variety of publications, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, CBC News, ITbusiness, CAA Magazine, Zoomer, BOLD Magazine and Travelweek, among others.
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