Year-End Credit Card Checklist

December isn't just for holiday shopping. It's the month where annual credits expire, card strategies should be reviewed, and financial housekeeping earns you real money. Here's everything to check before the year turns over.

Use-it-or-lose-it credits

Several cards include annual credits that expire at the end of the calendar year (or your cardmember year — check your specific card's terms). If you haven't used them, you have weeks to claim value you've already paid for through the annual fee.

Amex Platinum airline incidental credit ($200). Covers bag fees, seat upgrades, and incidentals on your selected airline. Does not cover airfare. If you haven't selected an airline or used the credit, do it now. Note: you must select the airline before making the purchase, and the credit only applies to the airline you've selected.

Amex Platinum Saks credit ($50 per half-year). The July-December $50 credit expires December 31. Even a small purchase at Saks (in-store or online) triggers it.

Amex Gold dining credits ($10/month). Monthly credits at participating restaurants (the partner list changes periodically). December's credit expires at the end of the month. If you eat out at all, use the Gold card at a participating restaurant.

Amex Gold Uber credit ($10/month, $20 in December). The December Uber Cash credit is doubled to $20. Use it for an Uber ride or Uber Eats order before January 1.

Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve hotel credit. The $50 (Preferred) or $300 (Reserve) annual travel credit is tied to your cardmember year, not the calendar year. Check your account to see when your credit resets and whether you've used the current year's allocation.

Retention calls

If your annual fee posts in Q1 (January-March), call now — before the fee hits your statement. The retention call script applies year-round, but calling before the fee posts gives you more leverage than calling after. Ask for a retention offer, and if nothing is available, decide whether to downgrade to a no-fee card before the fee is charged.

Cards to evaluate: Any card with an annual fee where you're not confident the value exceeds the cost. Pull up the card's transactions for the past 12 months, calculate total rewards earned, subtract the annual fee, and decide. If the net is negative, it's time for a product change or retention offer — not another year of hoping you'll use it more.

Redeem your rewards

Cash back balances: Many issuers let cash back accumulate indefinitely, but there's no benefit to hoarding it. Redeem your cash back — it's not earning interest sitting in a rewards account. Apply it as a statement credit or deposit it to your bank account.

Points and miles: Points can devalue over time as programs adjust redemption rates. If you have a large points balance and no specific redemption plan, consider whether a partial redemption now protects against future devaluation. This is less urgent than expiring credits — points generally don't expire while the account is active — but a balance of 200,000 points sitting unused for years is value you earned and aren't deploying.

Expiring points: Some hotel and airline loyalty programs (separate from credit card points) expire after 12-24 months of inactivity. Check your airline and hotel accounts — a small activity (earning or redeeming even 1 point) typically resets the expiration clock.

Annual strategy review

Has your spending changed? The card that was optimal last year may not match this year's spending patterns. A job change, a move, a new baby, a shift to working from home — all of these change where your money goes. Re-run the CardRank quiz with your current spending profile and see if the recommendation has shifted.

Are you using all your cards? Any card you haven't used in 6+ months is at risk of being closed for inactivity by the issuer. Make a small purchase on each card before year-end to keep the account active. A recurring subscription (streaming, phone bill) set to autopay is the lowest-effort way to keep a card alive.

Update your income on each card. If your income increased this year, log in to each card's profile and update it. Issuers use reported income for credit limit increase decisions and may proactively raise your limit after an income update. Higher limits improve your utilization ratio at no cost.

Check your credit report. Pull your free annual report from annualcreditreport.com and review it for errors — incorrect accounts, wrong balances, accounts you don't recognize. Errors are more common than most people realize, and disputing them before they affect a future application is far easier than disputing them after a denial.

Plan next year's applications. If you're targeting a new card in Q1, start preparing: check your 5/24 status, pay down utilization to optimize your score, and identify the card whose welcome bonus aligns with upcoming spending (a vacation, a home project, tax season). The application playbook has the full strategy.