Forgotten Credit Card Rewards: What Most Cardholders Don’t Know Could Mean $320 in Unredeemed Cash Back

Most Americans with rewards credit cards are sitting on unredeemed cash back they’ve completely forgotten about. If you haven’t checked your rewards balance in months or years, there’s a solid chance you have money waiting—according to recent data, the average cardholder is leaving $192 to $257 on the table, depending on their credit score. Nationally, cardholders earned $41.4 billion in rewards in 2022 but left approximately $6 billion unredeemed, representing roughly 15 to 20 percent of all rewards earned that year. This isn’t a case of missing or lost money in the traditional sense; it’s money you earned through your own spending that most card issuers are happy to let you forget about.

The problem is widespread and surprisingly normalized by the credit card industry. Nearly 7 in 10 rewards cardholders—69 percent—are currently sitting on unused cash back, points, or miles. Of those with unused rewards, nearly half have specifically forgotten cash back sitting in their account. For many people, the rewards they’ve earned are just as “lost” as unclaimed funds sitting in a state treasury, except you have to actively claim them before your issuer’s terms allow expiration or forfeiture.

How Many Cardholders Are Actually Leaving Rewards on the Table?
Understanding the Dollar Amount of Your Forgotten Rewards
Why Cardholders Forget or Neglect Their Rewards
How to Find Your Forgotten Rewards Balance
Expiration Policies and the Risk of Losing Your Rewards
Redemption Options and How to Get the Most Value
Checking Multiple Cards and Account Consolidation Strategies

How Many Cardholders Are Actually Leaving Rewards on the Table?

The scale of forgotten rewards is staggering. A 2024 LendingTree study found that 69 percent of rewards credit cardholders have unused rewards sitting in their accounts right now. That’s nearly seven out of every ten people carrying a rewards card. Of those with unused rewards, 49 percent specifically have unused cash back—the most straightforward form of credit card rewards to understand and redeem.

This isn’t a small, fringe problem affecting only a handful of disorganized cardholders; it’s the norm rather than the exception. Breaking this down further, 23 percent of rewards cardholders haven’t redeemed any rewards over the past year at all. While this is actually an improvement from 2020, when 31 percent hadn’t redeemed any rewards in a year, it still represents millions of Americans actively not touching their rewards accounts. The reality is that for many cardholders, the rewards account becomes a “set it and forget it” situation after the initial excitement of opening the card wears off.

Understanding the Dollar Amount of Your Forgotten Rewards

The average credit card rewards balance sits at $192 per cardholder as of the end of 2024, but this number varies significantly based on creditworthiness. Cardholders with superprime credit scores (those with excellent credit histories and financial profiles) average $257 in rewards balances—substantially higher than the overall average. On the other end, subprime cardholders average just $33 in rewards, both because they earn rewards at lower rates and because they often carry fewer rewards cards. If you have good to excellent credit and multiple rewards cards, your actual forgotten rewards are likely well above the national average.

Cash back specifically accounts for $15.2 billion of the total rewards earned by Americans. While this is the single largest category of rewards, it’s also the most straightforward to understand and redeem—yet it’s still being forgotten at scale. The reason forgotten rewards matter so much is that they represent actual purchasing power you’ve already earned. You’ve already paid for the purchase; the reward is pure incremental value. Letting that value expire or remain perpetually unredeemed is equivalent to throwing money away after you’ve already paid out of pocket.

Why Cardholders Forget or Neglect Their Rewards

Understanding why people don’t redeem rewards reveals much about the design of these programs—and how card issuers benefit from forgetfulness. Among cardholders who have unused rewards, 23 percent reported that the rewards seemed too low in value to bother redeeming. Another 11 percent didn’t know how to redeem their rewards at all, despite earning them through normal card use. Nine percent found their rewards program too confusing to navigate, and another 9 percent simply said they were too busy to redeem. These reasons suggest a mix of genuine obstacles and accumulated friction that adds up over time.

The confusion factor is particularly important. Some rewards programs use point systems that require conversion rates to be translated into cash value, making it hard to know exactly how much a redemption is worth. Others offer dozens of redemption options—travel, gift cards, merchandise, cash back—with different point values depending on the redemption choice. A single airline mile might be worth 1.5 cents if redeemed for travel but only 1 cent if converted to cash. That complexity, even when solvable, creates enough friction that many people simply don’t bother. Card issuers have little incentive to simplify these programs; the harder it is to redeem, the more rewards go unclaimed.

How to Find Your Forgotten Rewards Balance

Checking your rewards balance is straightforward but often overlooked. Most card issuers prominently display your rewards balance in your online account portal or mobile app. Log in to your credit card account, and the rewards balance is typically visible on the homepage or account summary. If you have multiple rewards cards—which is common among people who’ve been cardholders for several years—you’ll need to check each issuer separately.

Chase, American Express, Capital One, Citi, Bank of America, and other major issuers all display rewards balances in their digital interfaces. If you can’t find your balance online, call the customer service number on the back of your card. A representative can tell you your current rewards balance in minutes and can often help you understand your redemption options. Some cards also send periodic statement updates showing your rewards balance, so you might find this information in old statements. The critical step is actually doing the check—many cardholders avoid their account for months or years and simply never verify what they’ve accumulated.

Expiration Policies and the Risk of Losing Your Rewards

Most cash back rewards don’t technically expire under standard card issuer policies—they can sit in your account indefinitely. However, this is where the distinction between “forgotten” and “truly lost” becomes important. If you close a rewards credit card account, most issuers will require you to redeem your remaining rewards within a specified window, often 30 to 90 days, or they’ll expire. This means that switching to a different card issuer could cost you your accumulated rewards if you don’t redeem first.

Some premium travel cards are exceptions to this rule, allowing rewards to be transferred to travel partners or accounts for longer periods, but this varies widely by card and issuer. Additionally, some card issuers reserve the right to close inactive accounts after a certain period of non-use, typically 12 to 24 months. If your account is closed due to inactivity, your rewards could be forfeited depending on the issuer’s terms. The safest approach is to assume that any rewards balance you have should be claimed sooner rather than later, even if the issuer hasn’t formally set an expiration date. Leaving $192 or more in your account while you wait for the “right” redemption option is essentially betting that the rewards will still be there when you get around to it.

Redemption Options and How to Get the Most Value

Cash back is the most popular redemption choice—61 percent of rewards cardholders who do redeem opt for cash back or gift cards, making it the clear preference. Cash back is also the simplest form of redemption; you can typically receive it as a statement credit, direct deposit to your bank account, or check. The value of cash back is straightforward: if your card offers 2 percent cash back, you get exactly 2 percent of your purchase amount back, with an average cash back rate across all rewards cards currently sitting at 1.18 percent.

Travel redemptions can offer higher perceived value if you’re willing to navigate award availability and seat restrictions, but they require more planning and flexibility. Transfer partners—where points are converted to miles with specific airline or hotel programs—can offer strong value but only if you’re actively planning travel. Gift cards are another option that splits the difference, with relatively straightforward redemption but potentially lower value than strategic travel redemptions. The key is understanding that the “best” redemption depends on your lifestyle and willingness to spend time planning; the “good enough” redemption that you actually complete is more valuable than the “perfect” redemption you put off indefinitely.

Checking Multiple Cards and Account Consolidation Strategies

If you’ve been a credit card user for more than a few years, you likely have multiple cards across different issuers. Someone who’s had a Chase card for five years, switched to an American Express card three years ago, opened a Capital One card two years ago, and still has a Bank of America card from a decade earlier will have rewards spread across four different accounts. Many people forget they even have older cards, making it easy for rewards to accumulate invisibly. Systematically checking every card issuer you’ve ever used—including cards you no longer actively use—can uncover hundreds of dollars in forgotten cash back.

Some card issuers do offer consolidated rewards accounts where multiple cards under the same issuer combine their balances, making it easier to track and redeem in bulk. American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Capital One’s program allow this type of consolidation within their ecosystems. If you have multiple cards from the same issuer, consolidating your rewards there is a practical first step. Beyond that, creating a simple spreadsheet with each card issuer, your approximate balance, and redemption options can help you prioritize which rewards to claim first—especially if you’re trying to consolidate balances or reach redemption minimums that trigger direct deposits or checks.