About Credit Card Credits
Most credit card credits are based on either the calendar year or your cardmember year, but some card benefits reset every six months. If you have any of these cards, don’t forget to use the credit. After all, a benefit you actually use effectively helps offset the annual fee. Common examples are listed below. In general, June 30 is the cutoff, so don’t let them slip by.
- Saks credit: $50 every six months (AMEX Platinum, AMEX Platinum (Schwab version), AMEX Platinum Morgan Stanley, etc.)
- IHG card travel bank credit: $25 every six months. The credits from the first and second half of the year expire on July 15 and January 15 of the following year, respectively (Chase IHG Premier, Chase IHG Premier Business)
- Dell credit: $100 every six months (AMEX Platinum Business)
In addition, the AMEX Centurion card also has credits. The exact benefits depend on your specific card details. I’m not entirely sure what’s available this year, though Centurion cardholders probably aren’t too concerned about it anyway...
Saks Credit
This benefit is based on the calendar year and can be used once every six months: $50 from January through June, and another $50 from July through December. Make sure the charge posts by June 30 if possible; otherwise, it may count toward the second half of the year instead. If you can also stack it with an elevated shopping portal payout, even better.
Here are the relevant cards again:
IHG UA Travel Bank
This benefit is based on the calendar year and is issued as $25 every six months. That means the $25 issued for January through June expires on July 15, and the $25 issued for July through December expires on January 15 of the following year. If you want to time it carefully, you can use both half-year credits during the July 1 to July 15 window. You need to link your UA account and IHG account through the link below, and the credit will then be deposited automatically into your UA account.
Here are the relevant cards again:
Dell Credit
This benefit is based on the calendar year and can be used once every six months: $100 from January through June, and another $100 from July through December. Make sure the charge posts by June 30 if possible; otherwise, it may count toward the second half of the year instead. If you can also stack it with an elevated shopping portal payout, even better.
Here is the relevant card again:
Summary
Don’t wait until the last few days to use these credits. Otherwise, you might get busy and forget, or accidentally have the charge counted toward the next half of the year instead. Missing out like that never feels good.
Besides these semiannual benefits, there are also some annual calendar-year credits summarized in the article below: