Available on all plan levels
Overview
Points expiry automatically removes unused loyalty points after a certain period of time. It helps you manage your loyalty program by encouraging customers to stay active and reducing the number of members holding onto unused points.
Without expiry, customers can accumulate points indefinitely, which can make it harder to track engagement and inflating outstanding point balances.
With expiry in place, you can reward your most engaged customers while prompting inactive ones to re-engage before their points are lost.
Expiration types
There are four ways to expire points, depending on how you want your program to work.
The activity-based methods - Last purchase and Last points balance change - let customers keep their points active by engaging with your store.
The time-based methods - Date earned and Calendar date - follow fixed timelines, so expiry dates are clear and consistent for both you and your customers.
Comparison table:
Expiration type | How it works | Example | Best used when |
Last purchase (Default method until 2025) | A customer's entire approved points balance will expire if no purchases are made within the set period. A new purchase resets the clock. | Example: Set period = 12 months. If a customer doesn’t make a purchase for 12 months, all their points expire. Making any purchase (even of low value) renews their points for another 12 months. | You want to encourage regular repeat purchases, and only expire points when customers stop buying. |
Last points balance change | A customer’s entire approved points balance will expire if there’s no points activity (earn, spend, or manual adjustment) within the set period. Any activity resets the clock. | Example: Set period = 12 months. If a customer doesn’t earn, spend, or have points adjusted for 12 months, all their points expire. Earning or spending points restarts the countdown. | You want to encourage customers to either purchase or engage (e.g. complete activities) regularly - not just shop. |
Date earned (NEW 2025) | Each batch of earned points expires separately after the set period, regardless of purchases or other activities. | Example: Set period = 12 months.
| You want points to expire on a rolling basis for all customers after a fixed time. |
Calendar date (NEW 2025) | All unused points older than a set age expire once per year on a fixed calendar date (the same for all members). | Example: Expiration period = 1 year, expiry date = 31 Dec.
| You want all customers’ points to expire together on a specific date each year. |
How to enable points expiration
Log in to your LoyaltyLion account
Click the Manage tab
On the left, find Settings > Program settings > Point expiration
Select the Enable points expiration checkbox
Choose your Expiration method
Set your Expiration period and Notice period
How each expiration method works
Last purchase
All points expire if no purchases are made within the set period.
How points expiration works
If you have a live program and you turn on Points expiration, we do not immediately begin expiring existing customer points.
Once you switch on point expiration, it will only take effect one expiration period after the date you activate it.
The expiration period is the length of time you specified in the Points expiration period field.
This means that if your expiration period is 12 months and you enable points expiration on March 1st, 2023, any customers who have not placed an order on or after that date will start to have points expire on March 1st, 2024.
If a customer doesn’t make any purchases for a consecutive 12 months, all their approved points will expire. Any points earned during the 12-month period from non-purchase activities will also expire on the same date.
It is worth noting that orders of no value, or orders that have been discounted down to no value, will still act as an order and, therefore, push the point expiry for another 12 months.
The expiration countdown starts from when the points are created, not when they’re approved. An automated system checks daily and removes any points that have reached their expiration date.
If a customer hasn't placed any orders from the point they joined the Loyalty Program, then the expiry period is calculated from the time they register their account.
Last point balance change
All points expire if no points activity has occurred within the set period.
How points expiration works
As with Last Purchase, when Points expiration is enabled via Last point balance change, existing points do not expire immediately.
Expiration takes effect one whole expiration period after activation.
For example, if the expiration period is 12 months and you activate it on March 1st, 2023, points will begin expiring from March 1st, 2024, for customers whose points balance has not changed (earned, spent, or adjusted) since before March 1st, 2023.
Any new earning, spending, or manual adjustments resets the expiration countdown.
Expiration is based on the date of the last balance change, and the process runs daily to automatically remove expired points.
If a customer has never earned or spent points, the expiration period begins on the date their account was created.
Date earned
Each batch of earned points expires separately if left unused.
How points expiration works
When you enable this expiration method, existing points don’t expire immediately. Expiration begins one whole expiration period after activation.
Each time points are earned, a new “bucket” of points starts its own expiration countdown from the date those points were created (the earned date). For example, if the expiration period is 12 months and you activate this policy on March 1st, 2023, points earned on or after that date will start expiring individually from March 1st, 2024.
Only unused points are expired; spent or deducted points remain unaffected.
Expiration is handled daily by an automated job that removes expired points as they reach their earned-date threshold.
Calendar date
Unused points older than the specified age expire each year on a set date.
How points expiration works
When you enable this method, existing points don’t expire immediately. Expiration begins one full expiration period after activation.
At each scheduled date (for example, December 31st), unused points that are older than the configured age are expired in bulk. For instance, if the expiration period is set to one year and you start expiring points from March 1st, 2023, then on December 31st, 2024, all unused points earned before December 31st, 2023, will expire.
Only unused points are removed; any points already spent remain unaffected. Expiration runs automatically on the configured calendar dates, and reminder notices can be sent to customers in advance based on the set notice period.
Point expiration notice
You can set a points expiring notice, which determines how many days' notice customers get before their points expire.
Customers can be notified via LoyaltyLion's built-in emails or through your connected Email or SMS integrations (e.g. Klaviyo or Attentive).
💌 Using Klaviyo or Attentive
Use the Points expiring soon event to automatically trigger an email or SMS based on your configured points expiry notice period (e.g. 14 days before expiry).
🔧 Setting up in Klaviyo or Attentive
To set up automated expiration reminders, you'll need access to LoyaltyLion Events, which is included in the Plus plan or as an add-on for other plans. See our pricing page.
If you'd like access to Events, please contact support@loyaltylion.com.
💡 Examples and inspiration
Looking for design ideas? Examples of real points expiry emails can be found on our Pinterest page here.
Showing points expiration dates on your loyalty page
Once points expiration is enabled, you can show your customers when their points are due to expire within the History section on your loyalty page.
Using the Theme Editor:
Enabling this feature yourself is quick and easy:
Open the LoyaltyLion Theme Editor and navigate to Page > History.
Check ‘Show points expiration’.
We will show how many points are due to expire, and the date they are due to expire.
If expiration is set up to 12 months from the last purchase, the complete points balance will display.
If you are using the rolling per-activity expiration method, it will show the expiration data of each activity in the pop-up in the customer's history. You can click on each line item to see the specific expiry for those points, which will show as below.
Not using the Theme Editor?
No problem - reach out to support@loyaltylion.com, as our team will be happy to help set this up.
Reporting on expired points
Use our Points Accounting Report to see how many points have already expired within your program over a specified time period.
Reward expiration
You can also add expiry to rewards to create urgency and encourage redemptions.
Learn more about setting up rewards expiration here.
FAQ's
Q: Do reverted points create a new expiry period?
No, reverted points retain their original earn date. They do not generate a new expiry period or date.
Q: How often does the expiry job run?
The expiry job that processes unused points runs daily in the LoyaltyLion system.
Q. Will my customers be notified if their points are about to expire?
Yes! Once you've enabled point expiration, you can automatically email the affected customers, encouraging them to redeem their points or make a purchase to keep their existing balance.
If you have an Attentive integration or enhanced Klaviyo integration (included on our Plus plan as standard and available as an add-on for other price plans), you can notify your customers through them, rather than using LoyaltyLion.
Contact support@loyaltylion.com to learn more about our integrations.
You can find our Points expiring soon email in the Emails tab.
Q. With last purchase expiration, what happens to pending points?
If a customer still has pending points when their points are expired, those points will remain pending.
Q. What happens to points that guest customers have? Do they also expire?
Activity-based methods (Last purchase, Last points balance change): We don’t expire guest customers’ points. We keep the points until the guest enrols; then the expiration clock starts. If no orders are placed after enrolment, the period is calculated from account creation.from the time they register their account - e.g. 12 months from account creation.
Time-based methods (Date earned, Calendar date): Guest points are treated like enrolled members’ points and will expire according to the configured schedule even if the shopper never enrols.
Q. Are points a financial liability?
If you're wondering whether points count as a financial liability - they normally don't. Here is more information: http://www.iasplus.com/en-gb/standards/ifric/ifric13
Q. With the activity-based methods, does the order a customer makes have to have a value to push their expiry?
No, the customer simply just needs to make an order, or any value, including no value (just paying for shipping), in order for LoyaltyLion to register this as an order activity and push the expiry.
Q. With the activity-based methods, if I change my points expiration settings from a longer period of time to a shorter one (eg. From 12 months to 6 months), what will happen? Will customers' points expire straight away?
This depends on the level of engagement from the customers in your store. In this example, any customers who have made a purchase from your store within the past 6 months would not see their points expire.
However, if your previous point expiry period was 12 months and you changed this to 6 months, any customers who had last made a purchase more than 6 months ago would be eligible for points expiration.
For example, Customer A made a purchase 8 months ago and you switch the point expiration period to 6 months and your Points expiring notice is set to the default 14 days.
In cases like these, customers will get a two-week grace period from the time the setting is changed where you can let them know their points are due to expire. We recommend you let the customers know so that this does not come as a surprise (and this can be a great way to get customers to re-engage!)
Please bear in mind that:
Anyone who has already received a point expiration email warning them that their points will expire in 2 weeks will have their points expire when we said they would.
If your points expiration emails are enabled, customers whose expiration date will be placed in the past because of the change we are doing will receive the email to let them know straight away that they have 2 weeks before their points expire.
If your point expiration emails are enabled, customers whose points expiration date is still in the future and haven't received a point expiration email yet will receive the email about their points expiring 2 weeks ahead of whenever the new deadline is.
If your points expiration notice is set to a value other than 14 days (2 weeks), that timeframe will determine how long customers have before their points expire. You can view or update the points expiration notice in your Program settings.
Q. I manually removed points from a customer's balance (via Remove points button or the API) and I have Date earned point expiry enabled. What happens when points are due to expire?
When points are manually deducted (either through Remove points button or via the API), this action is treated as point usage. This means that when the system later checks for points to expire, it will not expire those same points again - they've already been 'used up'. In other words, manually removed points will not be deducted a second time during the expiration process.
Example:
With 12-month date-earned point expiry enabled and your customer's point history looking as below:
Date | Points | Note |
Sep 18th, 2024 | -350 | Manual point removal |
Mar 4th, 2024 | 400 | Make a purchase |
Jan 1st, 2024 | 200 | Social media follow |
On Jan 1, 2025, no points will expire - because the 350 points manually removed in September 2024 are considered already used.
On Mar 4, 2025, the remaining 250 points (from the March 2024 activity) will expire according to your 12-month expiry rule.