Points expiry is not available on our free plan. It is included from our Classic plan upwards, and available as an add-on on Small Business. Check our pricing page to see where your plan sits.
In this article:
Overview
Points expiry removes unused points after a period you set. It keeps your outstanding points balance under control, and it gives customers who have drifted away a reason to come back before they lose what they have earned.
Without it, balances only ever grow, which makes your liability harder to read and your engagement numbers harder to trust.
The four expiration methods
There are four ways to expire points, and they split into two kinds.
The activity-based methods, Last purchase and Last point balance change, expire a customer's whole balance once they go quiet. Customers keep their points alive by staying active.
The time-based methods, Date earned and Calendar date, run on fixed timelines, so expiry dates are predictable for you and for your customers.
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 on the calendar dates you choose, the same for every member. You can set up to four dates a year. | Example: Expiration period = 1 year, expiry date = 31 Dec.
| You want all customers’ points to expire together on set dates rather than on each customer’s own clock. |
Turning on points expiration
Go to Program settings, then Points expiration.
Tick Automatically expire points.
Choose your Expiration method.
Set how long points last. The field is named for the method you picked: Inactivity period for the two activity-based methods, Time period for Date earned, and Expiration applies to points older than for Calendar date.
On Calendar date, also choose the dates points expire on. Use Add date if you want more than one; you can have up to four a year.
Check Start expiring points from, covered below.
Set the Points expiring notice period, the number of days before expiry that we send a reminder.
Click Save.
On Calendar date, the period is a fixed list rather than a number of months: 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or 3 years.
When points actually start expiring
Turning expiry on does not wipe balances overnight. Start expiring points from is the date the policy takes effect, and nothing expires before it.
How you set it depends on your situation:
Your program has not launched yet. You will not see the field. We set it for you when you launch.
You are turning expiry on for the first time. We fill it in for you, one expiration period after your program launched, and show it read-only. Click Edit if you want a different date.
You have had expiry on before. You have to choose the date yourself, because there is no sensible default we can pick for you.
Bringing this date forward, or shortening the period, can make points expire sooner than your customers expect. Anyone already past the new cut-off becomes eligible straight away, with only your notice period between them and losing their balance. Tell them before you make the change, not after.
What each method expires
Last purchase
A customer's entire approved balance expires if they place no orders within the period. Any order resets the clock, including an order of no value or one discounted to nothing, so a shopper who only pays for shipping still keeps their points.
Points earned from non-purchase activities during that time expire along with everything else. If a customer has never ordered, the clock runs from the date they joined.
Last point balance change
The same all-or-nothing expiry, but any points activity resets the clock, not just orders. Earning, spending and manual adjustments all count, so birthday points or a social follow keep a balance alive. If a customer has never earned or spent, the clock runs from the date their account was created.
Date earned
Every batch of points gets its own expiry date, set from the day it was earned. Nothing a customer does resets it. Points are spent oldest first, so the batch closest to expiring is the one that goes when a customer redeems.
Calendar date
On each date you have chosen, every unused point older than your chosen age expires at once, for every member together.
Expiry dates are worked out in your store's time zone and land at the end of that day, so a customer in another country may see the date differently to you.
Warning customers before their points go
Points expiring notice period sets how many days' warning a customer gets. There is no default; you choose it when you set expiry up.
You can send that warning through LoyaltyLion's built-in emails, where it is the Points expiring soon email in the Emails tab, or through a connected email or SMS platform.
Using Klaviyo or Attentive
Looking for design ideas? Real points expiry emails are collected on our Pinterest board.
Showing expiry dates on your loyalty page
This works on Date earned and Calendar date only. On the two activity-based methods the column does not appear, because there is no per-batch date to show: the whole balance shares one expiry.
On those two methods you can add an expiry column to the History section of your loyalty page.
Open the Theme Editor and go to Page, then History.
Tick Show points expiration.
Customers can click a line to see the expiry for that batch of points.
Only earned points carry a date. Redemptions, rewards and deductions leave the column empty.
Not using the Theme Editor? Email support@loyaltylion.com and we will set it up for you.
Reporting
To see what has already expired, use the Points Accounting Report.
To estimate what is coming on Last purchase, use the Customer Activities Export to see when each customer last bought.
You can also put an expiry on rewards, which is a separate setting from this one.
FAQ
How quickly are points removed once they expire?
Within a few hours of the expiry date. Expiry is not instant at midnight, so a customer may briefly see a balance that is about to go.
What happens if I shorten the period?
Anyone still active inside the new, shorter window is unaffected. Customers who fall outside it become eligible for expiry immediately, and your notice period is all the warning they get.
So if you move from 12 months to 6, a customer who last bought 8 months ago is now past the line. If your notice period is 14 days, they have two weeks. Customers who already had a warning email keep the date they were given.
What happens to pending points when a balance expires?
They stay pending. Expiry only takes approved points, so anything still waiting on its approval period survives and approves as normal.
Do guest customers' points expire?
It depends on the method.
Activity-based (Last purchase, Last point balance change): no. We hold a guest's points until they enrol, and the clock starts then. If they never place another order, the period runs from the date they created their account.
Time-based (Date earned, Calendar date): yes. Guest points expire on the same schedule as everyone else's, whether or not the shopper ever enrols.
Do reverted points get a fresh expiry date?
No. They keep their original earn date, so reverting and re-awarding does not buy a customer more time.
If an order is cancelled or refunded, does it still count as the last purchase?
Yes. Placing the order is what resets the clock on Last purchase, and nothing re-checks it afterwards. A cancelled or fully refunded order still holds the points open.
I removed points manually. Will the same points expire again later?
No. A manual removal, whether through the customer page or the API, counts as the points being used. Expiry will not take them a second time.
Take a customer on 12-month Date earned expiry with this history:
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 1 Jan 2025 nothing expires. The 200 points earned a year earlier are covered by the 350 removed in September.
On 4 Mar 2025 the remaining 250 points expire.
Are points a financial liability?
Usually not, but it is a question for your accountant rather than for us. IFRIC 13 is the relevant standard.