Points expiration is the most quietly controversial setting in any loyalty program. Turn it on and you look like you're taking rewards away. Leave it off and you build a liability that grows every month and a program nobody feels urgency to use. Both readings are right, which is why the honest answer isn't yes or no - it's when.
Here's how to think about it before you flip the switch.
What Expiration Is Actually For
Expiration isn't a way to avoid paying out rewards. If that's the goal, customers notice, and the program does more brand damage than it's worth.
Its real job is to create a reason to come back. A balance that never expires exerts no pull - there's no deadline, so there's no visit. A balance with a rolling expiry, reset by any activity, gives a lapsing customer a concrete nudge: use it or lose it, and the easiest way to use it is to shop. Framed that way, expiration is a re-engagement tool, not a cost-control one.
The distinction matters because it changes how you set it.
The Setting That Makes It Fair: Reset on Activity
The single most important choice is whether expiration is absolute or activity-based.
Absolute expiry - points die 12 months after they're earned, full stop - is the version that feels punitive. A loyal customer can lose points through no fault of attention.
Activity-based expiry - the clock resets every time the customer earns or redeems - only ever removes points from people who've genuinely gone quiet. Your best customers never hit it. That's the version to use. It targets exactly the dormant accounts that expiration is meant to re-activate, and leaves active members untouched.
If you take one thing from this: expire on inactivity, not on age.
How Long Is Fair?
The right window depends on how often people naturally buy from you.
- Consumables and fast repeat (coffee, supplements, skincare) - a 6 to 9 month window fits the natural reorder rhythm.
- Considered or seasonal purchases (apparel, homeware) - 12 months is more honest, since a shorter clock punishes a normal buying gap.
- High-ticket, infrequent (furniture, electronics) - expiration may do more harm than good; the natural gap between purchases is already long.
The test is simple: your expiry window should be longer than your typical time between orders, so a normal customer never trips it by shopping normally.
Warn Before You Expire
Expiration without warning is where programs lose trust. Expiration with warning is where they earn a second order.
A "your 400 points expire in 14 days" email is one of the highest-performing messages a loyalty program sends, because it pairs a real deadline with a balance the customer already feels is theirs. The expiry isn't the point - the email it justifies is. If you're going to run expiration, run the notifications alongside it, not as an afterthought.
On Keystone, points expiry with notifications is available from the Starter plan at $14.99/month as of July 2026, so the warning email isn't a feature you have to build separately.
When to Leave It Off
Expiration isn't mandatory, and there are cases where off is the right call.
If your program is brand new, leave it off until you have enough members that re-engagement is a real use case - expiring points on a program three months old just annoys your earliest supporters. If you sell high-ticket items with long natural gaps, the liability is smaller than the goodwill you'd spend. And if your brand's whole positioning is generosity, a never-expire policy can be a differentiator worth the accounting cost.
The Honest Default
For most stores: activity-based expiry, a window longer than your typical repurchase cycle, and a warning email before anything disappears. That combination captures the re-engagement benefit without the punitive feel - points only leave accounts that have genuinely gone cold, and even then only after a fair warning.
Set it as a retention tool, communicate it as a courtesy, and it stops being controversial.
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Related reading
- How to Reactivate Sleeping Loyalty Members With One Email
- Which Keystone Loyalty Plan Do You Actually Need?
- Why Anniversary Bonuses Outperform Generic Re-Engagement Emails
Ready to put this into practice? Keystone Loyalty & Rewards includes points expiry with notifications from $14.99/month, and a free plan to start.