Points expiration is an optional feature that puts a use-by date on earned points. After a set period, unused points quietly disappear — but not before your customer gets a heads-up email giving them a chance to spend them first.
It’s entirely optional. Your loyalty programme works perfectly well without expiration. But if you want to give customers a reason to come back within a certain timeframe, expiration is a gentle, effective nudge.
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Why This Matters
Without expiration, points balances can sit dormant for years. That’s fine from a cost perspective (dormant points cost you nothing), but it means your loyalty programme loses its pull — there’s no urgency to come back and spend.
With expiration, every batch of points has a countdown. Customers who care about their balance have a reason to return before it runs out. Done right, it creates healthy urgency without feeling punishing. A customer who earns points in January and knows they expire in January next year has a natural reminder to visit again before the year is out.
The key is choosing a window that feels fair. Too short, and customers feel cheated. Too long, and there’s no urgency at all.
> Pro tip: 12 months is a sweet spot — long enough that customers don’t feel rushed, short enough to create urgency. Most loyalty programmes that use annual expiration see meaningfully higher return rates compared to programmes with no expiration at all.
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Configuring Expiration
Go to Tracksies > Perkie > Earning tab and scroll down to the Points Expiration section. You’ll find two settings here.
Enable Points Expiration
This is a checkbox, and it’s off by default. Your programme starts with points that never expire. Tick this box to switch expiration on.
When you enable expiration, Perkie starts assigning expiry dates to new points as they’re earned. Existing points that were earned before you switched expiration on will also receive an expiry date — calculated from when they were originally earned.
If you later untick this checkbox and save, expiration is switched off and all existing expiry dates are removed. Your customers’ points go back to never expiring.
Expiration Period
This sets how long points last from the moment they’re earned. The default is 12 months. So points earned on the 15th of March will expire on the 15th of March the following year.
You can adjust this to whatever suits your programme — 6 months for more urgency, 24 months for a more relaxed approach. The period applies to each new batch of points from the moment they’re earned.
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How It Works
Understanding the mechanics helps you set expectations with your customers and handle any questions that come up.
Points Expire in Batches, Not All at Once
This is the most important thing to understand: points don’t all expire at the same time. Each earning event gets its own expiry date based on when those specific points were earned.
A customer who earns 200 points in March and another 150 points in August has two separate batches, each counting down from their own earn date. The March points expire in March next year. The August points expire in August next year. They’re completely independent.
This means a customer’s balance can have points expiring at different times throughout the year. Their points history (visible on the My Account > /perks/ page) shows each batch and its expiry date so they can see exactly what’s happening.
The 7-Day Warning Email
Seven days before any batch of points is due to expire, Perkie automatically sends the customer an email warning them. The email tells them how many points are about to expire and when, and nudges them to come back and spend before the deadline.
This email is your programme being kind — you’re not letting points vanish without warning. Customers appreciate the heads-up, and it’s often enough to bring someone back who might have otherwise drifted away.
On the Expiry Date
When the expiry date arrives, Perkie removes the expired points from the customer’s balance during a scheduled background task. The removal is recorded in their points history so there’s a clear audit trail. If the customer had already redeemed those points for a coupon (whether they used it or not), there’s nothing to expire — the points were already spent.
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The Refund Expired Points Connection
There’s a related setting in a different tab worth knowing about. In Tracksies > Perkie > Redemption tab, you’ll find a Refund Expired Points checkbox.
This one handles a slightly different scenario: a customer redeems their points for a coupon, but then never actually uses the coupon. When the coupon itself expires (not the points — the generated coupon code), should those points come back?
If Refund Expired Points is ticked, yes — the points are quietly returned to the customer’s balance. This is the goodwill option. If it’s unticked, the points are gone when the coupon expires unused.
This setting works independently of whether Points Expiration is enabled. You can have coupon point refunds on without expiration turned on, and vice versa.
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Common Questions
Do ALL of a customer’s points expire at once?
No — each earning event has its own expiry date, calculated from when those specific points were earned. A customer with points earned across multiple orders will see different batches expiring at different times throughout the year. Nothing disappears all at once.
What if I turn expiration off after it’s been running for a while?
No problem. Go to Tracksies > Perkie > Earning tab, untick Enable Points Expiration, and save. All existing expiry dates are removed from your customers’ point balances. Their points go back to having no expiry date. There’s no data loss — points that haven’t yet expired are simply set to never expire.
Can I warn customers earlier than 7 days before expiry?
The warning email is sent at the 7-day mark. This isn’t currently configurable — it’s a fixed window designed to give customers enough notice without sending the email so far in advance that it’s forgotten.
What happens to points that were earned before I turned expiration on?
When you enable expiration, Perkie applies an expiry date to all existing points, calculated from their original earn date. So if a customer earned 500 points eight months ago and you set a 12-month expiry period, those points will expire in four months’ time (eight months have already passed). Points earned right at the start of your programme may expire quite quickly — worth keeping in mind if you’re enabling this on a mature programme.
Can customers see when their points expire?
Yes. The My Account > Perks page (/perks/) shows each customer their full points history, including earn dates and expiry dates for each batch. They can see exactly which points are due to expire and when.
Will I get a lot of customer complaints about expiring points?
The 7-day warning email does most of the heavy lifting here. Most customers who receive that email either come back to redeem their points or accept that they let them lapse. If you’re concerned, a 12-month expiry period is genuinely generous — very few customers who shop at least once a year will ever lose points unexpectedly.
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If Something Goes Wrong
Customer says their points expired without warning
Check a few things. First, confirm the 7-day warning email is enabled — go to Tracksies > Settings > Emails and look for the Points Expiring notification. If it was turned off, the expiry still happened but no warning was sent. Second, confirm the customer’s email address is correct on their account — a mistyped email means the warning went nowhere. Finally, double-check whether SMTP is properly configured on your site (WordPress doesn’t reliably send email on its own — an SMTP plugin like WP Mail SMTP or FluentSMTP is essential).
Points are expiring but the expiry dates seem wrong
Expiry dates are calculated from the original earn date of each batch. If dates look off, check whether the Expiration Period was changed after some points were already assigned expiry dates. Changing the period applies to new earning events going forward — existing expiry dates don’t automatically recalculate when you change the setting.
Expiration was turned on by accident — how do I undo it?
Untick Enable Points Expiration in Tracksies > Perkie > Earning tab and save. All expiry dates are removed and points revert to never expiring. No points are lost in this process — only the expiry dates are cleared.
Background task doesn’t seem to be running (points aren’t expiring when they should)
Points expiration relies on WordPress cron to run its scheduled tasks. On low-traffic sites, cron may not fire on schedule. You can verify cron is running correctly using a plugin like WP Crontrol, or ask your host about configuring a real server-side cron job. If your site gets regular traffic, WordPress cron should work fine without any extra setup.
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Related Guides
- How Redemption Works — turning points into discount coupons, and the Refund Expired Points setting
- Earning Points — earn rates, tiers, and how customers accumulate points in the first place
- The Perks Page — where customers view their balance, tier progress, and full points history