Your July Credit Card Perks Checklist
If you’re anything like most families juggling two or three credit cards, you’ve probably got monthly perks sitting unused right now. According to The Points Guy’s monthly benefits roundup, July is stacked with recurring credits and perks tied to premium travel and rewards cards — the kind of thing that quietly resets every 30 days whether you use it or not. And if you don’t use it, you lose it.
This matters more in July than almost any other month. It’s peak travel season, families are road-tripping and flying for summer vacations, and dining-out spend tends to spike around holidays like the 4th of July. That’s exactly the kind of spending premium cards are designed to reward — but only if you actually remember to redeem the credits sitting in your account.
Who this is for
This checklist habit is most valuable for:
- Families with a premium travel card (the kind with an annual fee) who want to make sure that fee is actually paying for itself in monthly credits
- Frequent diners and rideshare users who may have dining or transit credits baked into their card that reset monthly
- Anyone planning summer travel who might be sitting on airline incidentals, hotel, or streaming credits that expire at the end of the month
- Value-conscious spenders who’d rather spend five minutes checking an app than leave real money unclaimed
How to actually do this
The simplest approach: open your credit card’s app or log into your online account and look for a “benefits” or “perks” tab. Most issuers now list your active monthly and annual credits in one place. Set a recurring reminder — the first weekend of the month works well — to check what’s expiring and what’s refreshed.
A quick note on card overlap
We recently covered the return of Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 100K sign-up bonus, which is a great option if you’re shopping for a new card. But this checklist habit applies just as much — arguably more — to cards you already have. A card sitting in your wallet with unused monthly credits is money already spent on an annual fee that isn’t working for you.
The caveat
Not every card has monthly credits, and the specific perks vary widely by issuer and card tier — so the real value here isn’t a single deal, it’s the habit of checking. If your card doesn’t offer recurring credits, this is also a good moment to ask whether the annual fee is worth keeping around, or whether a no-fee cash-back card might serve your family better this year.
Bottom line
Take five minutes this week to log into your card accounts and see what’s expiring at the end of July. It costs nothing and could save you real money on dining, travel, or everyday purchases you’re already planning to make this summer.
Call to action: Check your card’s app today — don’t let another month of perks expire unused.