No, you do not earn points on cash advances. Credit card issuers classify a cash advance as a short-term loan against your credit line, not a purchase, and rewards programs pay out only on qualifying purchases. That means no cash back, no miles, and no points, regardless of which card you use or how the advance is taken. Cash advances also don’t count toward the spending requirement for a sign-up bonus.
Why Rewards Don’t Apply
Cardholder agreements define “qualifying purchases” narrowly: you have to be buying goods or services from a merchant. When you swipe at a store, the merchant pays the card network and issuer a processing fee called interchange, and a slice of that fee funds your rewards payout. A cash advance skips the merchant entirely. No interchange is generated, and there’s no revenue stream to subsidize points or cash back.
The exclusion is universal across the industry. Whether your card earns flat-rate cash back, tiered category bonuses, or airline miles, the agreement will exclude cash advances from rewards-eligible activity. The same logic applies to introductory offers. When a card advertises “spend $4,000 in the first 3 months” for a sign-up bonus, that threshold counts purchases only. Cash advances and balance transfers don’t move you toward it.
What Actually Counts as a Cash Advance
Pulling cash from an ATM with your credit card is the obvious example, but the category is broader than most people expect. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines a cash advance as any use of your card or account to:1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Credit Card Contract Definitions
- Obtain cash from an ATM, bank teller, or any other source
- Buy money orders or traveler’s checks
- Make a wire transfer
- Buy foreign currency
- Buy lottery tickets
- Buy gambling chips or place wagers
- Cash a convenience check from your card issuer
The common thread: you’re converting credit into cash or something easily converted back into cash. If the transaction puts money or a near-cash equivalent in your hands, it’s a cash advance, and no rewards will attach.
Convenience Checks
Those blank checks your issuer mails you a few times a year are cash advances. The FDIC notes that writing one is functionally a loan against your credit line, subject to the higher cash advance interest rate, a transaction fee calculated as a percentage of the check amount, and no interest-free grace period.2FDIC. Credit Card Checks and Cash Advances They earn nothing.
Crypto and Peer-to-Peer Payments
Two newer categories catch people off guard. Buying cryptocurrency with a credit card is commonly coded as a cash advance by major issuers, so you’ll pay the higher APR and an upfront fee on top of whatever the exchange charges, with no points earned. Sending money to friends through apps like Venmo using a credit card can also trigger cash advance fees, depending on your issuer.3Venmo. Credit Card Fees on Venmo Payments The same risk exists with other peer-to-peer platforms.
A safe rule of thumb: if a transaction puts cash or a cash equivalent in someone’s hands rather than paying a merchant for goods or services, assume your issuer will classify it as a cash advance and pay no rewards on it.
What a Cash Advance Actually Costs
Losing the rewards is the least of it. Every cash advance triggers an upfront transaction fee, typically 3% to 5% of the amount advanced or $10, whichever is greater. On a $500 advance at 5%, that’s $25 added to the balance before interest starts. The fee posts immediately, and there’s no way to avoid it by repaying quickly.
If you’re at an ATM, the machine owner usually adds a surcharge on top. And if you’re overseas, most cards tack on a foreign transaction fee of up to 3% for anything processed in a non-U.S. currency. That can mean paying the cash advance fee, the foreign transaction fee, and the ATM surcharge on a single withdrawal.
No Grace Period
Regular purchases come with a grace period of at least 21 days, during which you can pay your balance in full and owe no interest. Cash advances get no grace period. Interest starts accruing the moment the transaction posts.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Grace Period for a Credit Card
The rate itself is higher, too. Cash advance APRs typically land in the mid-20s, with most issuers charging between 20% and 30%. Interest compounds daily: on a $1,000 cash advance at 27% APR, you’re accruing roughly $0.74 per day, or about $23 over a month, on top of whatever you paid in fees.
How Payments Get Applied
If you carry both a purchase balance and a cash advance balance on the same card, federal rules govern which balance your payments reduce, and the answer isn’t intuitive.
Your minimum payment can be applied however the issuer chooses, and most apply it to the lowest-rate balance first. That’s almost never the cash advance. Anything you pay above the minimum, however, must go to the balance with the highest APR first, then work down.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation Z 1026.53 – Allocation of Payments
The practical result: if you leave a cash advance sitting on a card with purchase debt and pay only the minimum, the high-rate advance compounds while your payments chip away at cheaper balances. Paying well above the minimum is the only way to actually reduce a cash advance balance in that situation.
Cheaper Ways to Get the Cash
Before taking a cash advance, check whether a lower-cost option covers the same need.
- A personal loan from a bank or online lender will almost always carry a lower interest rate than a cash advance if you have decent credit, and you get a fixed repayment schedule rather than an open-ended revolving balance.
- Some card issuers offer installment features that let you borrow against your existing credit line through a fixed-payment plan at a rate below the cash advance APR. Check your card’s app or website to see what’s available.
- If the underlying need is a bill or purchase, paying with the card directly as a regular purchase earns rewards, keeps the grace period, and uses the lower purchase APR. Cash advances only make sense when the recipient won’t accept a card.
If a cash advance is unavoidable, keep the amount small and repay it within days rather than weeks. Pay well above the minimum so the payment actually reaches the advance balance under the federal allocation rules. Every day the balance sits, it compounds at the highest rate your card charges, and nothing you spent earns a single point.