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Do you keep credit card points when an AI agent pays?

I'd let my agent shop for me. But where do my points go?

Almost every dollar spent on a credit card in the US earns something back.

  • 81% of US adults have a credit card.
  • 92% of spending on general-purpose credit cards goes on rewards cards.
  • 8 in 10 of those cards earn rewards.
  • In 2024, people earned $47.5 billion in card rewards, nearly double what they earned in 2020.
  • The average rewards account is holding more than $190.

And people care: rewards are one of the top reasons they pick a card in the first place.

On average, rewards cards pay back about 1.6% of what you spend. Let an agent do $1,000 of your shopping and that's around $16 that should be yours.

So when someone says "I'd let my agent shop for me," the next question is the right one: where do my points go?

Why points can get lost

When an agent pays with a single-use card, one issued by the wallet or the agent instead of your own, the charge lands on that card, not yours. Your bank may never see the purchase, so your points may not carry through. And if something goes wrong, the dispute starts with whoever issued that card, not with your bank.

The other way: your agent uses your own card

With Agentcard Vault, your agent pays with the card you already have.

  • Your points land like they do on any other purchase.
  • A dispute works like any other charge: straight from your bank statement.
  • You approve each purchase with a passkey, Face ID or your voice. Or you can enable auto-approval based on your needs.
  • If you've saved more than one card, your agent pays with the one that earns the most on that purchase using our Rewards Routing.
  • Every purchase is insured by Sure, up to $250.

Most of your users already pay with a rewards card. Let them keep earning. Vault stores any card, consumer, commercial or prepaid, from any country, and it's free up to 5,000 users.

agentcard.com/vault

Sources: CFPB, The Consumer Credit Card Market, Report to Congress (December 2025); Federal Reserve, Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 (May 2025).