You can pay for nearly anything with a credit card, but until recently there was a big exception to the rule: Your mortgage.
The simple reality was that payment processor transaction fees outweighed any cash back or points you could possibly earn by charging your mortgage to plastic. Mortgage companies made it next to impossible, and even if you found a workaround, there was no real advantage to the maneuver.
“Generally speaking, you can’t pay off debt with another form of debt,” says Jared Werksma, a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual.
Over recent years, innovators have identified this areas as ripe for disruption. Bilt launched in 2021 with a credit card designed to allow renters to earn rewards while avoiding transaction fees, and there are signs the company could expand their platform to the mortgages. Mortgage borrowers have a new option now as well—the Mesa Homeowners Card opened for applications on February 5.
Both companies offer viable options to earn rewards on your housing payments—and with the median monthly cost of housing at $2,534 as of September 2024, according to Redfin, that’s something to get excited about.
Can you pay your mortgage with a credit card?
Mortgage originators and servicers generally do not allow borrowers to pay their mortgages with a credit card.
“Mortgage companies will likely be on the hook for credit card transaction fees which can be pretty steep considering that the average mortgage payment is more than $2,000,” says Werksma.
You can find hacks that suggest you use a balance transfer or a cash advance to pay your mortgage. A balance transfer check is essentially an offer from a credit card issuer to let you move debt you hold elsewhere to a card you hold with them. This may come with a promotional period of 0% or reduced APR. Balance transfers can sometimes be taken as a deposit from your credit card issuer into your bank account. A cash advance is a way to take cash out while borrowing against your card’s credit line.
Neither of these are great options, though the cash advance hack is decidedly worse from a standpoint of getting hit with expensive credit card interest.
Typically, you’ll pay a cash advance fee around 3% to 5%. And, you’ll start accruing interest immediately, as cash advances usually don’t qualify for the grace period you get for normal transactions as long as you pay off your statement balance in full by the due date. Plus, your card may charge a special cash advance APR that’s higher than your normal interest rate.
With a balance transfer, you’re moving relatively low-interest debt to a product that will almost certainly charge a higher interest rate. Even if you get a reduced or 0% promotional APR offer, know that if you don’t pay the balance off in full by the time the promo expires, you’ll start accruing interest at the regular rate. And second, you’ll typically pay a fee of 3% to 5% to do a balance transfer.
Most importantly, cash advances and balance transfers are excluded from rewards eligibility, meaning you’ll be paying for the privilege of carrying this debt on your card and you won’t earn cash back or points in exchange.
What about Plastiq?
There is a third-party platform called Plastiq that allows users to pay their mortgage using a credit card—so long as it’s not an American Express card. While Plastiq makes it technically possible, it’s not a good deal. The base fee Plastiq charges is 2.90%, and with a typical credit card cash-back rate of around 1% to 2%, you’d be paying more in fees than you’d earn in rewards.
One exception might be a cardholder working to earn a welcome bonus on a new credit card, using mortgage payments toward the required initial spending requirement.
“If you decide to use a credit card to pay your mortgage, make sure you weigh the rewards against the fees and always make sure you can pay off the balance every month to avoid high credit card interest that can quickly snowball,” says Daniel Masuda Lehrman, a certified financial planner and founder of Masuda Lehrman Wealth.
Mesa rewards you for mortgage payments
Mesa is a mortgage marketplace startup that emerged from stealth mode in September 2024, staffed by veteran executives from Uber, Bilt Rewards, Robinhood, Block, and Capital One.
The company operates a mortgage marketplace, where customers can take out or refinance home loans. And last week, it officially started accepting applications for its flagship product, the Mesa Homeowners Card (it soft launched last November).
“Somebody’s mortgage payment is often their biggest monthly expense,” says Tina Moore, head of commercial at Mesa. Before joining Mesa, Moore held key roles at Bilt and American Express. “It hasn’t been rewarded in the same way you can earn rewards on all the other purchases in your life. We identified this as a massive pain point.”
The Mesa Homeowners Card charges a $0 annual fee and earns 1 point per $1 spent on mortgage payments, along with elevated rewards for spending in other specific categories. To be eligible to earn rewards on their mortgage payments, cardholders must charge at least $1,000 of non-mortgage spend to their card each statement period.
To be clear, Mesa does not charge any mortgage payment on their cards. Instead, cardholders link their bank accounts to the Mesa app, which identifies monthly mortgage payments and rewards you accordingly.
Moore notes the credit card scene is flooded with cards that reward foodies for dining purchases, or jetsetters for travel, but that homeowners and their spending patterns have largely been overlooked—and that Mesa is aiming to change that.
“There’s never really been a premium card meant for homeowners and where they’re spending,” she says.
The card also offers rewards on the following:
- 2X Mesa Points on everyday spend including grocery, gas, and EV charging.
- 3X Mesa Points on home-related spend including home improvement, decor, maintenance, utilities, and more.
- 1X Mesa Points on all other purchases.
And, it provides benefits targeted at homeowner needs such as a credit to reimburse up to $65 for a qualifying big box store membership (BJ’s, Costco, and Sam’s Club).
With the Mesa card being a relatively new product, the value to homeowners will depend largely on how redemption options shape up. As of launch, points are worth half a cent each if redeemed for a statement credit and 1 cent each if redeemed to book a flight or hotel through Mesa’s travel portal.
The company intends to launch airline and hotel loyalty program transfer partners in the near future, Moore said, with the company hoping to provide 1:1 transfer ratios “where possible.” A strong lineup of travel transfer partners could go a long way toward making this card stand out, as its cash-back redemption value is lackluster as of this writing.
That said, since most homeowners are likely earning zero points per $1 spent on their mortgage right now, Mesa definitely fills a niche. And if you’ve got at least $1,000 per month of non-mortgage spending you see as a good fit for this card’s rewards categories, it could merit a place in your wallet.
Homeowners interested in the card will need to download the Mesa app and create an account in order to apply.
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You can pay rent with the
Bilt has carved out a niche as a way to earn rewards on rent payments. One of the most common questions that comes up is whether the popular no-annual-fee card rewards mortgage payments. The answer, for years, has been no.
Bilt cardholders earn 1 point per $1 on rent—subject to a requirement of five transactions per billing cycle, and a maximum of 100,000 points earned on rent per year. The card also offers elevated rewards on travel and dining. But earning points on mortgage payments has long been a dream deferred.
A Bilt survey was sent to cardholders in early February 2025 asking for input on different hypothetical card offers that facilitated rewards on mortgage payments at a $0 annual fee tier, a $95 annual fee tier, and a $550 annual fee tier.
All of the rewards structures on these hypothetical cards offered 1 point per $1 spent on rent and mortgage payments, with one of the $550-fee versions even offering 1.25 points per $1 in that category.
It remains to be seen whether any of these hypothetical cards make it to the real world. Still, Bilt cardholders are abuzz at the hint that the rent- and dining-focused card might soon provide homeowners a chance to start racking up rewards.
It’s worth noting that a large part of Bilt’s value comes from points you can transfer at 1:1 rates to airline and hotel programs including Alaska Airlines and World of Hyatt. If you redeem your points as a statement credit, they’re worth a mere 0.55 cents each—barely over a half a penny per point.
The takeaway
Using credit card rewards programs has become more mainstream over the years due to blogs, social media influencers, and similar content, Lehrman notes.
“People understand the value of points and look for creative opportunities to use their credit card to accumulate rewards however they can,” he says.
But while it may be tempting to work the angles to charge what’s likely your biggest monthly expense, in most cases it’s just not worth it.
That said, the new Mesa card offers a way to accrue points on your mortgage payments. If Bilt steps to the plate in a similar fashion, it might give rewards aficionados something to think about.
