topic Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points? in Credit Cards

How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Funk-O-Meter — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:51:14 GMT

The only two bills I have to right checks for are my rent and my power bill and it bugs me cause I'm missing out on getting points off my biggest monthly expense. My landlord is a individual not a property management co.

At first I though I could just use my Chase Freedom and buy a money order at the grocery store and BANG! 5% back on rent. But then I read they don't do points on "cash like transactions" like travelers checks or money orders. So that's no good.

I have seen a lot of rent pay services on line that I guess essentially mail a check or direct deposit rent into your landlords account and allow you to pay however you like. Does anybody know if the CC co's have blocked points from these services?

Any other clever ways I could try to get points back on this large monthly transaction?

I'm examining the benefits of getting the Starwood AMEX and if I could put rent on it (and immediately pay it off of course) then I could get 1000 starwood points a month.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

DeadSpider — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:04:19 GMT

I don't think you can buy money order with credit cards !!

Does anybody know for sure ? It's like free cash advance.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

learnin113 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:07:19 GMT

This I wanna know!

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:13:18 GMT

@DeadSpider wrote:
I don't think you can buy money order with credit cards !!
Does anybody know for sure ? It's like free cash advance.

I had to pick up a money order one for some application. Went to 7-11 to get it and cash only + a fee. I could not believe the fee part - I walked in with 10 bucks and had to go out back to my car and find some change to pay the fee. First time I ever had to get one and hopefully the last!

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

j_casteel — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:24:21 GMT

About 99.9% sure that Money Orders and Cashier's Checks have to be paid for in cash only or at least some form of guaranteed funds.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

MustangSaluki — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:27:27 GMT

williampaid.com lets you pay the rent with your cc for a nominal fee (2.95%). It is the most popular service among FlyerTalkers and comes highly recommended. We have been using it for last few months and pretty happy with. Regret about not knowing this earlier actually.

Make sure to set up the auto payment at least 7 days before the rent is due as the processing etc takes a bit of time.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Funk-O-Meter — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:26:50 GMT

Yea I just did a little reading and what I read is only debit cards are accepted. If they accepted Visa gift cards you could buy the gift card and then use that for the money order? I've heard of people using some types of gift cards to buy money orders before.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Funk-O-Meter — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:28:23 GMT

William paid charges like 3% right? Any services that don't charge? I'm gonna head over to flyer talk

Thanks.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

jsickz32 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:29:13 GMT

Ive used paypal to pay people for parts for my car using my credit card thru paypal. They ask me to add the 3% fee or send them the money using the gift option so theres no 3% fee. It shows on my cc as a regular transaction.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:31:27 GMT

There is no fee free way to pay with CC if your landlord does not accept CCs fee free. Otherwise we would all be doing it. Let us know if you find a way, but I can't see it.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

trumpet-205 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:02:16 GMT

Buying a money order regardless of where is CASH ADVANCE!

The only thing I can think of is asking your landlord to accept Amazon Payments, which does allow you to use credit card without being charged as cash advance or interchange fee.

@MustangSaluki wrote:
williampaid.com lets you pay the rent with your cc for a nominal fee (2.95%). It is the most popular service among FlyerTalkers and comes highly recommended. We have been using it for last few months and pretty happy with. Regret about not knowing this earlier actually.

Which cancels out any reward since 2.95% beats 1% or 2% return from credit card. In the end it costs you more money to pay rent.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

ceejx — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:07:42 GMT

Just to add to this, some of the more nationwide/corporate property management places do allow you to make credit card payments without fees. Equity Residential / Equity Apartments is one... I lived there when I had bad credit, now that I have points cards I unfortunately don't live there anymore Back then I paid $1550/mo for rent, which would have giving me at least $186 back a year... oh well

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

trumpet-205 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:09:37 GMT

@seigex wrote:
Just to add to this, some of the more nationwide/corporate property management places do allow you to make credit card payments without fees. Equity Residential / Equity Apartments is one... I lived there when I had bad credit, now that I have points cards I unfortunately don't live there anymore Back then I paid $1550/mo for rent, which would have giving me at least $186 back a year... oh well

They incorporate fee into the rent. So paying with cash actually cost more since you do not get to recover 1 to 2% of interchange fee.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

MustangSaluki — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:11:21 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
Buying a money order regardless of where is CASH ADVANCE!

The only thing I can think of is asking your landlord to accept Amazon Payments, which does allow you to use credit card without being charged as cash advance or interchange fee.

@MustangSaluki wrote:
williampaid.com lets you pay the rent with your cc for a nominal fee (2.95%). It is the most popular service among FlyerTalkers and comes highly recommended. We have been using it for last few months and pretty happy with. Regret about not knowing this earlier actually.
Which cancels out any reward since 2.95% beats 1% or 2% return from credit card. In the end it costs you more money to pay rent.

it may not be the best return but sure comes in handy for meeting spending and is a great alternative to cach/check in several other situations. Also for $5 more WilliamPaid can report to the CRAs, I believe as an Installment loan (not sure of this yet). Bottom lime this service has definite use.for some.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

trumpet-205 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:25:38 GMT

@MustangSaluki wrote:

it may not be the best return but sure comes in handy for meeting spending and is a great alternative to cach/check in several other situations. Also for $5 more WilliamPaid can report to the CRAs, I believe as an Installment loan (not sure of this yet). Bottom lime this service has definite use.for some.

FICO Expansion score mentioned by WilliamPaid is actually useless (virtually no lender use it, even worse than VantageScore). FICO score that lenders actually DO use ignores rental TL from WilliamPaid.

Furthermore, it gets reported to PRBC, not your EQ/EX/TU. Sometime utility companies might use PRBC, but I know no lender use PRBC.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:40:13 GMT

I never heard of Williampaid before. Anyone know if it can be setup as a recurring charge on your cc? If so, it would count as bill pay category with US Bank cash+. 5% back-2.95% fee=2.05% cash back. Would be reason enough to app for US bank & pay rent thru williampaid, if this scenario is feasible.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

trumpet-205 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:57:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I never heard of Williampaid before. Anyone know if it can be setup as a recurring charge on your cc? If so, it would count as bill pay category with US Bank cash+. 5% back-2.95% fee=2.05% cash back. Would be reason enough to app for US bank & pay rent thru williampaid, if this scenario is feasible.

You have to call in and ask, although I suspect WilliamPaid use 8999 (professional service) as MCC (defines what type of transaction for Visa/MC).

I don't recall MCC has a code for rent.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 23:27:49 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I never heard of Williampaid before. Anyone know if it can be setup as a recurring charge on your cc? If so, it would count as bill pay category with US Bank cash+. 5% back-2.95% fee=2.05% cash back. Would be reason enough to app for US bank & pay rent thru williampaid, if this scenario is feasible.
You have to call in and ask, although I suspect WilliamPaid use 8999 (professional service) as MCC (defines what type of transaction for Visa/MC).

I don't recall MCC has a code for rent.

Thanks for the info.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 23:46:56 GMT

My renter does online but only ACH, they said they are looking into doing it for cc but we'll see.

Re: How can I pay my rent with a card and get points?

iMacDrew — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 23:53:58 GMT

@seigex wrote:
Just to add to this, some of the more nationwide/corporate property management places do allow you to make credit card payments without fees. Equity Residential / Equity Apartments is one... I lived there when I had bad credit, now that I have points cards I unfortunately don't live there anymore Back then I paid $1550/mo for rent, which would have giving me at least $186 back a year... oh well

man thats over 900 cash back if you had a Cash+ just on bill payments, not quite sure if it would qualify under their requirements but would be sweet.