I am tyring to decide if paying the 2.95% fee for my rent is worth it to have the ability to pay my rent by credit card. Currently rent is the only major expense that I am unable to pay with my card. Here's the stats, rent is 3550.00 per month only 575.00 is my portion but I collect from the other tenants and submit the rent in whole. I was thinking of putting the rent on my AMEX PRG which earns an additional 15k MR points after 30k is spent in one year (it is doubtful I would spend that on this particular card alone). So basically I would get a whole 57,600 points in one year after spending 1256.70 in fees. I think that comes to arount 2 cents per point if my math is correct..... In your opinion is this worth it? Especially since I'm essentially getting points for other peoples spend.
Doesn't using Vanilla Re-loads potentially trigger negative effects?
I would be paying the fee completely on my own. / Money orders must be paid for with cash or debit card.
I heard conveniene checks are treated as cash advances or balance transfers and do no earn points.
@longtimelurker... How can you pay rent with a giftcard? are you able to turn those into cash somehow?
I contemplated this same decision and came to the conclusion that it is really not worth it. There are so many discount travel websites that you could actually do more with that $1256 in fees than you could with the 57K in points you would earn.
Now there are 3 scenarios where your situation of just paying fee would make it really tempting...
#1) Using spend with Chase Southwest Visa to earn companion pass
#2) 30K in spend earns you a British Avios companion ticket with their credit card
#3) Paying the fee to get some rewards while having Williampaid build your credit history.
Your credit history looks solid so I'd scratch out number 3 hehe. Best of luck!
@JGuz649 wrote:I contemplated this same decision and came to the conclusion that it is really not worth it. There are so many discount travel websites that you could actually do more with that $1256 in fees than you could with the 57K in points you would earn.
Now there are 3 scenarios where your situation of just paying fee would make it really tempting...
#1) Using spend with Chase Southwest Visa to earn companion pass
#2) 30K in spend earns you a British Avios companion ticket with their credit card
#3) Paying the fee to get some rewards while having Williampaid build your credit history.
Your credit history looks solid so I'd scratch out number 3 hehe. Best of luck!
Isn't 57k enough points to get you a "companion ticket" essentially?
@Anonymous wrote:
@MissCredit9 wrote:@Anonymous... How can you pay rent with a giftcard? are you able to turn those into cash somehow?
Buy a Visa (or MC, but Visa is preferred because of early experiences) gift card from a supermarket (with PRG) or drug store (with appropriate cards). Then, at Walmart for example, you can convert the gift cards into money orders for very little (around $0.80 per $1000). Some walmarts are difficult about taking gift cards, wanting "proper" debit cards, but others don't care. I did this on Saturday for example.
So you can buy say $3,500 as 7 $500 gift cards at a supermarket. This may cost a fee of $42 (they are often cheaper at drug stores). So you end up with 2x3542 MR points, = 7084 for a total of less than $46 which is much better value, even before taking into account the PRG bonus.
But if you do this, make sure you can cash out the gift card! Get one for say $20 and try converting it. Worse case you can't, and then you have a $20 debit card to spend.
Unfortunately I live in NYC and there are no Wal-Marts anywhere near by 