Rewards on Rent? Not With Discover Card
Posted on July 12, 2006 by Her and tagged rewards
We've been trying lately to figure out how we can maximize rewards for the things we do anyway, like pay rent. I was thinking that it might be possible to purchase a money order with a credit card, use the money order to pay rent, and get the rewards for it. We have some rewards cards with zero balances, and it would be easy just to pay the rent on those and immediately pay off the monthly balance. We want to earn rewards to save up and help pay for our wedding and honeymoon. I called Discover today to check if my plan is possible: It isn't.
Any kind of wire transfer or money order purchase is considered a cash advance and is assessed a 3% cash advance transaction fee plus being billed at the high "cash advance rate." Also, cash advances aren't eligible for rewards. Even those checks they send you count as cash advances and are ineligible for rewards. Thank goodness the representative was able to confirm this for me, so we know never to buy any kind of money service with a credit card.
Anyone have any ideas on how to earn rewards for paying rent and other monthly obligations?
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Sarah | Jul 12, 2006
My husband and I link the majority of our monthly bills to auto bill pay through our airline credit card. Most major companies (Sprint, MCI, Directv, AAA insurance to name a few) do that with no extra charge. Some smaller companies - electric and gas for us - will only set up auto debit from a checking account for free. A credit card payment would be extra. Check online or call, some companies give discounts for autopay. Good luck! It makes life a lot simpler for us, just a quick verification of each statement, and then only 1 bill to pay.
We use the airline card primarily for all monthly obligations - food, gas, bills, and helped us get teh miles necessary for our honeymoon flight. You can easily download the credit card statement into a budgeting program and you can see where your money really goes.
Almost no management or mortgage company will allow you to pay your rent or mortgage by credit card without an extra third-party service fee that would negate any rewards you earn.
My landlord has returned to allowing rent payments by automatic credit card payment, which I will a cash-back rewards card. Thanks for reminding me!
My old leasing agency (AIMCO) allowed rental payments via credit card. I used my MBNA Cash Back ($25 for 2500pts) for everything and I was getting a $25 (sometimes $50) check every month. I miss those days. Now I'm trying to figure out how to pay mortgage with a card.
BTW, I don't think you can buy money orders with a credit card anyway.
If your landlord will not accept credit card payments, your options are limited. Using your Discover Card at grocery stores allows you to request $50 cash, which is not processed as a cash advance, but added as a purchase. I do this whenever I go to the grocery store, and never find myself using an ATM. But you could make several separate purchases per trip to the store for larger amounts of cash, then deposit that cash into your checking account and write a check.
LSD | Jul 12, 2006
Discover has auto bill pay where you do get cashback for paying your cable, utility bills etc.
Your place must accept credit card statements in order for this to work though.
Q: Which billers accept Auto Bill Pay with Discover Card?
A: Thousands of Merchants nationwide accept Discover Card automatic bill payment, including phone companies, Internet service providers, cable/satellite TV providers, newspapers and more. Browse our Popular Billers Directory to see which of your billers accept Auto Bill Pay. If your biller is not listed, simply contact them via the information on your monthly statement to ask whether they accept automatic payments from Discover Card.
Their directory
http://www.discovercard.com/discover/data/account/autobillpay/popularbillers.shtml
Nick,
My management company is AIMCO which was mentioned above, and they charge no fee for credit card payments.
If you are renting from an individual see if you buy his groceries for him. Buy landlord groceries...get rewards.
By the way, has Discover stepped up their rewards program to match others? (Chase Dividend= full 1% except gas and groceries which are 5%. You said you had several rewards cards... just wondering.)
D'Oh! It's Citibank Divident, not Chase... silly me. I wish I could edit my own posts...I make alot of mistakes in them!
Man, is it me or am I posting alot here. It's Dividend, not Divedent.
Also, upon post comment posting investigation I learned that Citibank is offering free balance transfers on their no annual fee Dividend card.
They also offer "rewards" on their cash advance... which is funny credit card company talk. Their are no rewards... the fee is 3% and I am assuming the reward is 1% so basically what they are saying is that it will cost you 2% for a cash advance. Credit card companies really should be held accountable for that kind of crap.
Here's the link. The card is a good one:
http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/cardserv/divplat/rebate.jsp#
Major | Jul 13, 2006
I hadn't thought about paying the mortgage using a credit card. I will have to look into that. We do however pay the exoribtantly high daycare cost with a rewards card. That has racked up the points nicely. We have a separate checking account (interest earning) that transfer the money over automatically every two weeks. Works out fantastic and it is one less thing I have to worry about.
Jen | Jul 13, 2006
With my MBNA AmEx, I don't get points for making bill payments using their bill pay feature unless the payee is "in-network". So I get around that by manually paying the bill using the card. (I have to call in my US Cellular payment instead of entering it into the system to be paid electronically.)
I've been trying to figure out how to pay my mortgage with a credit card, too, but haven't figured out a way yet.
Another reason I like auto-paying whatever bills I can with my credit cards--it allows me to keep credit cards active. For example, I only use two of my four cards. The other two I keep open because I've had them a long time. I want them to show up as active on my credit report, so I have one small monthly bill tied to each card. That way every month there is a small charge (less than $10) to pay off, so my credit report reflects that I'm actively using the card. However, I'm only paying a small bill, so I can save all my other purchases for my other cards, which have better rewards.
Steven Burda, MBA | Sep 15, 2006
Good read, thanks!
- Steven Burda -
e-mail: steven.burda.mba @gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/burda
(to connect to my professional network)
newsgirly | Jul 12, 2006
My fiance just got the American Express credit card with rewards - mostly for his new job. It says on the intro letter that you can earn cash back on regular bills by paying them automatically with the card. We got it this week so I haven't been able to sit down and figure this out. But things like utilities, insurance, THE MORTGAGE, etc., would be GREAT to pay with this card. Even if it's only 1% cash back, that would be $300/year or so. I had thought of this earlier and asked my mortgage banker, Washington Mutual, if they'd take a payment on a credit card. No dice. But I pay the mortgage automatically through Bank of America. If I can pay it through Amex instead, why not?
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