I don’t get how rent which is my biggest expense is still stuck in the old ways with payments. I’d like to put it on a card and at least get some points or cashback out of it but every option I’ve seen so far charges like 2.5/3% in fees. That doesn't give you any rewards unless you’re doin something different
Is anyone making this work?
Why cant I pay my rent with a credit card?
byu/Minimum-Poetry-213 inCreditCards
Posted by Minimum-Poetry-213
10 Comments
I think in the end somebody needs to be willing to pay for your points.
Its because the landlords would lose roughly 3% of your rent to swipe fees if you paid by credit card.
Because credit cards have processing fees and there is elevated risk of large transactions for the institutions involved.
> every option I’ve seen so far charges like 2.5/3% in fees
That is about what it costs them to process the transaction. ACH is free.
Look into Bilt, points for rent is their thing.
Have you looked into Bilt? That’s their whole thing, although value wise it’s not as straight forward with their recent revamp.
It costs money to accept credit cards as a payment. So businesses only accept credit cards if they think it will increase the number of people shopping at their store or buying their services.
But landlords realize that you’ll pay rent either way and you won’t make a decision to live there based on whether they accept credit cards, so why should they spend the extra money to allow you to pay with a credit card?
For a while, the BILT card allowed you to pay rent with a credit card without any extra fees, but this lost tons of money and Wells Fargo dropped them as their bank.
The new BILT cards are very different and I honestly have no idea how the new versions of the card work. I believe there’s still something about paying rent with them, but there are a lot more catches. It got complicated enough that I didn’t bother re-upping mine when they switched away from Wells Fargo, I just went back to paying my rent from a bank account.
There’s a reason behind it. Rent payments don’t go through the same systems as normal card purchases so landlords/platforms have processing fees. That 2.5/3% you’re seeing is the card network’s cut. That’s why a lot of landlords just stick with bank transfers or checks
Sometimes you can. At my previous apartment complex, I lived at the property owner accepted credit card as payment on their website.
LOL. Rephrased: “Why can’t we force landlords to get 3% less for our rent so we can get some free miles.”
Something else to consider: That 2-3% is just factored into the price of almost everything else you buy. For rent, 2-3% would be enough of a noticeable difference that neither the landlord nor renter want to see that “priced in.”
There are other large purchases that are similar—Car purchases, jewelry stores, furniture.
Some small purchases as well: restaurants that charge 3% credit card surcharges (depends on where you are, not common at all or illegal in some states, very common in other states), gas offering discount for paying with cash/debit.