I read some people pay their mortgage and tuition with credit cards to get hotel points and air miles. How??

[Anonymous]

What kind of schools and mortgage lenders take credit card payments? Is there a loophole I'm not aware of?

[Anonymous]

It didn’t work for college for me. They charge fees for using a credit card. In my experience the fees are more than the points/cash back are worth.

I tried to do it on a few car purchases. They let us charge only a small portion but it was something.

I have no idea how this would work for a mortgage. I don’t think Wells Fargo accepts credit card payments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of schools and mortgage lenders take credit card payments? Is there a loophole I'm not aware of?

I feel like I’ve definitely seen a credit card option on FACTS, but it had a fee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It didn’t work for college for me. They charge fees for using a credit card. In my experience the fees are more than the points/cash back are worth.

I tried to do it on a few car purchases. They let us charge only a small portion but it was something.

I have no idea how this would work for a mortgage. I don’t think Wells Fargo accepts credit card payments.

It can work out but only if you are working on a big spend to meet the bonus requirement. The highest I once saw on a business platinum is spend $20K in three months to get 300,000 points. This can buy two roundtrip business class tickets, so the fee to use the card can be worth it.

The rent payment do accept Bilt. I heard there is an option in the works to accept credit cards for mortgage payments but I don't think this is operational yet.

[Anonymous]

https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/college-tuition-credit-card/

Basically what others said: Generally there's a fee that makes it a bad deal, but there are exceptions.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't work unless you're just spending to get past a threshold for a bonus. The fee will always be more than what you get back. There are idiots out there who keep posting this who have no idea what they're talking about.

[Anonymous]

Many places these days are charging you, the consumer, the cc processing fee, so it's likely you are getting less value in the way of points than the added charge you are eating.

[Anonymous]

This doesn't answer your question directly, but one thing that helps is to charge travel expenses to travel cards efficiently. I guess it goes without saying, but some of them give a lot of additional points for hotel, air, eating out, etc. purchases. We've gotten a lot of points just by using the Chase Sapphire card this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many places these days are charging you, the consumer, the cc processing fee, so it's likely you are getting less value in the way of points than the added charge you are eating.

You're using a credit card anyway so the fees are there whether they earn you points or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't answer your question directly, but one thing that helps is to charge travel expenses to travel cards efficiently. I guess it goes without saying, but some of them give a lot of additional points for hotel, air, eating out, etc. purchases. We've gotten a lot of points just by using the Chase Sapphire card this way.

Amex platinum: x5 on flights booked directly with the airline

Amex gold: x4 on groceries and dining

Chase Ink: x3 on all travel

Citi Advantage: x2 on gas

Chase Freedom: x1.5 on everything

Never book your flights and hotels in credit card portals. Book directly with the source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't answer your question directly, but one thing that helps is to charge travel expenses to travel cards efficiently. I guess it goes without saying, but some of them give a lot of additional points for hotel, air, eating out, etc. purchases. We've gotten a lot of points just by using the Chase Sapphire card this way.

Amex platinum: x5 on flights booked directly with the airline

Amex gold: x4 on groceries and dining

Chase Ink: x3 on all travel

Citi Advantage: x2 on gas

Chase Freedom: x1.5 on everything

Never book your flights and hotels in credit card portals. Book directly with the source.

This is common knowledge. And other credit card companies do this too (Sapphire, discover).

But OP is asking about huge purchases, not the usual travel expenses

[Anonymous]

Many years ago, this worked great - cards were giving up to 5% back and no one was charging credit card fees. No so anymore.

But, anecdotally, some big schools don't charge the fee because it is better for them to have the money than bounced checks. 1% of a semester of tuition can add up.

I bought a car on a credit card loan because the card interest was lower than bank loan. I wrote a check provided from the credit card. I got points for that...but I'm not sure that is a thing anymore either.

[Anonymous]

You've been able to pay a mortgage for a few years on Bilt if you have the right provider. They're supposed to officially start supporting it this year.

[Anonymous]

I auto pay my credit cards off monthly. I recently made a large 10k service purchase since there were 0 fees. I paid it off the same month, but the large purchase seemed to cause my credit score to drop almost 50 points!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I auto pay my credit cards off monthly. I recently made a large 10k service purchase since there were 0 fees. I paid it off the same month, but the large purchase seemed to cause my credit score to drop almost 50 points!

Because your credit utilization went up.