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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes and it will go.back to normal the next month.

[Anonymous]

We purchased $40,000 in Disney DVC points using our Chase Sapphire Reserve card...all categorized as travel at 3 pts/dollar. Nice

[Anonymous]

Bilt rewards for rent

[Anonymous]

You can use services like Plastiq or Melio. But there is a service charge.

[Anonymous]

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

Why are you interested in it? Not worth it to complicate your finances. Cash back card only, lock the other cards if you don't use them, make sure everything is automated.
Concentrate on learning to invest inside of Roth. Don't waste any of the $7k that can be put into it every year.
I got so far with personal finance that I don't pay taxes (well, get back way more than I pay) and never will. Had I concentrated on some credit card points, I would have missed taxes completely.

[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!

If you had paid it off before the due date, it probably wouldn’t have had that impact. I think the credit card issuers advise credit bureaus of utilisation on the statement closing date. So you can pay it off a high balance a few days early to avoid the hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes and it will go.back to normal the next month.

And when you open lots of new cards, your utilization goes down and your score goes up. I open tons of new cards (4-5 a year) and I recently bought a car with a personal check (after putting the max on my card.) When you pay by check they run your credit and the finance guy told me I had the highest credit score he had literally ever seen and he didn’t know it went that high.

[Anonymous]

I paid my kid’s college tuition for two years on a credit card (no fee) but they took the option away this year. I also paid two years of my other kid’s rent using Bilt cc (no fee). Banked a lot of points with both.

[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.

My credit card price matches, so if I book through the portal and the exact same room is cheaper on the hotel website, I immediately call and get a refund. I've done this several times, it always works. The only thing is that you don't get the hotel points - like I don't get Bonvoy points if I book through the portal, I only get the credit card points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My credit card price matches, so if I book through the portal and the exact same room is cheaper on the hotel website, I immediately call and get a refund. I've done this several times, it always works. The only thing is that you don't get the hotel points - like I don't get Bonvoy points if I book through the portal, I only get the credit card points.

I meant when you book with points. Direct award booking is always better priced with the travel provider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Some car dealerships will allow you to put part of the auto cost on a credit card. Subaru allowed $3k on a new car when we bought it in 2022. We paid the balance with a personal check after they ran a credit check on us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My credit card price matches, so if I book through the portal and the exact same room is cheaper on the hotel website, I immediately call and get a refund. I've done this several times, it always works. The only thing is that you don't get the hotel points - like I don't get Bonvoy points if I book through the portal, I only get the credit card points.

I meant when you book with points. Direct award booking is always better priced with the travel provider.

I am not sure exactly what you are trying to say, but in its simplest statement, this is just wrong.

Just one example.

I fly a route (international/business) on United where roundtrip on the United site is 330 thousand points. Cash price is about USD 6000. If I can find them on another carrier as a saver fair, about 200k. But it's hard to find. If I use the Amex portal, it is normally 280K points. Since I am an Amex Business Platinum holder, I get a 35% point refund. It also books as a cash sale. I don't know how that works exactly, but last week I had to change a flight and United told me (I was actually at an in person United office - rare thing) that Amex Platinum (at least) portal bookings book as cash sales. It isn't booked as a third party travel agent.

In general, though, I would agree that booking through the Cap One or Chase or Citi portal bears the same risks as booking through Expedia or Hopper or whomever they are using.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Some car dealerships will allow you to put part of the auto cost on a credit card. Subaru allowed $3k on a new car when we bought it in 2022. We paid the balance with a personal check after they ran a credit check on us.

I put a whole subaru on a platinum card. 43K. Plus, at the time, Amex was running a 10x small business special. That 43k points turned into 480k quickly. I told the dealer to charge charge me the fee and they did. Then, without me doing or saying a thing, Amex just refunded the fee. I have no idea why, but I did not complain.

[Anonymous]

I was able to pay my kid's college tuition with a credit card and no fees, but only by using the payment plan (which was through Tuition Options). If I paid directly through the school, they charged a fee.

[Anonymous]

We routinely put $60K in tuition on our Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card each year. This spend gets us 180,000 Hilton points plus two free night certificates for passing the $30K and $60K spending thresholds, which can be worth up to 200,000 points each at high-end resort properties.

Each year we use these two certificates plus the one that comes annually with the credit card to stay at the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui for three nights, which is typically $1000 per night with taxes and fees. Thus, we’re getting $3K in value.

The cc fees on the $60K at 2.85% are $1.7K. The annual fee for the Aspire Card is $550. The Aspire also comes with a $200 Hilton Resort Credit that is good every 6 months.

So, we’re incurring $2.3K to have and use the card for tuition, but getting a $200 resort credit, and a $3K resort stay in Maui. We’re already in the positive to the tune of $900.

This doesn’t even take into account the other $200 resort credit for a second resort stay later, the complementary Hilton Diamond status (which provides a $50/day F&B credit at the Grand Wailea), the 180,000 points on the spend (worth $900 easy), and the countless other perks.

This is such a no-brainer, you’re clearly dumb if you aren’t doing it.