NBR: Money Matters

myrall

I thought I'd post here before I took it to the national Nest board. Has anyone ever paid their mortgage with an AmEx? I'd LOVE to get all those miles for a chunky bill I pay every single month. Might actually take some of the sting out of things...

I used to work with a gal that never even used her debit card. Every purchase she made went on her AmEx and they just paid one big bill at the end of the month. She got gobs and gobs of perks.

I know many mortgage companies have spots on their websites for you to pay your bill with a CC, but AmEx opted out of it for a while. If anyone has any insight, I'd totally appreciate it!

slwprincess

We have not done this but we are also considering switching to the credit card method.  We've been systematically building up our savings account so that we can start doing this without it feeling like we just took a huge chunk out every month and leaving us with a big fat goose egg in the bank.  Also trying to decide if I want to use my AMEX and earn skymiles which we don't really need but sometimes like to have so we don't have to do standby.  Or maybe use another one that has Worldpoints or something.  My grandmother has been doing this for years and never knew she was earning points until I asked her to bring me her bill.  Sure enough she was earning them all along.  I had her call to request a catalog and they told her they would just apply the cash value to that month's bill.  She forgot to ask how much it was worth.  When her bill came that month she only owed $12 for an entire month's worth of living expenses.  Nice.

maykat

let me know if you are able to do this.  I would love to.  Our mortgage is through Wells Fargo.  I had thought I had asked if we could pay with a credit card (Capital One Miles card) and I thought they said no.  I really wanted to build up miles.

rara855

I believe it has to do more with your mortgage company than Amex. If it could be done you would wonder why everyone wouldn't be doing it. 

julienandy

I would love to also, but wondering if the Mortgage companies are willing to take the cost of using the CC.  I know AMEX was the highest percentage when I was working in billing for a company that accepted credit cards and we did NOT accept it for that reason.

I will ask my money manager when he gets home if he has ever considered.

 

KT&John

We don't pay our mortgage or other bills by CC but we put all other monthly expenses on our Wachovia Visa and just pay the bill at the end of each month. We have taken the whole fam to NYC and San Fran on those miles we've earned. The mortgage idea is brilliant IMO..I'll have to talk with DH about that

DizzyBlonde

We do everything possible on our CC that gets 2% back...we *can* set it up to pay our mortgage, I believe, because the CC site has a billpay section, but it specifically exempts certain billers from accumulating points/rebates (mortgage included)....sooo, we don't do it (and BoA doesn't allow you to pay with a CC either).  If you can do it through the mortgage company, it'd probably be fine, but if you do it through the AmEx site, just make sure to read the small print on accumulating miles or points or whatever you get...

dany2006

If your mortgage company will let you do it and there are no restrictions for earning cash back or points for using the CC to pay your mortgage, I would absolutely go for it. (Assuming you pay off your CC in full each month.) We pretty much pay for everything we can on our CC and the rewards rack up fast! It's a great bonus.

myrall

Lord. This is all ridiculously complicated. As of 2007, AmEx was working with only ONE company to allow you to pay your mortgage with their card AND earn rewards. It was only available at closing and you had to pay a $350 fee just to be eligible.

As a PP said, some CC companies strictly prohibit rewards points accruals for utilities, mortgages and stuff like that. There are weird ways around it, but you end up paying a 3rd party broker fees for the exchange. CC companies definitely don't want their rewards programs being taken for a ride!

So the short answer for now is, "No." You can't use your AmEx to pay for your mortgage.

Daisy22

I wish we could do this but as far as I know our mortgage company (BOA) doesn't let you pay by CC or at least our mortgage you can't. I would love too through.

hthomas02

we use our credit card for everything and neve ruse the debit card except for atm withdrawals.  for a while we had an REI card so we got HUGE REI dividends every year but now we've switched and we get cash back instead (actually goes into a savings account with emmigrant direct).  We dont' pay our mortgage but we pay a few of our other bills and like I said we use it for all expenses and then we just pay it off every month.

snansley

We have an AMEX/Costco branded card that pays cash back and we love it.  We put everything on it except utilities and mortgage.  I should look into whether we can put some monthly bills on there.

I had friends whose parents put the college tuition payments on the credit card.    They got crazy miles.

slwprincess

I just thought about something else- do you use the Delta Credit Union?  My whole family uses them for our primary checking accounts.  We actually earn points when we use our debit card like a credit card- you know, sign for it instead of entering your pin.  Anyways, my mother is brilliant and had all of our accounts set up so that all of our points (me and my brothers and my parents) go into her account.  She saves them up all year and then cashes them in to help pay for these big family trips.  Last year we had almost $1000 in points but this year it was only like $500.  Still, paid for a ton of groceries in Hawaii! 

donna&ed

We earn a bunch of points by putting our child care cost on our credit card and paying it off every month.

Then at the end of the year we file for reimbursement for our childcare FSA from work---well the maximum FSA. Still

So double incentive... tax benefits and credit card points.

myrall

donna&ed:

We earn a bunch of points by putting our child care cost on our credit card and paying it off every month.

Then at the end of the year we file for reimbursement for our childcare FSA from work---well the maximum FSA. Still

So double incentive... tax benefits and credit card points.

My podunk daycare doesn't take credit cards. Would be nice, though. It's a great idea!