Did you know you can easily pay your mortgage with a credit card?  Plastiq is a website that lets you pay your mortgage, rent and other bills with credit cards.  While there is a fee (which can be reduced), there are some cases where it is makes sense to pay your mortgage with a credit card.

Please note this post has our referral links.

Can I Pay My Mortgage With Credit Card?

Most (if not all) banks do NOT accept credit cards for mortgage payments.

However, there is a 3rd party service Plastiq that enables you to use credit cards to pay your mortgage, rent, tuition, and other bills that don’t normally accept credit cards.

Your recipient doesn’t even need a Plastiq account. You just fill out: recipient name and bill information, recipient address or direct deposit info, and payment amount. Your recipient gets paid by check, wire transfer, or ACH transfer.

I regularly use Plastiq.com to pay my mortgage and other bills with a credit card and have had no issues.

Just to make it clear, I pay off my full balance every month so as to not incur high interest charges, but Plastiq is an easy way for me to meet spending requirements on my credit cards.  I do not recommend keeping balances on your credit card.

How to Pay Mortgage With a Credit Card with Plastiq

Please note that you can only use MasterCard and Discover credit cards to pay your mortgage with Plastiq.  You cannot use Visa or Amex credit cards to pay your mortgage but you can use them for other bills. If you try to make a payment with a card that is not accepted, you will get a message and Plastiq will ask you to use another form of payment.

Plastiq charges a 2.50% fee for using a credit card but there are a few ways to reduce the fee. Sometimes Plastiq offers limited time promotions with a reduced fee.

Plastiq also has a referral program that can earn you fee free payments. For every person who registers with Plastiq via your referral link and makes a payment of at least $500, you’ll get 1,000 FFDs and that person will get 500 FFDs. Fee-free dollars (FFDs) correspond to how much money you can send via Plastiq without any fees.

If you have not yet signed up for Plastiq, signing up with someone’s referral link is a great way to earn the ability to make $500 of bill payments fee-free.

If you already have signed up for Plastiq, you can earn fee free payments if someone signs up using your referral code.  One strategy is to make referrals to your family so that you both can maximize fee free payments.  (For example, if you are part of a couple, one of you can sign up with the other’s referral link and you will both earn fee-free payments that you can use to pay your bills).

Does It Make Sense to Pay Your Mortgage with a Credit Card?

Because of the 2.50% service fee charged by Plastiq, it is usually not worth it to pay your mortgage with credit cards on a regular basis just to earn credit card rewards.  However, below are some examples where it could make sense to use Plastiq to pay your mortgage and other bills.

1) If you earn no fee payments using Plastiq’s referral program

Plastiq has a referral program which can earn you and those you refer no fee online bill payments. For every person who signs up with Plastiq using your referral code and makes a payment of at least $500, you earn $1,000 dollars of fee free bill payments and that person will get $500 dollars of fee free bill payments.

If you can make a few Plastiq referrals to friends or family members, you can earn enough no fee credits to make 1-2 mortgage payments with no fee.

2) To meet minimum spending requirements on credit cards

Some credit cards have a high minimum spend requirement to earn a sign up bonus so if you don’t spend that much normally Plastiq is an easy way to meet spending from home.  For example, say you recently applied for a new credit card that requires you spend $3,000 in 3 months to earn a welcome bonus.  If you use Plastiq to meet the $3,000 spending requirement you will incur $75 in Plastiq fees but it would be worth it to earn a sign up bonus that is worth more than the fees.

3) If you use a credit card that earns more than Plastiq’s fee

If might be hard to find one but you have a credit card that earns more cash back or points than the 2.50% Plastiq fee it will erase any fees.  Even if you pay using a card that earns 2% you can still reduce the fee.

3) To buy some time to pay your mortgage

If you are not able to make your next mortgage payment on time, it could make sense to pay your mortgage with a credit card.  However, it does not make sense to carry credit card balances with a high interest rate so if you use this option, make sure you can pay off your card balance in full when before the due date or use a card with 0% interest on new purchases to get more time.

Warning: If you can no longer afford your mortgage payments rather than needing a bit of extra time, it would probably make more sense to work with your bank to agree to a new payment schedule or discuss other options rather that putting your payments on credit cards and paying high interest charges on credit card balances.

4) If there is a limited time promotion with lower Plastiq fees.

Even if you do not have a credit card that earns more than 2.50%, keep an eye out for limited time Plastiq promotions. Plastiq periodically offers promotions where it charges a lower fee than usual. For example, a few years ago Plastiq ran a promotion where the fee was lowered to 1.75% if you scheduled 6 or more rent or mortgage payments on a Mastercard. I have a Mastercard (Citi DoubleCash) that earns 2% in cash rewards so I scheduled several mortgage payments at that time locking in a 0.25% profit.

For more information on how Plastiq works, here is my full Plastiq review. If you have not yet signed up for Plastiq, I would be grateful if you sign up for Plastiq with my referral link and you will earn the ability to pay $500 of bills without a fee and I will earn $1,000 fee-free payments.