Do you want to pay your mortgage with a credit card? It might 🔥be possible, and there may be benefits, such as earning cash back, that could make it worth the effort. However, most mortgage lenders won't accept credit card payments, and the third-party payment services you can utilize might cost you more than you'd (potentially) save.

Why Pay Your Mortgage with a Credit Card?

There are four reasons why someone might consider making their monthly mortgage payment with a crediꦅt card: 

1. To earn 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:credit card rewards
2. To hang onto their cash and bank a couple of extra weeks’ worth of interest
3. To buy a couple of extra weeks to pay the mortgage without making a late payment to the mortgage company
4. To avoid 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:foreclosure at all costs

These are all valid reasons to pay your mortgage with a credit card. The first three reasons might give you a slight financial edge in the long run. The fourth could be incredibly destructive. We’ll look a𝓡t each option in more detail below, but first, let’s explore the logistics of paying 𝄹your mortgage with a credit card.

Third-Party Payment Services

Many creditors, including mortgage lenders, will not accept credit cards to pay off debt. For one, the institution may face a transaction fee from the credit card company. But more significantly, they know that doing so would mean letting customers trade one form of debt—a relatively low-interest and sometimes 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:tax-deductible form—for another with higher in🔯terest and no tax deduction. Politicians, regulators, and the news media💖 would have a field day decrying such a practice.

Enter 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:third-party payment processors. These companies will let you use a credit card to pay almost any entity. While the competitive landscape is always evolving, the best-known—and seemingly only—player that processes mortgage payments is Plastiq, which charges a 2.90% transaction fee. You might be able to find a referral code online ♚that gives you a few hundred dollars in fee-free transactions, but that will only get you so far—unless youꦿ find a way to earn more free transactions by referring others yourself.

Paying your mortgage with a credit card has some restrictions, even with Plastiq. The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:terms and conditions prohibit using a Visa or American Express card to pay your mortgage through Plastiq. Considering that other payment processors have come and gone in the past, Plastiq may not be around forever, or i𓃲t may not always be an option for making mortgage payments. Mastercard and Disco💙ver could stop allowing mortgage payments through the service altogether. Conversely, more options could become available in the future to pay your mortgage with a credit card, perhaps with more competitive fees or new perks.

Should You Pay Your Mortgage With a Credit🎀 Card?

Let’s walk through each of the four reasons why you𒅌 might want to pay your mortgage with a credit card and see whether they’re good ideas or not.

To Earn Rewards

Credit cards have two main types of rewards: 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:sign-up bonuses and ongoing rewards. A sign-up bonus might give you $300 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cash back for spending $3,000 in your first three months as a cardholder. Ongoing rewards might give you 2% back o🌱n every purchase, including the pur🐼chases you make to earn the sign-up bonus.

Let’s say your mortgage payment is $1,000. If you incur a 2.90% fee to make that payment, you’re losing $29.00. Still, you might be able to come out ahe🎀ad in one of these scenarios:

• Your credit card offers ongoing cash back (or the equivalent in points or miles) of 3.0% or more on this payment.
• Your credit card company doesn’t categorize the third-party payment processor’s charge as a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cash advance. Cash advances generally incur fees and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:always 𝓰begin accruing interest i๊mmediately. Check your credit card agreement to find out your card’s cash advance rules. Even if everything looks good, you may want to make a small test purchase through the payment processor before making your full mortgage payment to verify that your transaction will be treated as a purchase.
• You’ll earn a sign-up bonus worth more than the processing fee, and you wouldn’t be able to earn the sign-up bonus through your usual spending. This might be the most compelling reason to pay your mortgage once or twice with a credit card.
• You’ll earn some other credit card benefit from the purchase that’s worth more than the fee, and you wouldn’t be able to earn this benefit through your usual spending. Benefits you might be trying to earn include airline status, hotel status, a free hotel night, or a free airline ticket for a companion.

To Earn Interest

If you don’t carry a credit card balance, you get an interest-free grace period on your purchases. This period lasts around 21 to 25 day𓆉s, starting when your credit card statement is issued and ending 𓆏when your payment is due.

Over the course of a year, taking advantage of this grace period by keeping your cash in savings, where it earns interest, until your credit card's due date might earn you a few extra bucks. It’s not a bad thing to do with purchases you would make anyway, as long as you never make a late payment or carry a balance.

The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:best h꧅igh-interest savings accounts in June 2025 pay up to an impressive 5% interest annually. However, if the Fed begins cutting rates, these savings rates 🍎will go down.

To Avoid a Late Payment

Your mortgage payment is usually due on the first of the month. However, many 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:mortgage lenders give borrowers until the 15th to pay without a late fee. Once this grace period ends, lenders impose hefty 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:late charges (check your statement to see how much), but a late payment won’t actually be reported to the credit bureaus until it is 30 days past due.

If you need more than the 15-day grace period to pay your mortgage but want to avoid a late fee and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:credit score damage, you could pay your mortgage with a credit card on the 14th to buy yourse🌺lf about 25 more days to make your mortgage payment, assuming you're not carrying a balance on your card.

You could come out ahead if the payment processor’s fee is less than your lender’s late fee and if you pay off your credit card balance in full by the due date. If you don’t, you could end up in worse financial circumstances by paying credit card inte꧒rest, depending𝔍 on how long it takes to repay what you owe.

To Avoid Foreclosure

An extension of the idea above is to pay your mortgage with a credit card to avoid foreclosure. It’s understandable to want to do everything possible🐲 to remain in your hom༒e. Nevertheless, if you’re so far behind on your mortgage payments that you’re facing foreclosure—a process that your lender can’t initiate until anywhere from three to six months after your late payment, depending on the state where you live—your financial circumstances are probably so tenuous that adding credit card debt to your problems is not in your best interest. Talking to your lender and a housing counselor about a plan to avoid foreclosure, perhaps through a loan modification, is probably a better idea.

An Example of Paying Your Mor🧔tgage with a Credit Card

After reading a headline like “How We Earned $2,000 in Credit Card Rewards Paying Off Our Mortgage,” who wouldn’t want to pay their mortgage with a credit card? It’s a true story that personal finance blogger Holly Johnson pulled off—and she used the rewards to help fund a Mediterranean cruise for her family of four.

However, she was only able to achieve it because her platform as a high-profile blogger allowed her to earn thousands of dollars in free Pl﷽astiq transactions by referring her readers to the service. Most of us can’t do that.

Still, you'll find many opportunities to earn substantial credit card sign-up bonuses if you have excellent credit. All you have to do is spend a certain amount within three months of being approved for the card.

Final Tip: Consider Your Credit Utilization

Another factor to consider is the effect of credit card mortgage payments on your 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:credit utilization ratio, the percentage of your credit line that you’re using when your statement is issued. According to FICO, which generates the credit scores most major lenders use, credit utilization accounts for 30% of your credit score. If you don’t want the fact that you’re paying your mortgage via credit c💞ard to affect your credit score, you will need to pay off your balance before your statement is even issued, not just before your statement due date.

That said, if you have a high credit line and only use a minuscule percentage of it—say, less than 10%—then you don’t need to worry about paying your balance before your statement comes out. Such a low credit utilization ratio is unlikely to harm your score.

The Bottom Line

Only under limited circumstances will the average person potentially benefit from charging mortgage payments to a credit card. First, you’ll need to find a third-party payment processor that lets you use y🌞our credit card to pay your mortgage company. Second, you’ll need to earn credit card rewards that exceed the payment processing fee. Third, you’ll need to pay your credit card balance in full, ideally before your statement is issued, to avoid paying interest and possibly hurting your credit score. If you can do all these things, paying your mortgage with a credit card might pay off.