Can You Pay Rent With a Credit Card?

Table of Contents

How To Pay Your Rent With a Credit Card
Paying Rent With Credit Card Service Providers
Pros and Cons of Paying Your Rent With a Credit Card
Should You Pay Your Rent With a Credit Card?
Paying Rent With a Credit Card Bottom Line

How To Pay Your Rent With a Credit Card

1. Talk to Your Landlord
2. Offer to Cover the Credit Card Processing Fees
3. Find a Payment Processor
   
4. Use Your Credit Card to Pay Your Rent

1. Talk to Your Landlord

To pay your rent with a credit card, you'll need to convince your landlord to accept credit card payments or use a third-party app. Many landlords will outright refuse to accept credit cards, but others may be persuaded. The main reason landlords reason don't accept credit cards is the processing fee. Most landlords are not willing to take that loss so that you can pay with a card. So, if they do allow you to pay rent via credit card, chances are you’ll be paying the fee unless you’re very lucky. 

2. Offer to Cover the Credit Card Processing Fees

The most straightforward way is to convince your landlord to accept credit cards and add the fee to your rent. Credit cards typically charge a processing fee of 2.5 to 3% per transaction. So, by allowing you to pay your rent with a card, they would be losing that money. If your rent is $1500 per month and the processing fee is 2.7%, they’d be losing an extra $40.5 per month or $486 per year. 

3. Find a Payment Processor

Some landlords may already have an online payment system that accepts credit cards. But if they aren’t set up to accept credit card payments, you can also use a third-party app. You could use a common peer-to-peer payment processor like Paypal or Venmo. Most people use one of these apps, which may be the simplest option to avoid any confusion. There are also multiple services available that allow you to pay rent with a credit card, and here are some of the most popular.

4. Use Your Credit Card to Pay Your Rent

Once your landlord selects a payment processor, you can start paying your rent via credit card. If your landlord is asking you to cover the fee they should include it in your monthly invoice. If they don't, you should check with them to confirm how much the payment processor charges so that you can add it in yourself. 

Paying Rent With Credit Card Service Providers

Pros and Cons of Paying Your Rent With a Credit Card

Before you decide to use your credit card to pay rent, you should weigh the pros and cons. While there are certain benefits if you’re responsible, it can easily spiral out of control if you’re not careful.

Pros of Paying Rent With a Credit Card

1. Flexible Payments
2. Can Improve Your Credit
3. Earns Points and Miles

1. Flexible Payments

One of the benefits of paying with a credit card is that your landlord will still receive a check on the first of the month, but you can decide to pay down the balance whenever you like. You should still keep a consistent schedule to avoid racking up too much debt. But if you need an extra week to get the cash, you can do so without paying a late fee.

2. Can Improve Your Credit

Typically, rent payments won’t count toward your credit score but paying off your credit cards does. So, if you are consistent with making payments, it can help you build your credit history and improve your credit score.

3. Earns Points and Miles

Many credit cards offer miles and points that you can redeem for cash or rewards. Credit card miles can be pretty valuable, and you are sure to earn plenty of these rewards consistently if you’re paying your rent with a card.  

Cons of Paying Rent With a Credit Card

1. Expensive Fees
2. Credit Card Interest
3. Easy to Rack Up Debt

1. Expensive Fees

Although 2.5% to 3% may seem negligible, these fees add up if you’re paying them monthly. So, you’re effectively raising your own rent to have the convenience of paying your rent with a credit card. Even if you're earning points or cash-back rewards, they're likely only worth 1-3% of what you're spending so the credit card fees can cancel that benefit out. 

2. Credit Card Interest

Keep in mind that you may start incurring interest if you wait too long to make a payment. Many cards offer zero-interest for the first few months, but that can quickly creep up on you. If you don't pay your balance off each month or aren't in the interest-fee period, you might have to pay rates between 10-20%, which isn't a good idea. 

3. Easy to Rack Up Debt

Paying your rent with a credit card makes it easy to rack up debt. It can be tempting to miss a month and pay off other expenses first or use the money on a luxury item. But then you’ll have to make up by paying two rents in one month. If you don’t, or you miss another month, it can quickly spiral out of control and lead to more interest being tacked onto the principal.  

Should You Pay Your Rent With a Credit Card?

It's okay to pay your rent with a credit card if you are financially responsible and pay your card off quickly so you don't rack up interest payments or late fees. Even if your landlord charges a fee to accept payment via credit card, you may be able to offset that by earning miles or points. However, most tenants are better off paying with cash because it eliminates the need for high prices and the temptation to delay payment.

Still, there are scenarios where paying with a credit card makes sense. Maybe you’re self-employed, and your income fluctuates. You may decide that the convenience of paying at your own pace with a credit card is worth the fees.

Maybe you have no credit and want your rent payments to help you establish a credit history, or your card offers you rewards that are more valuable to you than the cost of the fees. These are all valid reasons to use a credit card to pay your rent.

Paying Rent With a Credit Card Bottom Line

Paying your rent with a credit card is a great way to earn points or miles, but it can come at a cost. Most landlords will charge you the processing fee if you pay rent via credit card, and that's often more than the points you'll earn. However, if your landlord doesn't charge an extra fee for paying by credit card or if you're short on cash, using a card to pay your rent can be a great idea. You just have to be very responsible and avoid incurring too much debt. Otherwise, it could lead to a domino effect that results in you defaulting on your credit cards and being evicted. So be sure to act responsibly.