Can You Pay Rent or Installments with a Credit Card?

Can You Pay Rent or Installments with a Credit Card?

For many people, rent or installment payments are among the largest monthly expenses. Typically, you're required to pay through a bank account rather than using a credit card to rack up travel rewards. However, there are several companies that allow you to pay rent or installments with a credit card — and you can still earn rewards. Notably, Bilt recently updated its program to allow users to earn Bilt points on installment payments (in addition to rent) earlier this year, providing more options for consumers.

Paying Rent or Installments Without Fees

It’s quite rare for an apartment complex or landlord to accept credit card payments without a transaction fee. However, this is still worth mentioning when you're searching for a place, as paying rent can yield significant rewards. For example, if your monthly rent is $1,500 and you pay with the Chase Freedom Unlimited® card, you’ll earn 1.5% cash back (which can be converted to 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar spent when paired with a qualifying card). After 12 payments (totaling $18,000 for rent), you would earn $270 cash back or 27,000 Ultimate Rewards points, equivalent to approximately $554 according to TPG's valuation in April 2026.

However, it’s likely that you will have to pay a processing fee for credit card rent payments.

Using Bilt to Earn Points

You can earn valuable Bilt points for housing-related expenses without incurring transaction fees if you have a Bilt credit card and use the Bilt program to pay your rent or installments. Simply pay with one of Bilt's three credit cards and allow Bilt to withdraw funds from your bank account through an automatic payment system, and you can activate points for your rent — all while avoiding transaction fees.

There are a few additional steps members must take to ensure they earn points from their rent or installment payments. Also, since the Bilt program was improved earlier this year, these payments won't impact your credit limit, making them not quite the same as regular credit card payments.

Personally, this is how I pay my rent each month, as I love accumulating those valuable Bilt points. According to TPG's valuation in April 2026, each Bilt point is worth 2.2 cents. I use the Bilt Palladium card (see rates and fees), but if you use the mid-tier Bilt Obsidian card (see rates and fees) or the no-annual-fee Bilt Blue card (see rates and fees), it’s not much different. The key takeaway is that Bilt members need to select a path to earn rewards from these payments.

Available Options

There are two options:

• Bilt Cash: Up to $100 Bilt Cash can roll over to the next year. With this method, you'll earn 4% cash back on all non-housing related spending when using the Bilt card. You can then redeem Bilt Cash for various rewards, including unlocking Bilt points for housing payments at a rate of 3 cents per point to unlock up to 1 point for every dollar spent on monthly housing payments. For example, if you pay $1,000 for rent each month, you could redeem up to $30 Bilt Cash each month to unlock a maximum of 1,000 Bilt points monthly. To earn that $30 Bilt Cash, you would need to spend $750 on non-housing purchases with the Bilt card.
• Housing-Only Rewards: You can still earn Bilt points for housing whether or not you have one of the Bilt credit cards. If you choose to pay housing expenses with a qualifying Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover card, you’ll incur a processing fee and typically earn 1 point for every $2 spent (excluding rent payment fees). If you pay rent through Bilt with a debit card or any other type of credit card, you’ll earn 250 points for each monthly payment. Lastly, you can pay rent through Bilt using a qualifying Atmos Rewards card to earn 3 Atmos Rewards points for every dollar spent on rent. You can also pay with a qualifying United MileagePlus card to earn 2 United miles for every dollar spent on rent.

*Capped at a total of $50,000 per year.

Paying Rent with a Credit Card

There are several third-party services that allow you to pay rent, installment payments, and almost any other type of bill using a variety of credit and debit cards. However, you will need to pay a fee. Below is a summary of two third-party payment providers that accept credit cards, along with their respective fees.

• Plastiq: 2.99%
  Accepts cards:
  - American Express (not applicable for commercial rent)
  - Diners Club
  - Discover
  - Mastercard
  - Visa
• PlacePay: ACH Payment: $1.95
  Credit or Debit Card: 2.99%
  Accepts cards:
  - American Express
  - Discover
  - Mastercard
  - Visa
• Venmo: Credit Card: 3%
  Debit Card: Free
  Accepts cards:
  - American Express
  - Discover
  - Mastercard
  - Visa

Plastiq is the most popular service. It also occasionally offers promotions that help reduce fees further. With Venmo, you’ll incur a 3% fee when paying other users with a credit card, but there’s no extra fee when using a debit card. However, the fees for paying rent with a credit card through Plastiq have increased several times over the years.

Paying Installments with a Credit Card

Generally, it’s quite difficult to make installment payments with a credit card unless you’re willing to pay high fees (similar to rent payments). However, Plastiq allows you to make these payments through its service if you pay with a Diners Club, Discover, or Mastercard. American Express and Visa are not eligible.

Additionally, Plastiq often has promotional offers for new users with lower fees. If you join Plastiq during a 2% promotional period, you can save by making installment payments using the Citi Double Cash® card. The Citi Double Cash earns 2 ThankYou points for every dollar spent — 1 point when you make the purchase and 1 point when you pay the bill. If you pay $2,000 in installments through Plastiq during the 2% promotional period, you would pay a $40 fee and earn $76 worth of points, according to TPG's valuation in April 2026.

When Should You Pay Fees?

There are certain scenarios where paying fees to make housing payments with a credit card and earn points or miles makes sense. One example is if you’re trying to meet a minimum spending requirement to earn a sign-up bonus, especially with cards that require $5,000 or more within a certain time frame, then paying rent with a card can be worthwhile. The Citi Strata Elite℠ card requires you to spend $6,000 in the first three months of account opening to earn 75,000 bonus points. These bonus points are valued at $1,425, according to TPG's valuation in April, so if your fees are lower than that amount (and you don’t have another way to meet the spending requirement), then paying the fees could be worth it.

Regardless, be sure to calculate the value of the rewards points or miles to see if the fees are justified. Generally, if you can earn more points than the fees you have to pay, then paying with a credit card might be a reasonable option.