So my apartment company has just informed me that they will be changing the way that rent can be paid next year. Currently I can pay my rent online via the following methods:
-credit card
-debit card
-automatic check
or I can walk into the office with a money order.
All of the methods are free of charge so I opted to pay my rent via credit card so that I could earn points for the transaction. This was free but the complex is changing over to a new system and we will now be charged for using a credit card.
The fee for credit card payments will be $19.95 which I think is utterly ridiculous!!!!!
I guess I will now be paying via debit card, since I can use my ING debit card to make the payments. I am just upset about this because I will no longer be able to earn points for purchases so that is a loss of potential income for me, even though it was a very small amount.
I thought about using the automatic check function since that would be the same as the money coming directly out of my account but I feel a little bit safer using the debit card option.
Our city ‘allows’ you to pay your property taxes by credit card but throws a 3% service fee on for doing so. That’s like sixty bucks! Never in my life, but you know there are people out there charging it because they can’t afford to pay it all, so not only are they paying the high interest on a card, they get socked with another 3% fee on top of it. Yikes!
I would never use my card if there was a convenience fee attached, as the fee would outweigh the benefit of earning the points. I paid my rent with my credit card and then paid the card the amount allocated for rent….so I did not carry a balance. I earned cash back for using the card but the amount in my budget for rent was the amount paid to the card so it all balanced out in the end.
“NEVER IN YOUR LIFE???” I am a landlord. I offer my tenants the option of paying by credit card because I know that sometimes money gets tight around rent time. 3% is what I must pay for the use of the service and processing…per charge. Why would you be so offended that I charge 3% to the card holder? Someone has to pay it, right? Who should it be?
I have never used a credit card (especially for paying my rent) I pay only with cash or a debit card (or paypal for my online transactions) just to be on the safe path…
-Kostas
i still need to learn the proper way to use my credit card so that i earn posint. presently just using it for emergency online payments
It would be a good idea to estimate how much you could save by earning points on your credit card versus the amount saved when making payments using a debit card over the course of a year. That way you can reach an informed decision as to whether you should go with a debit or credit card.
I don’t save anything by using the debit card but I do not have a choice because it will now cost me to NOT use the debit card to pay rent. I always win by using my credit card because I earn points but do not get charged interest.