 TITLE: Can You Pay Rent With a Credit Card? CONTENT: Pros and Cons of Paying Rent With a Credit Card\n-----------------------------------------------\nPaying rent with plastic has several potential benefits:\n*   **Earn rewards.** One compelling reason to pay rent with a credit card is to earn travel, cash back or other credit card rewards. Base cash back rewards usually range from 1% to 2%, so if you pay $1,400 in rent on your card, you could earn $14 to $28 in cash back each month. Depending on the processing fees, however, rewards alone probably won't be enough to justify paying with your card.\n*   **Take advantage of an intro bonus.** Some renters might want to put rent on a credit card to take advantage of a card's intro bonus, which could be hard to earn otherwise. Let's say you're approved for a card that gives you a $500 bonus if you spend $5,000 within the first three months you have it. You could go a long way toward scoring that bonus if you put $1,400 a month in rent payments on that card over the three-month bonus period (a total of $4,200). Proceed with caution, however. Don't charge huge rent payments to your credit card without a plan to pay down the balance immediately so it doesn't linger as debt. Payments that large also risk spiking your credit utilization, which is a big factor in your credit scores.\n*   **Cover expenses.** If you're strapped for cash, paying rent with a credit card can help you get through a tight spot and preserve cash for other expenses. However, borrowing to cover rent should be viewed as a last resort option for emergencies, as it could turn into a bad habit, especially if you let your balance roll over to the next billing period and accrue costly interest. If you've already done everything you can to reduce expenses and increase your income, however, paying your rent with a credit card could be a viable stop-gap option to prevent missed rent payments and eviction. The APR on credit cards is also lower than some other borrowing emergency borrowing options, such as payday loans.\nDespite these potential perks, paying rent with a credit card can have major downsides:\n*   **Pay costly fees**. The processing fee charged by payment processing companies could be sizable and add to your financial burden or wipe out any credit card rewards you receive.\n*   **Increase your credit utilization ratio**. This ratio shows how much of your available credit you're using at any given time, and it's the second most important factor in your credit scores. The lower your ratio, the better, but it's smart to at least keep the overall utilization ratio and the ratio on each card below 30%. Going above that percentage can cause greater harm to your credit scores.\n*   **Risk maxing out**. Regularly putting large rent payments, especially if you don't pay them off quickly, could result in maxing out a credit card. Not only would this prevent you from using it for other purchases, but it will have negative credit score consequences. END