 TITLE: Can You Pay Rent With a Credit Card? CONTENT: Many individual landlords and property managers will only allow tenants to cover their rent with either cash or check payments. They often refuse to accept credit cards due to the fees involved or the hassle of collecting and processing credit card payments—or they may simply prefer the reliability of cold hard cash. If your landlord is a large property management company, they might offer the option to pay by card.\nLandlords who do accept direct credit card payments have to pay merchant processing fees for the privilege, and it's common for them to pass those fees on to the renters on top of rent. The convenience fee for paying rent with a card typically ranges from 2.5% to 2.9%, which may sound small, but it adds up. Say you pay $1,400 a month for rent and the processing fee is 2.5%; that means an extra $35 is tacked onto the payment. Over a year, that adds up to $420—about 30% of a single month's rent payment. Using a credit card that earns rewards could help you recoup some of this cost, but it's not likely you'll be able to wipe it out entirely.\nIf your landlord doesn't accept credit cards, you might be able to pay with one through a third-party online service that then pays your landlord. These services could help you build credit by reporting your payments, and if you set up autopay, you can avoid late payments—but they'll charge a fee. For example, the third-party service Plastiq charges a 2.85% fee on every rent payment. END