 TITLE: Can You Pay a Mortgage With a Credit Card? CONTENT: There are two reasons people generally want to use a credit card to pay their mortgage: Either they want to earn credit card rewards, or they can't afford the mortgage payment.\nBut before you use a credit card, consider:\n*   **Fees**: Third-party services and retailers that sell money orders may charge you fees. Additionally, your credit card may have fees for balance transfers and cash advances—which sometimes apply to cash-like purchases like money orders. These fees may seem insignificant at first but can easily snowball if you wind up paying them every month.\n*   **Interest**: Your purchases and balance transfers may accrue interest if you can't pay off your balance in full each month. Cash advances may have a separate, higher interest that starts to accrue right away.\n*   **The card's rewards**: If you were planning on using your mortgage payments as an easy way to earn credit card rewards, you're likely out of luck. In many cases, the fees you pay will drastically outweigh what you can earn in rewards—if you'll earn rewards at all.\n*   **Promotional interest rate offers**: You may be able to temporarily avoid accruing interest on purchases or balance transfers if your card has a promotional 0% APR offer. Be sure to read the terms closely, though, and make sure you can pay off the balance by the end of the promotional period.\n*   **The effect on your credit score**: A high balance on your credit card could lead to a high credit utilization ratio that hurts your credit scores. You may be able to avoid this by paying off the balance before the end of your statement period. If you're going to carry the balance, its impact on your credit score could limit your borrowing options later.\nThe high fees and other downsides of making mortgage payments with a credit card mean it's a bad idea for most people. If you're trying to avoid missing a mortgage payment, using a credit card as a strategic stop-gap might be an option, but you'll want to exhaust your other options first. Otherwise, you could wind up with a lot of high-interest debt. END