Q: I would like to know how I can use a credit card to pay my mortgage?

A: Well first of all, you know I’ve got to ask… are you looking to pay a mortgage with a credit card for rewards/cash back? Or do you need to pay by credit card because you can’t afford payments? If it’s the latter, then this “how to” advice isn’t for you. If you can’t afford your mortgage I would recommend speaking to attorney to explore options (i.e. loan modification, foreclosure, short sale, etc.)

But if you want to know if you can pay your mortgage with a card for free points or rewards, then keep reading!

For starters, it’s important to point out that the real estate bubble changed everything. During the ’00′s there were all kinds of crafty ways to pay mortgages. However after the crash that all changed.

American Express Mortgage Payment?
In 2007 (back at the peak of the bubble) American Express cardholders could pay any prime level mortgage from American Home Mortgage for a one-time fee of $395. If you paid you always paid your credit card bills on time and in-full, this option definitely made sense considering the up to 1.25% cash back offered on the AmEx Blue Cash.

However in the years since, the option to pay a mortgage with American Express no longer appears to be available.

Bank of America Credit Card Mortgage Payment?
The other company which offered options (abeit indirectly) for paying a mortgage using a credit card was Bank of America. All FIA issued cards (which is a wholly-owned BofA subsidiary) offered the ability to pay bills for free using your credit card. Although this option specifically created for mortgages, many would use this service to pay mortgages with credit cards from Bank of America. Sounds like a cool trick until you hear that no points or rewards were given on FIA bill payments… so there really wasn’t any point in using it for your mortgage.

In Sept 2010 the FIA Bill Pay Choice was canceled.

Is there any other way to pay mortgage with credit card for points?
Unfortunately, not at this time. Some have brought up the idea of using Paypal to get money to pay their mortgage, but that will always be a losing proposition… even the best cash reward credit cards won’t make up the 3% in fees that Paypal charges.

If anything changes in the future, simply leave a comment and this post will be updated!

Are you tired of lousy returns on your savings account? Excessive overdraft fees on your checking account? Overall poor customer service at your bank? Or just worried about the financial stability of your bank? Well the solution is not to bury cash in your backyard! Instead you should look into the best-kept secret in banking; the credit union.

Unlike banks, credit unions are not-for-profit. Credit unions are also owned by the members (account holders) themselves. The members, regardless of how much money they have, each have one vote to elect the credit union’s board of directors. Interest rates and other policies are decided by these directors.

How many credit unions are there in the world? There was 46,377 credit unions in 97 countries at the end of ’06, and today there are even more. With so many credit unions in existence, it’s almost guaranteed there is at least one in your area you qualify to be a member of. In today’s mortgage meltdown, credit unions are a particularly useful place to find a mortgage with favorable terms if you are currently stuck in a high rate or adjustable-rate mortgage.

To learn more about credit unions we recommend you check out our friends over at the Bruen/Bensley Credit Union Blog. They’ve been blogging daily for 6 years now about credit unions and their blog is loaded with great advice.

The “mother of all bailouts” is what they’re calling it – the $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial market. Under the current plan, the government will buy back distressed assets from private holders on Wall Street.

Now how much the cookie crumbles depends on what types of debts are included. Will it only be mortgage-backed securities? Or will they include credit card debt, which is packaged up and sold on Wall Street the same way mortgages are.

The plan was supposed to be only for “mortgage-related” assets, but a recent draft included “troubled assets” and of course with that sky is the limit – it could include virtually any type of troubled loan.  If this happens, the ultimate cost to the taxpayers may be far more – in the trillions.

Either way, roughly 87% of Federal tax revenue comes from individuals, so you will be the one paying 87% of the bill for these corporations.