Latest Offers on Rent Payment via Credit Cards: May 2022

If you live in rented accommodation, house rent accounts for a substantial portion of your total expenditure. Most tenants prefer to pay their house rent in cash or through net banking or cheque. However, many third-party apps/websites like RedGirrafffe, CRED, housing.com, Magicbricks, etc now allow you to pay your house rent via credit cards. Paying the rent with your credit card is not only convenient but can also be rewarding, thanks to the offers and deals by these payment platforms and card issuers.

Table of Contents

Offers on Rent Payment Platforms Offers Summary About Rent Payment PLatforms Why pay rent with credit cards? How to pay rent through credit cards? Bottom Line FAQs

Offers on Rent Payment Platforms

You get discounts and/or cashback on paying the rent with your credit card on most rent payment platforms. Here is a bankwise list of credit card offers on some of the most popular rent payment platforms-

Citibank Offer

Up to Rs. 3,000 cashback on Citibank Credit Cards on Magicbricks:

• Earn a cashback of up to Rs. 3,000 by paying your house rent on Magicbricks via your Citibank credit card for three consecutive months.
• You earn a cashback of Rs. 750 in the first month, Rs. 1,000 in the second month and Rs. 1,250 in the third month.
• You need to pay a minimum rent amount of Rs. 25,000 to avail this offer.
• The offer is applicable only on one transaction per card in a calendar month.
• The offer is valid from March 1, 2022, to May 31, 2022, on Magicbricks.
• The offer shall be applicable on the 2nd and 3rd month’s rent payment only if the 1st and 2nd rent were also paid through Citibank Credit Card during the offer period (the second and third-month rent can also be paid in the two consecutive months after the offer period, provided that the rent payment is made in three consecutive months).
• If the first payment is made in January 2022 and the second payment is made in February 2022, the cardholder shall be eligible for a cashback of Rs. 750 and Rs. 1,000 in January and February respectively.
• This offer is applicable on rent payments via Magicbricks only.

Bank Of Baroda Offer

Flat Rs. 250 off on house rent payment with Bank Of Baroda Credit Cards on NoBroker:

• You get a flat discount of Rs. 250 on paying your house rent on NOBROKER using your Bank of Baroda Credit Card.
• A minimum payment of Rs. 25,000 is required to avail this offer.
• The offer can be claimed only once per month per card.
• The offer is valid from 1st April 2022 to 30th June 2022.
• This offer is applicable on rent payments made via NoBroker only.

Rs. 300 instant discount on house rent payment using Bank of Baroda Credit card on Magicbricks

• A flat discount of Rs. 300 will be credited to your account on payment of house rent using Bank of Baroda Credit Card through Magicbricks.
• You need to pay a minimum rent of Rs. 25,000 to get the benefit of this offer.
• You can take advantage of this offer once per month per card.
• The validity period of this offer is from 28th April 2022 to 30th June 2022.
• The offer is sentenced to rent payments made via Magicbricks using Bank of Baroda Credit Card.

HDFC Bank Offer

Rs. 100 per month for rent paid through NoBroker via PayZapp wallet

• You get Rs. 100 per month per device per phone number registered on PayZapp with minimum or full KYC .
• It is applicable on No.Broker.com website and application upon payment done via PayZapp wallet.
• You need to make a minimum rent payment of Rs. 10,000 to avail of this offer.
• The offer is valid from 1st May 2022 to 31st May 2022.
• The cashback will be paid to all payments made via PayZapp wallet and will be auto-credited to PayZapp wallet within 90 days of rent payment.

Axis Bank Offer

Earn 10x EDGE REWARD points on paying house rent through Axis Bank Credit Cards via Magicbricks

• 10x EDGE REWARD Points can be earned for paying house rent via Magicbricks using Axis Bank Credit Card.
• The offer is valid only once per user during the offer period.
• A minimum rent of Rs. 20,000 is to be paid to avail this offer.
• The offer is valid from 7th April 2022 to 30th June 2022.
• This offer is applicable only to those Axis Bank Credit Card customers who are eligible for EDGE REWARDS.

RuPay Credit Cards

Get flat Rs. 250 off on paying house rent using RuPay Credit Cards via CRED

• You get a discount of Rs. 250 while paying house rent using RuPay Credit Cards through CRED.
• The offer is applicable on only 1 transaction per RuPay Credit Card per month.
• You need to pay a minimum rent of Rs. 250 to avail this offer.
• This offer is valid from 12th April 2022 to 11th May 2022

Offers Summary

The following chart summarises all the credit card offers on some of the popular rent payment platforms-

About Rent Payment Platforms

As mentioned earlier, many real estate and bill payment apps and websites allow you to pay your house rent via credit cards. These apps usually charge a specific percentage of the rent amount as the transaction processing fee. Here are some of the most popular apps/websites that you can use to pay your house rent via credit cards-

CRED RentPay

Credit card bill payment app CRED introduced the RentPay house rent payment feature last year that allows you to transfer the rent amount directly from your credit card to your landlord’s bank account via net banking or UPI. Although you are charged a service charge of up to 1.5% of the rent amount, the app does make your rent payment experience seamless and hassle-free. You can also enable the auto-payment feature so that your rent is paid automatically every month. CRED supports Visa, MasterCard, and Diners Club credit cards for rent payments. You need to download the CRED app to pay house rent on CRED.

RedGirraffe

RedGirraffe is one of the first rent payment platforms that allows you to pay your house rent via your credit card. You’re charged a processing fee of 0.39% of the rent amount (GST not included) when you pay your house rent on RedGirraffe. RedGirraffe supports credit cards by HDFC Bank, SBI Cards, Citibank, HSBC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Baroda for rent payment.

Magicbricks

Times group-backed real estate brokerage platform Magicbricks also came up with its own house rent payment service last year. The payment procedure on Magicbricks is fairly simple and doesn’t require you to upload a rent agreement of any sort. All you need to do is provide some basic details about you and your landlord, and you’re good to go. Magicbricks supports Visa and MasterCard credit cards and charges you a processing fee of 1% of the rent amount.

NoBroker

NoBroker is another real estate brokerage platform where you can buy/sell the property and also find houses/apartments on rent. Like other real-estate platforms, NoBroker also allows you to pay your house rent through your credit card. NoBroker charges a processing fee of 1% of the paid amount and accepts Visa and MasterCard only.

Paytm

Mobile e-wallet Paytm also launched its house rent payment service this year. Now you can pay your house rent via credit card on the Paytm app. Paytm supports Visa and MasterCard credit cards and charges you a processing fee of 1.5% of the rental amount.

Housing.com

Housing.com is another popular real estate platform that allows you to pay house rent to your landlord through credit cards. The rent payment procedure on housing.com is very straightforward and does not require uploading a rent agreement or any other document. All you need to do is proceed to the payment portal and enter some basic details about yourself and your landlord (like bank a/c number, IFSC code, etc.) to move forward with the payment. Housing.com supports Visa and MasterCard credit cards and charges 1% of the transaction amount as a processing fee.

Quick Comparison

For a quick reference, the following table summarises the processing fee charged and the card networks supported by the various house rent payment platforms-

Why pay rent with credit cards?

Apart from discounts and cashback, there are many other reasons to pay the rent with your credit card-

• Annual Fee Waiver: Since house rent is one of the big-ticket spends on your card’s balance, paying rent via credit card will definitely help you achieve the spends milestone required to get an annual fee waiver on your card. This is the most important reason to pay the house rent using your credit card.

• Reward Points / Cashback: As you know, whenever you use your credit card to make payments, you earn reward points or cashback (at least in most cases you do), for this reason, using your credit card for large transactions like rent payments can be very rewarding depending upon the type of credit card you have.

• Interest-Free Credit: Credit cards usually give you an interest-free credit period of 45 to 50 days, during which you do not incur any interest on your monthly spends. Let’s say you pay a house rent of Rs. 30,000 via your credit card. This effectively means that you get an interest-free loan worth Rs. 30,000 for 45-50 days. However, you must make sure that you pay your dues on time. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a revolving credit that will attract a very high-interest rate.

• Improves Credit Score: If you’re financially punctual and clear all your dues on time, paying rent via credit card can also potentially improve your credit score. However, to reflect good financial behaviour, ideally, you shouldn’t cross 30% of your credit limit as it’d give an impression that you’re credit hungry, which is certainly not something that’ll go down well on your credit report.

To know more about the advantages and disadvantages of paying house rent through credit card, you may go through this post on Card Insider.

How to pay house rent through credit card

Whenever you use your credit card to make a payment, you either swipe your card at a POS terminal or enter the card details on an online payment gateway (like PayU, Razorpay, etc).

The payment gateway (whether online or a physical POS terminal) and the card network act as an intermediary and play a crucial role in processing the transaction. Your landlord, most probably, neither has a POS terminal nor a website with an online payment gateway. So, how will the transaction work out?

This is where third-party rent payment platforms like CRED, RedGirraffe, NoBroker, etc come into the picture.

When you make your house rent payment via credit card on a third-party payment platform, what happens behind the scenes is you actually pay to the payment platform by entering your card details on their payment gateway, the platform, which acts as the payment facilitator, then transfers the amount received to your landlord’s bank account via net banking or UPI.

The procedure to pay house rent is more or less the same for almost all the rent payment apps-

• First, you need to register yourself with the payment portal by entering some basic details about yourself.
• After this, you are asked to enter the details of your landlord, like their bank account number or UPI id, depending upon the type of payment method you choose.
• Some payment websites/apps might also ask you to upload a copy of your rental agreement.
• Now that you’ve successfully added your landlord as a payee, you can initiate the transaction whenever you like. You may also enable the auto-payment option (available with most payment portals) so that the rent amount is automatically debited from your credit card account and transferred to your landlord’s bank account every month with minimal or no interference from your side.

Bottom Line

As you can see, while plenty of offers were available on rent payment until a few months ago, card issuers seem to be withdrawing offers on rent payments. Recently, IndusInd Bank reduced the reward rate on rent payments with its credit cards. We can expect other card issuers to also follow the trend and reduce the Reward Points/cashback benefit on rent payments in the coming months.

Also, If you clear your dues on time, your credit score can potentially improve. However, it is essential to keep in mind that if you are unable to pay your card bills on time, your credit score might take a toll.

There are both advantages and disadvantages of paying house rent with credit cards. We already have an article on our website clearing the myths around rent payments with credit cards. As rent payment is a big-ticket transaction, you must carefully evaluate all the pros and cons.