How to Earn Credit Card Rewards on Rent, Taxes and Other Bills

When you found out that you can earn rewards by paying your rent and taxes with a credit card, your mind likely lit up with questions like:

Let’s answer those questions and lay the groundwork for effectively (and responsibly) using your credit card to earn rewards in a new way.

In most cases, you can’t pay your rent, condo fees or taxes with a rewards credit card and still earn points or cash back. But third-party payment platforms can act as the middleman: they charge your card, then send the money to your landlord, biller or the Canada Revenue Agency. The CRA even directs taxpayers who want to pay by credit card to use a third-party service provider.

That convenience usually comes at a cost: most of these platforms charge a fee, so whether the strategy is worth it depends on how much you pay in fees and how much value you get back in rewards.

When one of these companies is considered a “merchant” by your credit card issuer and automatically bills you on a regular basis, your payments can become eligible for rewards. The platform charges your card and pays whichever entity it is you owe money to.

But don’t assume every payment will qualify for a bonus earn rate. Whether a charge counts as a “recurring bill payment” depends on how your issuer classifies the transaction.

Optimal credit card use is often strategic: using Card X to make Purchase Y to maximize Benefit Z. When thinking about using a credit card to pay a major expense like rent, it’s useful to consider these prime use cases.

Earning more rewards

If you’re putting several hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in additional charges on your card every month, you’ll earn a pile of extra points. This can be an especially attractive scenario if you’re trying to squeeze extra value out of a card that charges a high annual fee or offers a decent earn rate on bill payments.

As with most points-inspired spending, putting a new set of charges on your card really only works out when you’re not incurring interest charges. If you’re in the habit of paying off your credit card balance every month, and could still do so if you added in your rent or condo fees, this might be an effective way to chase rewards.

Qualifying for a card’s welcome bonus

Many cards pay out a hefty bonus offer once you hit a pre-determined spending threshold. You might, for example, need to spend several thousand dollars in the first few months of card membership to score a certain number of points or miles.

Making large, recurring payments with a card can be a manageable, predictable way to qualify for these bonuses. Rather than increasing your spending randomly to hit a card’s bonus threshold, which can lead to overspending, you’ll be making a series of scheduled payments.

And since it’s money you’d be spending anyway, you won’t be operating outside the bounds of your monthly budget.

Freeing up cash flow

Putting your rent on a credit card can help alleviate financial pressure in the short-term. If cash is tight when your rent is due, using a credit card can prevent you from missing your payment and give you more time before your credit card bill is due.

» MORE: What is rent reporting and is it a good thing?

Using a card in these cases can be a double-edged sword, though. Your rent gets paid, but you wind up carrying a larger credit card balance at a time when cash is in short supply. If that balance doesn’t get paid down, the interest charges could start piling up, with credit card debt following fast.

It’s time to talk about the cost of paying your expenses this way.

In most cases, the rent/tax/bill-paying platforms discussed here aren’t free to use. You’ll be charged a percentage of the amount being transferred as a processing fee. Depending on which service you use, you could be charged more than 3%.

If the value of the rewards you earn is lower than the fee you pay, you’re effectively paying for those points or cash back. And if you carry a balance and pay interest, the cost of using your card this way can rise even more. It’s up to you to decide whether that’s a worthwhile trade-off.

The trick to getting the most rewards out of one of these payment options is to combine the right card with the right platform. Knowing which is which means digging a little further into the details.

As you compare your options, pay close attention to each platform’s fee, since that cost can quickly eat into the value of the rewards you earn.

Oncet you know how much each platform might cost you, you can start comparing cards based on their earn rates on recurring bills.

Some attractive options for personal credit cards include:

The Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card | $120 annual fee

This Scotiabank credit card earns 4% cash back on eligible recurring bill payments and grocery purchases, up to the annual spend cap. That said, you’d still want to confirm that the payment is coded in a way that qualifies for the recurring-bill category. Read our review of the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card.

The ScotiaGold Passport Visa Card | $110 annual fee

When used with Casa, there’s no transaction fee on eligible rent or condo-fee payments, and you can earn 1 Scene+ point per $1 on eligible Casa payments as long as you also make at least $350 in additional purchases on the card that month.

The Tangerine Money-Back Mastercards | No annual fee.

Both of Tangerine's popular no-annual-fee cards feature recurring bill payments as one of the 2% cash-back categories you can choose. Read our reviews of the standard Tangerine Money-Back Mastercard and the Tangerine Money-Back World Mastercard.

For businesses, cards to consider include:

Scotia Momentum for Business Visa Card | $79 annual fee

One of our favourite Scotiabank business cards offers 3% cash back on It offers 3% cash back on eligible recurring bill payments, gas stations, EV charging, restaurants and office supply store purchases.

TD Business Travel Visa Card | $149 annual fee

It earns 6 TD Rewards Points per $1 on eligible recurring bill payments, plus other bonus categories.

Like most value-based questions, the answer lies in numbers. And we can’t do the math for you. But we can tell you how to decide for yourself.

Quick method: Follow our rule of thumb

An earn rate on recurring bill payments of at least 2% is ideal for personal cards. If you’re earning that much, it’s more likely worth it than not.

That gives you a better chance of offsetting the platform’s fee, especially if you’re using a service that charges around 1.75%. If your card earns less than that, the math may still work in some cases — but only if the fee is especially low or the payment helps you unlock a welcome bonus.

Harder method: Crunch the numbers

Compare the value of the rewards you expect to earn with the cost of the fee you’ll pay.

Say you’re making a $2,000 payment through a platform that charges 1.75%. The fee would be $35. If your card earns two points per dollar on recurring bill payments, you’d collect 4,000 points. If those points are worth about 1 cent each when redeemed, that’s roughly $40 in value.

In that case, you’d be up five bucks and have several thousand rewards points to work with. But if your points are worth less than 1 cent each, the fee is higher or you end up paying interest, the value can disappear quickly.

Before landing on a card-platform combo that you think will deliver the most value, make sure you’re considering all the costs: annual fees, processing charges and any interest you expect to pay.

Collecting rewards is fun, but not so much when they cost more than they’re worth.