American Express Will Allow Mortgage Payments to Be Charged
By Liz Morris
American Express announced a new program today that would allow mortgage payments to be charged to its credit cards for the first time. The program will begin with just a single mortgage lender partner, American Home Mortgage, but should spread to additional partners in the future.
The Express Rewards Mortgage program, as it is known, will be open to good credit customers opening a new mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage. While the program will thus allow American Express cardholders to earn Membership Rewards points on their mortgage payments, the attraction may be blunted somewhat by the fact that a $395 fee is required to join the program. A mortgage holder paying $1,000 in mortgage payments might need three years to break even given the initial fee.
American Express has previously made its mark in the housing payments arena by allowing rent payments and condo down payments to be charged in limited areas, usually within the luxury segment of the real estate market.
