How to Earn Points on Your Mortgage in May 2026: A Complete Guide
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nextcard teamPublished Feb 21, 2026·Updated May 25, 2026
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How to Earn Points on Your Mortgage in May 2026: A Complete Guide
Understanding How to Earn Points on Mortgage Payments
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Most of us send off our mortgage payment and get absolutely nothing back. Some lenders don't accept credit cards, and the third-party services that do charge fees so high they cancel out your rewards. You're spending $2,000 or $3,000 monthly on housing while your grocery spending earns 3X points. The good news is you can finally earn points on your mortgage payment without losing money to processing fees, thanks to new programs that launched this year.
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nextcard team
Published Feb 21, 2026·Updated May 25, 2026
TLDR:
You can earn points on mortgage payments without fees through Bilt cards or Made Card.
Bilt offers up to 1.25X points with transfer partners; Made gives 1X redeemable toward closing costs.
Third-party services like Plastiq charge 2.99% fees that wipe out most rewards value.
nextcard's free tools help you calculate mortgage rewards from the Bilt Cards and track your card portfolio value.
Understanding How to Earn Points on Mortgage Payments
Your mortgage payment is one of your biggest monthly expenses, but most mortgage servicers only accept direct bank transfers, checks, or their own payment portals. Credit cards aren't an option.
When lenders do accept cards, they charge processing fees around 2.5% to 3% that wipe out any rewards you'd earn. If you're only earning 1% to 2% back, the math doesn't work in your favor.
If you're paying $2,000 or $3,000 per month on housing, that's tens of thousands of dollars in annual spending earning you nothing. Until recently, options were limited to third-party payment services with their own fees.
February 2026 looks different. New programs let you earn real rewards on mortgage payments without getting crushed by fees. Some have already shut down after brief runs, but others are gaining traction and changing how homeowners think about their largest recurring expense.
The Bilt Card 2.0 Mortgage Rewards Program
Three new Bilt Cards launched in February 2026 to let you earn rewards on mortgage payments without processing fees. These cards pull your mortgage payment directly from your linked bank account.
You can pick between two earning structures:
The Flexible Bilt Cash option gives you 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, which you can convert into 1 Bilt Point for every $0.03 Bilt Cash redeemed (1,000 Bilt Points for every $30 Bilt Cash redeemed).
The Housing-only structure skips conversion and earns up to 1.25X points directly on rent and mortgage payments. Your earn rate depends on how much you spend on the cards every month.
Which structure works better depends on your monthly card usage and housing payments, which is what the Bilt Calculator is best used for.
Made Card for Homeowners
The Made Card takes a different approach: you earn 1X points on your mortgage. For every dollar you spend, you unlock one additional point on your monthly mortgage payment.
The card earns 3X points on gas, EV charging, groceries, and utilities, plus 2X points on home improvement, maintenance, and furniture purchases
The real value comes from the Fairway Home Mortgage partnership. You can even redeem points toward closing costs on future refinances or home purchases, which could save real money if you plan to move or refinance.
Using Plastiq to Pay Your Mortgage
Plastiq is a third-party payment service that processes mortgage payments with a credit card, even when your lender doesn't accept cards. It sends payments via check or electronic transfer, but charges a 2.99% processing fee on every transaction.
That fee means you'd pay $59.80 on a $2,000 mortgage. Your card would need to earn at least 3% back just to break even, which most cards don't offer on bill payments.
Visa stopped allowing mortgage payments through Plastiq years ago. You can only use Mastercard or Discover, which rules out popular rewards cards like the or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
The math only makes sense if you're working toward a sign-up bonus. Now that Bilt and Made let you earn points on mortgage payments without fees, Plastiq's value has dropped substantially for housing expenses.
Risks of Mortgage Earning Credit Cards: Mesa Homeowners Card (What Went Wrong)
The Mesa Homeowners Card promised 1X points on mortgage payments up to 100,000 points per year with no annual fee. It shut down in December 2025, less than a year after launching.
The card's collapse came down to economics. Offering transferable points on mortgage payments without processing fees or an annual fee meant Mesa was losing money on every cardholder who maxed out the benefit.
If you were a Mesa cardholder before the shutdown, your account closed and points needed to be transferred out immediately. Existing cardholders lost access with minimal notice and many had their points immediately shut out.
Mesa's failure shows why sustainable mortgage rewards programs need revenue somewhere. The Bilt cards charge annual fees up to $495. Made partners with a mortgage lender to capture value and only provides mortgage points if you spend enough on their cards. Both create viability that Mesa never found.
Calculating Whether Mortgage Rewards Are Worth It
The decision hinges on your monthly payment, the rewards rate, and redemption value.
For example, let's start off with the Bilt cards.
Start with annual fees. The Bilt Blue Card has no annual fee. The Bilt Obsidian Card costs $95. The Bilt Palladium Card runs $495. If you're paying $2,500 monthly on your mortgage ($30,000 annually) and earning 1.25X points with Bilt via Housing Only Rewards (Option 1), that's 37,500 points per year. To earn this rate, you'd need to spend at least $2,500 on your Bilt Card monthly ($30,000 annually). Bilt Points transfer 1:1 to partners like Hyatt and Alaska Airlines. If you value those transfers at 1.5 cents per point, you're looking at $562.50 in value.
Alternatively, if you elect to use Flexible Bilt Cash (Option 2), the more you spend on the card, the more Bilt Cash you earn. If you spend $2,500 on the Bilt Cards per month, you'll get $100 in Bilt Cash. You can then redeem $75 of that Bilt Cash per month against your mortgage to get 2,500 points monthly (or 30,000 points annually). With your $25 leftover Bilt Cash per month, you'll need to find other ways to redeem it, such as on credit redemptions or transfer bonus upgrades.
Made's 1X structure on mortgage payments is simpler. The same $30,000 in payments equals 30,000 points. If you're redeeming toward closing costs at 1 cent per point, that's $300 back with no annual fee. However, you must spend $30,000 on the Made card to get that additional earning. There is an opportunity cost at play here, since you could spend that $30,000 elsewhere to get points.
Plastiq almost never makes sense, unless you value points extremely highly. The 2.99% processing fee is really high, which makes it difficult to justify consistently paying your mortgage this way. Realistically, Plastiq is not a true, consistent month-to-month option.
Run your own numbers before getting any of these cards.
Comparing Bilt vs Made Card Mortgage Rewards
Choosing between Bilt and Made depends on how you want to use your points and what you're willing to pay annually.
Feature
Bilt (Housing Only Rewards)
Bilt (Flexible Bilt Cash)
Made Card
Annual Fee
$0 to $495
$0 to $495
$0
Mortgage Earning Rate
Up to 1.25X points
Up to 1X points when redeeming Bilt Cash
1X points for every $1 spent on the card
Transfer Partners
20+ airlines and hotels
20+ airlines and hotels
None
Everyday Spending
Standard Bilt card earn rates
Standard Bilt card earn rates & 4% Bilt Cash per dollar spent
3X groceries, gas; 2X home purchases
Bilt wins if you travel frequently and value transfer partners like Hyatt, Alaska, or United. Moving points at 1:1 ratios creates outsized value when redeemed for premium flights or hotel stays. Made has its own niche by focusing more on cashback earnings right now. It can certainly be a powerful card, earning effectively a total of 4X on groceries and 3X on home related purchases (1X from mortgage ontop of base earn rate). If you are team cashback, the Made card could be interesting.
That said, for every dollar you spend on your card, you are effectively almost always earning more with the Bilt Cards. In the above example of a $2,500 mortgage, the Made card earns the least when compared to both Bilt's Option 1 and Option 2.
Both Bilt and Made pull payments from your linked bank account.
How nextcard Helps You Maximize Mortgage and Housing Benefits
If you don't currently have a Bilt card, the Bilt 2.0 Calculator helps you compare between the three Bilt card options. With your monthly mortgage payment and monthly spend, it will calculate the average points you'll earn on a monthly and annual basis with easy to see bar graphs to help you understand which of the three Bilt cards makes the most sense for you.
You can even compare the Bilt cards against 20 other popular credit cards like the Citi Double Cash® Card or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
This calculator is also one of the most accurate calculators out there, so if you elect to use alternatives like the MaxMilesPoints calculator, be careful. Many calculators are outdated and don't factor in Bilt Cash redemption limits properly or show erroneous transaction fees.
Final Thoughts on Getting Points From Your Mortgage
You're already making one of your biggest monthly payments, so you might as well earn credit card points on your mortgage while doing it. Both Bilt and Made pull payments from your bank account instead of charging your card, which keeps your utilization low while earning rewards. Check the annual fees against your earning potential to see if either program makes financial sense for your situation. Create an account to compare cards and calculate exactly how many points your monthly payment could be earning you.
FAQ
Can I charge my mortgage payment directly to a credit card to earn rewards?
Most mortgage servicers don't accept credit card payments, and when they do, processing fees of 2.5% to 3% typically cancel out any rewards you'd earn unless you're working toward a sign-up bonus.
What's the difference between how Bilt and Made cards earn points on mortgage payments?
Bilt cards earn up to 1.25X points on mortgage payments by pulling funds from your bank account, with points transferring 1:1 to 14+ travel partners, while Made earns 1X points that can be redeemed toward statement credits, gift cards, or closing costs.
Do mortgage reward cards pull payments from my credit line or bank account?
Both Bilt and Made pull mortgage payments directly from your linked bank account as opposed to your credit line, which keeps your credit utilization low and avoids interest charges.
Is Plastiq still worth using to pay my mortgage with a credit card?
Plastiq's 2.99% processing fee means you need to earn at least 3% back to break even, and Visa cards aren't accepted for mortgage payments anymore—Bilt and Made offer better value without fees.
How much can I actually save or earn with mortgage reward cards?
If you pay $2,500 monthly ($30,000 annually), Bilt's 1.25X rate could yield $562.50 in value through travel partners (minus any annual fee), while Made's 1X rate gives you $300 toward closing costs with no annual fee.
How to Earn Points on Mortgage Payments – May 2026 Guide
