I’ve written extensively about the Bilt Mastercard and how you can earn points by paying your rent for no fee. I write a lot about Bilt because they have a great program where you can transfer points to 22 airline and hotel partners and constantly add new ones while offering great bonuses on transfers on the first of each month.

One of the questions I get asked most often when writing about Bilt is “what about mortgages!” I actually got messaged this on Instagram as I was writing this post (hi, K Mott)! Well Bilt has been talking about allowing you to earn points when paying your mortgage for some time now but there is no firm date yet. But in the meantime there is a new player in town where you will earn points for paying your mortgage with Mesa.

The Mesa Homeowners Card

I first saw the Mesa Homeowners Card back in December but decided not to write about it for a number of reasons, one of which is there wasn’t a sign up bonus. Well that has changed and they are now offering 50,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months all for no annual fee. There are some hoops to jump through to be aware of.

The Mesa Homeowners Card is issued by Celtic Bank which has some interesting co-branded cards like with AMC Theaters and Rocket Mortgage.

Apply Here for the Mesa Homeowners Card

Quick Facts

Signup Bonus: 50,000 Mesa points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months
Annual Fee: None
Points Earned: Mesa Points which can be transferred to five airline and one hotel partner but apparently more are coming.
Earning Structure:
1x Mesa Point up to 100,000 a year for each dollar spent on your mortgage (more details below). You must spend at least $1,000 on other purchases each month to earn the points.
3x Mesa Points on Home Improvement Stores, Home Decor, Maintenance, Utilities, General Contractors and Daycare purchases
2x Mesa Points on groceries, gas and EV charging
1x Mesa Points on everything else

Annual Credits:

$120 back at Lowe’s ($30 quarterly)
$65 Big Box Store Membership credit (Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s)
$200 credit with Thumbtack
$120 pet care credit with Wag!
$120 credit with Farmer’s Dog ($10 monthly)
$100 home warranty with Armadillo
$100 gift card to Cozy Earth

Earning Points for Paying Your Mortgage

This is where things are different than Bilt. You don’t actually pay your mortgage with your Mesa credit card but you link your bank account to Mesa and when they see your mortgage payment go through, they award you the points. Now this may seem sketchy but its all done with bank grade encryption so I wouldn’t worry about any security issues.

The key to earning points for your mortgage is that you must spend at least $1,000 on your Mesa credit card each month. This is similar to Bilt where you have to make at least 5 transactions each month to earn points for your mortgage.

Mesa’s Transfer Partners

You can use your Mesa points on their travel portal at a rate of 1.3 cents each which isn’t half bad Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 1.25 cents but not as good as the Sapphire Reserve at 1.5 cents each.

But you all know I love to transfer my points to airline and hotel partners for the best value. Currently Mesa only has a total of 8 transfer partners. These are all pretty niche with the exception of Finnair and Cathay Pacific which are really the only ones I could see myself using on a regular basis. Apparently they are working on getting more so we’ll see! Interestingly, their app shows Aeromexico and Cathay but the website does not.

AccorALL (hotel) 3:2
Air India 1:1
Finnair 1:1
Hainan Airlines 1:1
Thai Airways 1:1
Vietnam Airlines 1:1
Cathay Pacific 1.5:1
Aeromexico 1:1

Hitting the $1,000 Monthly Minimum

The value I see here is to use this card for the bonus categories where you get 3x points like daycare, home improvement stores, decor and utilities where you normally wouldn’t earn bonus points on other cards. The daycare category is extremely enticing and could hit that $1,000 minimum each month, but today was our 2 year old’s last day of preschool for the summer. Why 2 year old’s need a summer break is another story. I live in an old historic home and make frequent trips to Lowe’s so it would be nice to earn 3x points vs. the 2x I earn on the Citi Double Cash or the Capital One Venture X. Our utilities are also around $400 a month but in the hot summers in Charleston it can creep up to even more than that. Over the summer I would have to make an effort to meet that minimum spend.

I value all other transferrable points currencies at 1.7 cents each since they each have so many different transfer partners. Mesa only has 6 and likely only 1 could see myself using regularly.

Doing quick math, I would earn 36,000 Mesa points each year if I spent exactly $1,000 a month. Valued at 1.3 cents each I would earn $468 in rewards. Spending $1,000 on a card earning 2x points would earn me 24,000 points worth 1.7 cents each would earn $408 in rewards. So the Mesa card is worth it by $60 a year not to mention the annual credits plus the points earned on my mortgage.

Application Process

Interestingly enough you can’t apply on your computer, you have to do it through the Mesa app. It was one of the easier applications I’ve done and was approved in just a few seconds. I actually applied while writing this review!

Wrapping Up

The Mesa Homeowners Card is an interesting concept to earn points on your mortgage payments while not actually paying your mortgage with the credit card. You do have to make at least $1,000 a month in payments in order to earn points for your mortgage. They also have some unique bonus categories as well as 8 unique transfer partners. I’ll be back later with my thoughts after using the card.