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Urbanr is a new site that allows you to pay rent with a credit card for a 1.5% fee. That’s better than the 2.5% charged by Plastiq, though not quite as good as the lucky first 50 who use Roomipay each month with no fee. Still, Urbanr offers a great rate and the ability to split tender over multiple cards, which could make it a really attractive option to those who are trying to hit minimum spend requirements on several cards at once or who split rent with other parties.
The Deal
- Pay rent with a credit card for a 1.5% fee
- Direct link to Urbanr
Key Details
- Both the renter and property owner have to sign up (a renter can sign up and Urbanr will send an invite to the owner for you)
- Property owner decides whether to make the renter pay the fee, to split the fee, or for the owner to take on the fee
- Urbanr takes Visa, Mastercard, and Discover (no Amex) and they allow up to 3 cards to be used per transaction, meaning you can split tender over 3 cards to pay the rent
Quick Thoughts
I first saw this on View from the Wing. Gary was able to set up a referral program of sorts, so if you use the referral method indicated in his post, you can get $10 back when you pay $1,000 or more to a new landlord by May 1st and $10 per additional landlord who signs up and accepts $1K in payments by the deadline. See the View from the Wing post for more on how to do that.
Overall, this is a great option to earn some miles and/or cash back as there are many cards that earn at least 2% cash back, some that earn 3% cash back in the first year, and others that earn points that could be worth more to you than the cost of the fee (especially if you’re working on a signup bonus). If your landlord is willing to split the fee, all the better. As noted in the key details above, Urbanr does not take American Express.
Keep in mind that for the past several months, Roomipay has been offerring fee-free payments to a limited number of people. This month, it has been reported that the first 50 people who make payments through Roomipay will be fee-free. However, Dave at Miles Talk reports that this month you will need to be able to provide your landlord’s ACH information as payments will be electronic, which will also be the case with Urbanr.
I haven’t personally used Urbanr, but it sounds like the best current option for paying rent with a credit card, bar the fee-free 50 via Roomipay. If you’re looking to pay rent via credit card, it’s probably worth checking it out, and the $10 referral offer through VFTW could help offset some of the fee for the first month.
H/T: View from the Wing
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I think roomipay has stopped paying rent. Got an email from them in Nov that they’ve cancelled my rent subscription (for which I was paying a 3% fee) because they’re evaluating their business model.
They scammed me . Told me they couldn’t make the payment and I should dispute the charge with the credit card company. Then they fought it back and forth until the credit card company refused to credit. This is outright fraud. I was scammed anyone got any ideas how to get back my money?
[…] Pay Rent by Credit Card for 1.5% Fee – Frequent Miler […]
[…] keep in mind that Urbanr recently began charging just a 1.5% fee for rent payments (See: Pay rent by credit card for 1.5% fee), though their platform requires some set-up from both sides and I haven’t personally used it […]
Any ideas as to whether cash back cards will code this as a payment or a cash advance? I am thinking of signing up with a 2.5% cashback card, yielding a net 1% back after the fee. But I’m worried that I wouldn’t get the cash back if it’s coded as a cash advance. Thoughts?