This Online Rent Payment Service Is Back! Should You Use It to Earn Miles & Points?

Million Mile Secrets

8 years ago

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Late last year I let you know that you could no longer pay rent through RadPad. But via Doctor of Credit, RadPad’s rent payment service is back!

That’s good news for folks looking for ways to meet minimum spending requirements or earn extra miles, points, or cash back. Because RadPad is an easy way to pay your rent using a debit or credit card.

Paying a Fee to Use RadPad Might Make Sense If You’re Trying to Meet a Card’s Minimum Spending Requirements

I’ll explain what this means for you. And how you can use RadPad to earn Big Travel!

What’s the Deal?

Link: Pay Rent With RadPad

RadPad allows you to pay your rent with a Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, or Discover card. And your landlord receives a regular paper check in the mail.

But they charge a 2.99% fee for credit card payments. And for debit card payments, they charge ~$5 for rents lower than $5,000, and ~$10 for rents over $5,000.

Even though there’s a fee to use RadPad, it might be worth it if you want to to quickly unlock a big sign-up bonus or you find you’re having trouble meeting your minimum spending requirements.

Earning Credit Card Sign-Up Bonuses Is the Quickest Way to Big Travel With Small Money!

But you’ll pay lower fees when you use Plastiq to make rent payments. They only charge a 2.5% fee with a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or AMEX card. And you can also pay other bills, like utilities, mortgages, and student loans, which you can’t pay through RadPad.

There’s a Twist!

That said, you can still use Apple Pay and Android Pay to make rent payments through RadPad’s app. And in the past, RadPad payments were coding as travel purchases when you used Apple Pay or Android Pay.

So if you use a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which earns 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points on travel, paying rent with RadPad might make sense. Plus, it would be an easy way to use the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s annual $300 travel credit!

But commenters on Reddit have reported getting an error when trying to use Apple Pay or Android Pay with RadPad. So it looks like RadPad hasn’t worked out all of the kinks since relaunching its rent payment service. And it’s not yet known if these purchases still code as travel.

Once they’ve fixed the Apple Pay and Android Pay issues, using a card that earns bonus points for travel would be a good way to rack-up rewards! But it’s up to you to decide what makes sense for your particular situation.

Bottom Line

RadPad’s rent payment service shut down last year, but it’s back again! And you can pay rent online with a credit card for a 2.99% fee.

If you’re trying to meet a new card’s minimum spending requirements or earn more miles, points, or cash back, paying a fee to use RadPad might make sense. But you’ll pay slightly more in fees than you would with Plastiq, another online bill payment service.

In the past, folks who used Apple Pay or Android Pay to pay rent through RadPad’s app had their purchase coded as travel. If this is still the case, it might make sense to use a credit card that earns bonus miles and points for travel with RadPad.

Do you plan on using RadPad going forward? Let me know in the comments!

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)