Paying rent by credit cards is an easy way to meet spend milestones and fee waivers for credit cards. It is no wonder we have so many services like Cred, Magicbricks, Housing, etc. getting into rent payments. This has also become an issue for banks as they do not want to give high rewards on such transactions. Especially, as many people tend to misuse this facility. IndusInd Bank has ‘revised’ the rewards program on its credit cards to reduce rewards on Rental/Real Estate payments.
Revised Rewards Rate on Rent/Real Estate Payments
- Get 0.7 reward points for every Rs 100 on Indulge, Crest, Pinnacle, Legend, Signature, Iconia Visa, Iconia Amex, Celesta, and Platinum credit cards
- Get 1 InterMiles for every Rs 100 on InterMiles Odyssey/Voyage credit cards
- Applicable from 20-Jan-2022
- Source – IndusInd Bank Update
The Impact
All rent payment services charge convenience fees. This can vary from 0.39% to 2%. With this change, cardholders will actually lose money when making rent payments.
What to do now?
If you were paying rent by IndusInd Bank credit cards, move to cards that do not have this exclusion. For example, HDFC Bank cards do not have any such exclusion. Even better, use one of the rent payment offers to get extra rewards.
