Chexy: Pay Rent with a Credit Card and Earn Points!

Most landlords refuse to take credit or even debit cards as payment. Frankly, there’s little upside for landlords to do so, given that they’d have to pay merchant fees each time you pay with a card.

Rent is therefore one of the few major expenses you couldn’t charge to your cards, and as rent in Canada continues to soar, it’s a pity that you couldn’t use it to get credit card perks to ease the burden even a little.

Enter Chexy, a Canadian digital platform that effectively lets you charge your rent on a credit card. Plus, you’ll be happy to know that they accept American Express, and that rent payments code as a recurring bill payment.

What Is Chexy?

Chexy is Toronto-based startup that lets you pay your rent using a credit card (for a nominal fee), electronic funds transfer (EFT), and debit cards.

Chexy not only makes payments more convenient, but also allows you to earn perks and rewards, and even build credit through the Chexy platform.

The concept is similar to RBC Ventures’s GetDigs, which was unfortunately shut down in late 2020. Chexy is here to stay, though, and it has big ambitions to grow in the rental and payments space.

How to Pay Rent Through Chexy

Note that Chexy currently supports paying rent to landlords who accept Interac e-Transfer. Payments via cheque and building management services are not currently supported by Chexy, though there are plans to add these in the future.

To create an account with Chexy, you’ll only need to put in your full name, email, and password.

Upon signing up, you’ll then be asked to fully set up your account and payments.

For this process, you’d first need to enter your landlord and rental information, including your monthly rent and payment date.

Then, as a verification measure, you’ll need to verify your identity by clicking through to Plaid, an identify verification service that Chexy partners with. The process takes just a few minutes, and you’ll be asked to provide some information and photo identification.

Once your identity has been verified, you’re ready to set up your credit card and start paying rent. Chexy will charge your credit card four days before your rent due date, and then send an Interac e-Transfer to your landlord on your behalf.

It’s important to note that Chexy charges a 1.75% fee for all Canadian American Express and Visa credit/charge card payments to cover a portion of their processing fees. Note that Canadian Mastercard payments aren’t currently accepted.

If you have an international credit card, you’ll incur a 2.5% processing fee; however, you can use any Visa, American Express, or Mastercard product.

If you choose to pay with a Visa or Mastercard debit card, you’ll be charged a flat $5 fee.

Many members of the Prince of Travel team use the service to pay rent, and we’re happy to report that the process works seamlessly.

Another perk of using Chexy is its refer-a-friend program. Upon signing up through your referral link, your friend gets $15 (CAD) and you also get $15 (CAD) in credits that you can use towards your next monthly rent payment.

How to Maximize Rent Payments with Chexy

For renters, Chexy can be a key tool to reach your Miles & Points goals, since it allows you to earn rewards on one of the biggest monthly expenses.

The primary example of maximizing the value of Chexy is to use your rent payments to meet large minimum spending requirements.

Premium cards like the American Express Platinum Card require large minimum spending requirements in exchange for larger rewards, such as making $10,000 (CAD) in net purchases in the first three months to receive a big boost of Membership Rewards (MR) points.

Say you pay $2,500 a month in rent. Factoring in Chexy’s 1.75% fee, you’d pay $2,544 in total. For three months, that’s $7,621, leaving you with only $2,369 left to meet the spend requirement.

You or your partner could perhaps then sign up for another card to pay for all other expenses, even unlocking additional minimum spends in the meantime.

If you’re looking to earn cash back instead of travel rewards, you’ll be happy to know that your rent payment codes as a recurring bill payment.

This means that you could use, say, the Scotiabank Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card, which earns a 4% cash back on groceries and monthly recurring payments.

Factoring in Chexy’s 1.75% fee, you’d still net 2.25% cash back on your monthly rent payments. If you pay $2,000 in rent, you’d pay $2,035 including Chexy’s fee, while still earning $81.40 in cash back each month on the Scotiabank Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card.

Subtract the $35 fee you paid, and you’re still getting a very respectable $46.40 as an effective rebate towards your rent.

Alternatively, consider using a credit card that earns a strong return on everyday spending, like the Business Platinum Card from American Express, which earns 1.25 MR points per dollar spent.

Continuing with the example of $2,000 monthly rent, you’d be earning 2,543 MR points on the $2,035 monthly payment, which we’d value at $55.95 – easily outweighing the $35 fee.

Conclusion

Chexy provides a platform for you to pay with a credit card and earn rewards on your monthly rent payments. The service charges your card four days before your rent day, and then sends an Interac e-Transfer to your landlord on your behalf.

By paying with credit cards through Chexy with a 1.75% fee, you’re able to factor a major recurring expense into your Miles & Points goals.

You can use Chexy to help reach a high minimum spending requirement for a new credit card, or you can net a tidy sum of points with another card with a high return on regular spending.