Mesa Homeowners Card: Earn transferable points on mortgage payments

Mesa is a tech platform that offers a mortgage marketplace and a credit card that earns up to 100,000 points per year for mortgage payments. Bilt Rewards has been foreshadowing the ability to earn rewards on mortgage payments for some time, but Mesa actually beat them there.

Mesa doesn’t even require cardholders to use its platform to pay their mortgage in order to earn points. You simply need to let them know what your payment is when you apply and then spend $1,000 each month on the card. The rewards from your mortgage payment will then be credited to your account after your statement closes each month that you meet the spending requirement.

Gary over at View from the Wing wrote about this card back in December when it was on a waitlist, but it’s now open for applications, so we took a closer look at it. It’s an interesting card, even more so since the points that it earns can now be transferred to a limited set of travel partners.

In addition to earning rewards on mortgages and having interesting bonus spend categories, it also provides up to $700 in statement credits. For the right person, this could be a terrific, no-annual-fee proposition.

Key Card Details

For more card information and to find an application link, see our dedicated card page by clicking the name of the cards below.

Card Offer and Details

Mesa Homeowners Card ⓘ $0 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates None Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler There is currently no welcome offer for this cardNo Annual Fee Learn more Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Interesting card for the ability to earn transferable points with mortgage payments, especially if you can use one or more of the spending perks. Earning rate: 3x on home improvement, decor, maintenance, utilities, and daycare ✦ 2x on groceries, gas, and EV charging ✦ 1x on mortgage payments when spending $1k/month on card ✦ 1x everywhere else Base: 1% Gas: 2% Grocery: 2% Other: 3% Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Celtic. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: $120 yearly statement credit for Wag! and Farmers Dog purchases ✦ $200 yearly statement credit for Thumbtack purchases ✦ $120 yearly statement credit for Lowes purchases ($30 per quarter)

Mesa Homeowners Card Review

Obviously, the big feather in the Homeowner’s card’s fedora is the ability to earn points on mortgage payments without paying a fee, something that isn’t possible with any other product right now (unless you happen to have a mortgage provider that accepts CC payments and doesn’t charge a fee). But there’s other interesting features as well, including 3x earning on daycare payments and home improvement spending and hundreds of dollars of statement credits annually that include Lowes and warehouse club memberships…for no annual fee.

The points aren’t terribly valuable, at least until the transfer partners improve. But even Finnair and Accor could pack enough punch to make this an appealing card for homeowners.

• Annual Fee: $0
  • Authorized User Annual Fee: Free
• Foreign Transaction Fee: None
• What points are worth: Points are worth 1 cent each towards booking travel through Mesa’s portal, ~.75 cents each when buying gift card or 0.5 cents each when redeemed for statements credits. They can also be transferred to one of six travel partners (supposedly, more will be added soon).
• Best Use for Points: Mesa points can be transferred to Air India, Finnair, Hainan Airways, Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. The only hotel partner is Accor, which carries a 1:5 to 1 ratio. Accor points are worth 2 Euro cents each, so the transfer ratio essentially means that Mesa points are worth ~1.5 cents each towards Accor Hotels. Finnair is by far the best of the initial airline partners, especially since Avios can be transferred between the various programs that use it.
• Earning Categories: 
  • 3x Home improvement, decor, maintenance, utilities, and daycare
  • 2X Groceries, gas and EV charging
  • 1x Mortgage payments (provided that you spend $1K/month on the card)
  • 1x Everywhere else
• Credits:
  • $200 annual Thumbtack (home maintenance and cleaning)
  • $120 annual Wag! (pet care)
  • $120 annual The Farmer’s Dog (pet food)
  • $120 annual Lowe’s Credit ($30 per quarter)
  • $100 Armadillo Home Warranty
  • $65 toward $65 Big Box Membership (warehouse clubs)
• Travel Protections:
  • None that I could find.
• Purchase Protections:
  • None that I could find.
• Who’s this card for? Pretty much anyone with a mortgage. 3x earning on daycare would be another strong (and unique) carrot for many folks.
• Is the Mesa Homeowners Card a keeper? Once Bilt finally launches the ability to earn points on mortgage payments, this card could lose some luster. In the meantime, this seems like a keeper, especially if you can take advantage of some of the statement credits (and provided those statement credits stick around).

Mesa Homeowners Card Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free way to earn points on mortgage payments
• 3x categories are interesting, especially daycare for those that use it
• Impressive list of credits for a no annual fee card
• Points can be redeemed for statement credits if you don’t want to hassle with transferring to the small array partners (although, at poor value)

Cons

• The value of the points isn’t great outside of transferring to partners
• Besides Finnair and Accor, the transfer partners aren’t very good
• No travel or purchase protections
• No welcome offer
• Points are only worth 0.5 cents each when redeeming for statement credits
• Have to spend $1K per month on the card in non-mortgage payments in order to earn points on mortgage payments

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