Internet Divided Over Woman Suggesting You Should Pay Rent With a Credit Card
"Not all complexes allow for this, otherwise I would've been doing it ages ago," one person commented.
Updated Feb. 20 2024, 4:42 p.m. ET
Credit cards can be the new diamonds — a girl’s best friend. But they can also be our worst enemy, allowing us to use money we don’t have and forcing us to pay fees on top of that money that we already didn’t have. It’s a constant up and down — the story of a toxic relationship. But filmmaker Meg Greer (@avintagenomad) took to TikTok to explain why everyone should use a credit card to pay their rent.
In the video, Meg shares how shocked she is that she’s the only one in her apartment complex who pays their rent using their credit card. Naturally, the internet came at Meg hard and fast with their own reasons of why they don’t pay rent with their credit card. And most people disagree with Meg — credit cards are great, but not for rent!
A woman on TikTok tries to convince everyone to pay their rent with a credit card.
Meg had just been posting daily videos until she shared her moment of bewilderment. “I just went to pay my rent and I found out that I’m the only person in the entire apartment complex, which is four complexes, that uses my credit card,” she admits in the video, which has since garnered more than 2 million views.
She continued, “I literally have a note on the little paper, it’s just me and my info for my apartment. And I don’t know why more people aren’t paying their bills with their credit card because I fly everywhere for free and I upgrade for free. And I have all these advantages because I put everything on my card. So y’all need to be doing that.”
Meg shares this info as if we’ve never heard that credit cards can be beneficial. She makes it sound like this is both brand new information and that anyone who doesn’t use credit cards for these benefits isn’t the brightest. As she suggests that she has no idea why people don’t pay their rent using credit cards, Meg tries to encourage people to change their rent-paying habits.
Commenters shared all the reasons why people don’t typically pay their rent with credit cards.
The first thing that came to my mind was that when I had the option to pay rent with a credit card, there was an extremely high fee. Landlords and property managers don’t want people paying with credit cards, so to de-incentivize tenants, they tack on absurdly high fees — anything from $30 to between 3 percent and 20 percent. Even $30 extra per month adds up to $360 per year. Is it really worth the points to spend that much extra money?
Some properties don’t even allow renters to pay with their credit cards. They often require a direct deposit or even a physical check. Yes, in 2024, landlords still ask for paper checks, which is probably the only thing we still use personal checks for.
Other people are just worried about paying off their credit cards. Some people treat credit cards like fake money, but if we think about credit cards with a scarcity mindset, that we can only spend money that we have, that shouldn’t be a problem. Even still, an extra $1,000 or $2,000 per month is a scary thing to see on a credit card bill. Some people don’t even have a high enough credit limit to add in their rent.
But many of the commenters agreed that if they could pay rent with their credit cards, they would. The reason most people don’t do this isn’t because of their lack of credit card and points knowledge or because they don't want to pay with a credit card. It has more to do with the ability and the financial strain that paying with a credit card might cause. Even the almighty Chase Sapphire card can’t get us out of financial ruin!
