If you have come up with the idea of wanting to pay your rent with a credit card, you are probably pretty smart;) It’s amazing, but very few have this obvious thought!

A few months ago, it was no problem at all, but today, it has become a bit more complex to pay the rent by credit card in Switzerland.

A year ago, you could get a lot more benefits out of it, but there are still ways to get some of the credit card rewards (e.g., cashback or miles).

So, let’s get straight to the point.

What are the 2 possibilities for paying rent by credit card?

You basically have 2 options that work in theory.

1. First, you can pay your rent in Switzerland with your credit card by simply asking your landlord. The reason why I can’t recommend this option is that, in this case, your landlord will pay fees up to several percent to the credit card company. For this reason, very few landlords will smile and want to comply with your request.

2. Your second option is to hire a financial service provider to do it for you. This option was much more attractive than it is today until about a year ago when there were still providers in Switzerland that had no fees for the customer. In Germany, this is still the case.

Today, all providers I know of have a fee, but you may still get some decent deals.

The following chapters are about these very deals.

How can you pay rent by credit card?

The basic principle is as follows.

1. You create an account with a digital bank or financial service provider that allows people to charge their accounts with credit cards. The two largest providers in Switzerland are explained below: The online bank “Revolut” and the financial intermediary “Credibill”.

2. You make sure that you use the best credit card for your situation. That is one that will actually give you an advantage when you use it to pay your rent. We’ll get to the best options below.

3. You charge the account with the credit card and then pay the rent conveniently, as before, simply from your new account.

Paying rent via “Revolut”

Until October 25, 2022, it was still possible in Switzerland to push money from a credit card to an account at the online bank “Revolut” for free and then use it to basically pay rent with a credit card.

In the meantime, Revolut unfortunately charges a fee of 1.5% for topping up by credit card in Switzerland (which does not apply in Germany). In addition, since a few months ago, not many credit card providers give miles or cashback when you send money over to the Revolut account.

Is it worth it?

If you do the math, you’ll find that paying rent with a credit card in Switzerland via Revolut is no longer worth it in most cases.

Because you have to have more advantages than the Revolut fee of 1.5% to make it worthwhile, which is problematic.

Only a few credit cards have benefit programs of more than 1.5%. To my knowledge, one of the few credit cards where you still get reward points for payments to Revolut is the Coop Supercard. But when you calculate the benefits of Superpoints, you get about 1% in most cases. Here’s an example:

The compost bucket costs 53.95 francs at Betti Bossi and could be purchased with 5290 points. Since you get one point per spent franc, this results in an advantage of 1.02% and is still below the fees at Revolut.

With the pizza oven, we get 0.93%; with the travel voucher, 1%; and with the Cler credit, also 1%. Even those who convert the points to Miles and More miles come out with less than 1% benefit on average.

So, as you can see, Revoluts’ 1.5% fee is higher than the benefits of the Coop Supercard credit card.

If you have another credit card, feel free to research or ask if payments to Revolut give rewards benefits. But then, please briefly calculate the whole thing. It might be worth it for you after all!

Paying rent via “Credibill”

The Swiss financial service provider Credibill has made it its business to enable people to pay bills by credit card, even if the vendor does not directly support this.

So, actually, that’s exactly what we’re looking for.

The catch is that, depending on the credit card, there is a fee of up to 3% here, which is quite high after all. But compared to Revolut, you have two key advantages here.

1. First, the company is a Swiss company and thus meets high standards of security, quality, and customer service.

2. Secondly, Credibill is a partner company of many Swiss credit card providers, which means that you can use the various reward advantages of the cards. So, compared to Revolut, more credit cards are compatible.

Here’s a picture of the partner companies and the fees that apply when you use them to send money to Credibill to make transfers from there.

Is it worth it?

As you can see, again, it will be challenging to find a credit card that offers higher benefits than Credibills fees.

But here, at least, you have the freedom to use more credit cards.

Who should pay their rent with a credit card?

Nonetheless, it can still be worth it in some cases.

1. For example, if, for some reason, you have decided to pay your rent by credit card anyway, the two providers mentioned above are good for that. As presented, you will make little or no profit with it, but your wish can, of course, be fulfilled with Revolut or Credibill.

2. The second case where it would be worth it would be if you found a combination of credit card and financial service provider where the reward benefits outweigh the fees.

In that case, I kindly ask you to let me know your combination so I can update this article for other readers. Feel free to email me at simon@krediteschweiz.ch.

What is the conclusion?

The idea of paying your rent with a credit card in Switzerland may seem tempting at first, especially because of potential credit card benefits like cashback or miles.

There are two main ways to do this: Directly through the landlord or through a financial service provider. While the direct method often faces resistance from landlords due to fees, financial service providers like Revolut and Credibill offer such services.

However, both providers incur fees that often exceed the benefits of the credit card. With Revolut, the fee is 1.5% for charging by credit card, and with Credibill, it can be as high as 3%.

In most cases, these fees exceed the benefits you get from the credit card. Therefore, in my experience, it is usually not worth it to pay for rent with a credit card in Switzerland.

Unless you can find a combination of a credit card and a service provider where the benefits outweigh the fees.

If you know or discover such a combination, please email me at simon@krediteschweiz.ch.

See you next time!