Back in December I wrote about a new card entering the market that would let you earn points for your mortgage payments. Mesa even beat out Bilt Rewards to market with this feature. You can earn up to 100,000 points per year with no fee using the Mesa Homeowners Card.
Charlie Blackwood’s Home From ‘Top Gun’ (On the premises of Hyatt’s Mission Pacific hotel)
What’s new is that they’ve introduced points transfers to hotels and airlines. Their CEO tells me “We will be adding many more transfer partners and other amazing redemption options in the coming months.” In the meantime these are the launch partners:
| Partner | Program | Transfer Rate |
| Accor | Accor Live Limitless | 1.5 : 1 |
| Air India | Maharaja Club | 1:1 |
| Finnair | Finnair Plus | 1:1 |
| Hainan Airlines | Fortune Wings Club | 1:1 |
| Thai Airways | Royal Orchid Plus | 1:1 |
| Vietnam Airlines | LotusMiles | 1:1 |
Homes in Amsterdam
While this partnership table is small, and you’ll never transfer to Thai Airways (and probably not Hainan Airlines, though the program was once reasonably good), there are some uses.
Finnair’s program refreshed a year ago to be surprisingly useful. Air India lets you book United flights starting at just 3,500 points in economy and 7,500 in first class.
Here are the basics of the Visa Signature Preferred from Celtic Bank:
- Earning: 1 point per dollar (up to 100,000 per year) on mortgage payments; 3x on home expenses (décor, improvement, insurance, taxes, general contractors, flooring, fireplace); 2x on gas and groceries; 1x on other spend. Monthly minimum of $1,000 spend in order to earn points on mortgage spend.
- Benefits: $100 statement credit on home improvement annually; Up to $60 big box membership statement credit annually (Sam’s Club, BJs, Costco); Pet benefit with Wag and another partner adding next year worth up to $240 annually across the two brands; $100 statement credit on Armadillo home warranty purchases; $200 annual credit with Thumbtack for home maintenance, cleaning, or even Christmas tree removal.
- Annual fee: None
- Redemption options and point value: In addition to points transfers, points are worth 1 cent apiece through Mesa’s travel portal; $0.007 to $0.0085 apiece towards gift cards; and approximately half a cent apiece as credit card statement credits. They also offer redemptions for closing costs on mortgages obtained though their marketplace. Their CEO tells me, “we will launch the ability to use your points towards your mortgage payment soon.”
Wow Air’s CEO Pledged His Home To Raise Money For The Troubled Carrier
Mesa offers an opportunity to earn points for mortgage payments, and as long as you’re meeting the minimum spend requirements of the card it’s currently an unmatched opportunity. Their redemption options aren’t as robust, and benefits aren’t as robust, as what Bilt offers. But Bilt still hasn’t launched mortgage payments.
So the question is, how much longer do you wait for Bilt while losing these points each month? And I’d think that for those who jump on the Mesa opportunity now, there will be some tendency to stick with it.
Does the mortgage payment count towards the $1000. Or is it $1000 in addition to your mortgage,?
@ Gary — Finnair’s program is garbage.
They must not be giving the bloggers the same incentives – soft or hard, I won’t speculate on which other than I know Bilt gave luxurious trip to them.
This is like 1/10th of the breathless enthusiasm for Bilt, even though it’s unlocked a much larger segment of earning potential (mortgages) with a transfer partner program and no fee.
Surprise surprise Bilt’s link from this site are referral links via vftw-links, Mesas are not.
@Greg – not all vftw-links are referral links, in fact I do not receive anything for Bilt credit card signups.
Based on what these folks have told me, they haven’t raised very much money yet. Their card is from Celtic Bank. They don’t have many points transfer partners.
I think it’s worth noting what they done! And I wrote about them pre-launch. I’m writing about them now that they are live and with some partners. Have you read about their transfer partners anywhere else?
They aren’t as real yet. And to be 100% clear, as I have been in the past, whenever I do any sort of trip I come out of pocket for the cost or make an equivalent charitable donation.
@Swag – in addition
I recently (as in like 2 days ago) found a Finnair Business class flight for 62.k miles from Helsinki to Dallas in August.
Which IMO is a fairly decent redemption. Only found it because I have a somewhat odd itinerary for the last two weeks of August, and were looking up different ways to get from Europe to Dallas (an airport I am wholly unfamiliar with)
@Gary: What about the 3% fee on using a credit card to pay your mortgage? Do they offer a parallel bank account, like BILT?
@Gene — 100%. Finnair is a major disappointment. Thank you for bringing it up.
Far too much undeserved hype for AY. They lure some in with ‘cheap’ airfare or seemingly good point redemptions (like via AA/AS), but they are simply not reliable. All it takes is getting stuck in HEL, and that’ll teach you, real quick. Besides, their fixed-seat Business class are uncomfortable.
That said, I have nothing against the country of Finland, or its people (they are wonderful), and love Moomins, etc., but that particular airline is a no-no for me, and anyone that I care about.
In the FAQs Mesa states: “The mortgage amount you entered in your card application determines your eligible rewards—there’s no need to pay your mortgage with the card. Simply continue making payments as usual, and we’ll use the value from your application to calculate your points.”
Is this true – from other comments on reddit it seems they link to your bank through Plaid to monitor your payment.
@ 1990 — Nothing worse than being stuck in HEL in route to the hell of ‘Merica.
@Gene — I suppose HEL is more like purgatory, after all. At least with OneWorld Emerald, you can go for sauna in their First Class lounge. It’s the only saving grace when your 4 hour layover becomes a 12 hour nightmare.