<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Ex Amex Card:
This just doesn't add up. If you were to pay your mortgage on an Amex card then the lender would have to charge an extra 3% to cover the merchant fee.
Sure, you would get the "rewards" but you would also pay an extra 3% on your loan. Do the sums and you would find that you would be much better off with the 3% discount.
Sorry but there's no such thing as a free lunch. 
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Ex, read my post above to see the math. While no one would offer a long term opportunity to charge mortgage payments to a CC, a short term solution (when a correspondent lender holds the loan for servicing for 4 months, as an example) would be doable as this expense is easily managed. As a broker, we would do the analysis to make sure the cost could be absorbed at the rate being charged the borrower without having to add any premium.
No, there is no such thing as a free lunch, so you won't see anyone allowing you to pay your mortgage payment on a CC for the term of the loan without adding in the expense for this service - but, there are brokers and lenders out there who have low overhead and are willing to absorb some marketing expenses in order to offer an innovative and competitive product or service.
In my example, 6000 miles for the 4 months of making CC payments is better than nothing. I can't promise that this opportunity will become a reality, but let's not dismiss it out of hand just yet.