I've just submitted an application at the Paramount, an apartment building in San Francisco -- http://www.theparamountsf.com/

The Paramount is managed by Related Rentals. Most of their buildings are in New York, I think. However, they also have some properties in California and Florida.

Anyway, first of all, Related Rentals is offering 25,000 Membership Rewards points for signing a lease.

They will also automatically charge your rent (and other fees, like the application fee and security deposit) to your American Express card. They don't charge an additional fee for this service. Of course, you get a point for every dollar you charge.

This seems like a great deal to me. I get miles for paying my rent! (I knew that I wanted to live at The Paramount before I learned of this service. So, it didn't influence my decision.)

Are there any other property management companies that do this (without imposing a fee)? Is this a relatively new thing?

I used to live in a building by Korea-Town in Los Angeles about 5 years ago and they would accept credit-cards to pay rent without a fee. I loved it!!

There was an article in the NY Times about a month back on this very item, with property management companies in NYC taking credit cards for rent.

Actually, the NYT article, as discussed in this thread covered just one property management company, which is the same company alvn is leasing from.

Thanks for the tip. Looks like a nice place to live. And certainly cheaper than the Four Seasons Residences in San Francisco or Miami.

Was I the only one who thought, upon readin the title of this thread, that it was going to be about a scheme to "rent" FF miles? Something like borrowing miles from someone else while promising to pay them back later (perhaps with extra mileage as a form of interest)? Like an organized Coupon Connection.

That idea actually sounds intriguing to me because I have some orphaned miles (5K to 30K) in various accounts that I don't need right now, and could lend to someone who does need them. In return for getting back miles on the same airline or a different one.

A good thought except that anything less than 20K or so is pretty much useless to anyone. For the most part, you will have to "buy" the person the award.

My building's leasing office used to take credit cards for rent, but found that the transaction fee (3% I think??) ended up costing them too much, whatever that meant. This was during a time when the economy in Portland was in high gear and vacancy rates were quite low.

The least expensive unit was $700 going up to $1400 for a garden apt. So, let's say the average rent was about $900/mo. x 600 occupied units x 3% comes out to $16,200/mo. in transaction fees. The actual figure was undoubtedly a lot lower than that since no where near 100% of all renter used a credit card to pay rent.

I sure did rack up some nice mileage totals while it lasted, tho.

Anyway, I say go for the 25K Marriott pionts and the AX miles each month. Sounds like a great deal1

Well, still not cheap enough for me. $1,850 a month for a studio, and $3,595 a month for a two bedroom. The two bedroom slightly exceeds my entire monthly net income. Even with the miles, I'll still be broke. So I'll guess I'll continue to pay my $700 month mortgage for my house Northridge, and go without the miles. San Francisco will have to survive without me.

[This message has been edited by OldRope (edited Feb 03, 2004).]

My son lives in a dorm which accepts credit cards. The rent is about $500 a month. He uses a credit card so he gets $5 cash back from the credit card company. He thinks that $5 is worth more than 500 miles because small amounts of miles can become orphan miles or airlines can change the program. He otherwise does collect ff miles, signs up for bonuses, etc.

Anyone disagree with the logic of $ being better than a few miles?

(edit: Hmm, that's $60 back each year versus 6000 miles. 6000 miles is worth something - better call him!)

[This message has been edited by seat 50J (edited Feb 07, 2004).]