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To reach financial independence, you need to be unconventional. When everyone else owned a car, we took public transit. When everyone else ate out, we packed our lunches. When everyone else bought a house, we rented. When everyone else climbed the corporate ladder, we quit our jobs and retired at 31.
And now that we are parents but still choosing to rent, we are even more unconventional. If we were rare before, we’re now a family of unicorns with leprechauns dancing on our backs, swimming in a sea of 4-leaf clovers. I can count the number of families I know who rent on one hand.
We are firmly on Team Rent and don’t plan to switch anytime soon.
The cool thing about renting is that I can even take advantage of this status and put my monthly rent toward travel hacking!
Yup. That’s right. You thought all those rent dollars were going to waste since you can’t pay rent with a credit card? Well, now you can! And that means, you can earn points towards free flights! Even if you don’t want to travel, you can get free money by using the right cashback credit card (I’ll explain how in a minute).
If you’re on Team Own, don’t worry, you can get in on a piece of this action too!
Because now, you can even pay your property taxes with a credit card! No need to bitch and moan about property taxes going up, because now you can put it towards free money or flights!
How it works
You do this with a service called Chexy. It’s a Toronto-based startup that lets you pay rent with a credit card. It’s super easy to use and I was able to get onboarded in 5 mins. I’ve already sent several rent payments to my landlord with no issues. You just need to make sure your landlord accepts Interac e-transfers, pre-authorized debit, or Bill Pay. There’s no acceptance or participation required from them.
Chexy will charge your credit card 3 days before your rent due date. Then the funds are added to your Chexy Wallet until it’s issued to your landlord on the due date, using the payment option you chose.
But wait, there’s MORE! Chexy got approval from the CRA and now you can even pay your taxes with a credit card! (note: this feature is currently only for Canadians, but Americans can still use the U.S equivalent of Chexy to get points for paying rent—more on that in a minute)
Now, as with everything there is a catch. This service isn’t free and Chexy charges a 1.75% fee for Canadian credit cards. But, if you play your cards right (pun intended), the benefits easily offsets the fee. Here’s how:
Math That Shit Up
Want free money? Get a credit card with 4% cash back and you immediately make 2.25% on the spread.
This means, if your rent is $2000/month, you get $45 a month for free every month, giving you $540 of free money each year. The higher your rent, the more money you make. This is money you would’ve spent anyway, so it’s a no brainer to get some cash back on it.
Just take your yearly rent and multiple by 0.0225 to calculate your free money. Chexy has a cool calculator you can use with a list of high cash back credit cards (you’ll need to sign up for an account to access the calculator):
Since I love travel, I would rather put my credit card spending towards frequent flyer points, like Aeroplan. And since my rent is $1615/month or $19,380/year, the Chexy fee would cost me $339.15/year, but I would get 19,380 Aeroplan points. Obviously, you can get those points for free with welcome bonuses on credit cards, but once you exhaust those options, this is the next level of points earning because you can do this continuously.
This is enough to get me an economy class flight, but since I’m more about value than minimal spending, I’d rather put my points towards longer haul flights in business class. With the new added feature of being able to pay your taxes with Chexy, if I pay $30,000 from my passion income for example, I’d earn another 30,000 aeroplan points for $525. As of right now, searching on seats.aero, I can find a direct business class flight from Toronto to Zurich, Switzerland for 56,000 Aeroplan points:
This means, I can get an 8-hour business class flight for $525 + $339.15 = $864.15, which is a 90% discount, considering that this business class ticket costs $8600 in cash!
Now, this is all assuming that I’m only earning 1 aeroplan point per dollar spent and that my credit card doesn’t have an annual fee. If your credit card has a fee or has better earn rate, you can use this formula to decide if Chexy is worth it:
Chexy Cost Per Point Formula
This gives you the cost per point for Chexy. You then compare this with how much it would cost to buy the points.
Here’s an example:
The Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card has an fee of $599/year and gives you 1.25 Aeroplan points for every dollar spent.
My cost per Aeroplan point using Chexy would be:
C= $599/(1615*12)*1.25+0.0175/1.25 = $0.0387. Since Aeroplan points cost $0.035 to buy from Air Canada, this makes no sense.
The TD Aeroplan card I have right now has first year annual fee waived and gives me 1 Aeroplan point for every dollar spent. That changes the equation to:
C = 0+0.0175/1 = $0.0175, which is lower than $0.035 to buy the points, so that makes sense.
Later on, when I do have to pay the annual fee of $139, I get:
C= $139/($1615*12*1) + $0.0175/1 = $0.0245, which is still lower than $0.035, so it still makes sense.
You can do the same with your taxes. Just replace the annual rent number with your annual tax bill. Alternatively, you can also use the Chexy calculator by changing the filter from “cashback” to “points”, but keep in mind they don’t factor in the annual fee and use a $0.021 for the Aeroplan points cost instead of $0.035 to buy from Air Canada.
The takeaway is this: The lower the credit card annual fee and the higher your annual rent or taxes, the better deal you’ll be getting by using Chexy to earn points.
Chexy also opens up the opportunity to get premium cards like Amex Express Platinum or TD Visa Infinite Privilege. You know, the ones with the massive 100K points welcome bonuses but you never considered because they have a high minimum spend of $10K for the first 3 months. Now, with the ability to put your taxes and rent toward that spend, you could be raking in the points! These cards also come with perks like free lounge access, check-in bags, priority check-in, travel insurance, etc, so you could make travel even more comfortable. Just beware of their hefty yearly fees, which may or may not be worth it depending on your priorities.
For Americans
Americans, your equivalent would be Bilt Rewards, which has no fees but is more restrictive than Chexy.
If you have Bilt credit card, you can use their rent payment platform if your landlord accepts ACH payments or Bilt’s check mailing service for your rent. Also, you must have at least 5 transactions per month.
If you don’t have a Bilt credit card and want to use another credit card, your landlord needs to be in the Bilt Alliance Network (partnered properties).
As far as I know, there is no support for paying taxes with a credit card.
Other options with less restrictions are Plastiq and PlacePay but they have a 2.9% and 2.99% fee respectively, which is too high in my opinion for the math to be worth it.
If you know of any other American options, let me know in the comments below.
Referrals
Remember when I said above that you can reduce the 1.75% Chexy fee by referrals? Well by referring just 3 people, that drops the fee to 1.5%. Refer 5 people to get it down to 1%. Once you reach 10 referrals, it’s only 0.5%!
So if you can manage to refer just 5 new people each year, that 8 hour business class flight I mentioned above drops down to only $560. If you can refer 10 people? Only $280!
Speaking of which. Here’s my referral link (haha, didn’t see that coming did ya?). If you use it, we each get $15.
You can then get your own referral link and use it to pester your family and friends.
Caveats
Do not do this if you struggle with paying off your credit card in time. Interest rates for credit cards are insane so any balance you carry on the card negates the benefits.
For everyone else, it may make sense to increase your credit limit on your credit card, to avoid running into issues paying your rent or taxes when using this method to get points.
What do think? Have you tried Chexy or any other payment system like this before?
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Thank you for sharing. I love doing the math to figure out the best credit card hacks as well. The benefits really add up. I put all of my utilities including home/auto insurance on my credit card, and there are no fees. Your math works well if you do have a 4% card. I only like cash rewards for my cards, as I don’t want to be forced to spend it on flights (I like to travel domestically instead, mostly by car). I also don’t like special rules (ie category rotations). The Citi 2% cash back is the best card for that. There are no spending rules and no fees. The downside is 2% does not make a big difference against a 1.75% fee. Since you travel a lot and getting a 4% reward rate, this is a great hack!
If you are Canadian, I highly recommend the Scotiabank Momentum Infinite Visa for 4% cashback on bill payments (that includes all payments to Chexy). I’ve been using it for about 8 months and I’m very happy with the card.
Love this!
Think we can charge our commercial property taxes ($50,000 per year), corp taxes ($100,000 per year) and personal income tax ($75,000 per year)? Any idea where a 4% cash back credit card might be? Would love to see that too. I do have a true 2% cash back credit card (Rogers Red) but it’s a new card with only a $12,000 limit.
I wonder if there is a cap on this. I have a buddy who pays probably $5.0 million a year in property tax. That’d be cool for him.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
I believe most credit cards in Canada have an annual limit for the cashback. For example, the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite pays the 4% cashback for up to a $25,000 annual spend. Also, for these types of credit cards you’ll have some sort of monthly credit limit – so unless you have an open limit credit card like the American Express Platinum – not sure how feasible making 6 to 7 figure payments would be using a credit card.
Yes, there is a limit. That’s why I prefer to use Chexy for aeroplan points earning rather than cashback.
I envy the Canandian and American credit card choices. Here in Australia we have very limited options for flights that have a reasonable annual fees. Qantas has a monopoly when it comes to flight reward points. Travel insurance seems to be available on many cards that do not have too high of annual fees. Most cards here do not let people accumulate points for tax payments however property taxes, rates, utilities etc can accumulate points.
Yeah, I heard about that. That’s too bad.
Omg this article came at a perfect time 🙂 thank you … last year I used PaySimply to pay taxes. Opened new credit cards with bonus aeroplane points to get all the benefits. But paysimply was 2.5% 🙁 . So I’m so happy you brought Chexy to my attention. I will for sure use it this year. Thx 🙏😀
(My husband and I will close and open new credit cards this year to get the bonus points again)
Awesome! Glad it was helpful.
This post was perfectly timed!
I’ve been using Chexy for my rent payments for the past 7 months but I had no idea about the CRA payments. I have a pretty sizeable tax bill due to realizing large capital gains and dividends in 2024. I just checked out the “Canadian in a T-shirt” YouTube video about the Chexy CRA payments and it looks like all Chexy payments using the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite pays 4% cashback. I’ll check back next week to confirm whether I get the 4% cashback.
Just keep in mind the Scotiabank card does have a “$25,000 annual spend maximum” as another reader mentioned.
Actually that other reader stating the $25,000 annual spend was me :). I balance between using the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite and the American Express that can be used for Aeroplan due to the annual spend limits.
I’m happy to confirm that I got the full 4% cashback on my Scotiabank Momentum for paying my taxes to the CRA via Chexy. It looks like all payments via Chexy are categorized as recurring and will give you 4% cashback, not just recurring rental payments.
For those of you who have already FIREd, how do you get around the employment income question when applying for new credit cards? Apart from the Scotiabank Passport VISA, all the rest don’t count your assests under management as income. I have very little ‘income’ as defined by credit card companies and certainly not enough to meet the minimum income thresholds that they require to apply for the cards with the more lucrative rewards.
This is definitely something people should consider before going FIRE. Loans, mortgages and credit cards will be very difficult for a bank to get approved for you after leaving employment.
For me, yhey didn’t check my employment history for years after retirement because I have a high credit score. After that, I put “self-employed’ and haven’t had problems for the most part.
When you’re living off your assets instead of income from a job, you just enter your annual spending as your “income.” They just want to know how much money annually you have available to spend on meeting your financial obligations. So for example, if you spend about $80k per year, and that money comes from a combination of dividends, social security, and selling shares, rather than from a job, then that’s still your annual “income” for purposes of credit card applications. I haven’t personally FIREd yet myself, but I manage my mother’s retirement finances, and this is how it works for her.
The biggest hack here is not using Chexy for rent or taxes, but rather the fact that 56,000 Aeroplan points can worth $8600.
A casual Google search indicates that Aeroplan points are valued at around only 2.1 cents per point. Therefore 56,000 points should only be worth $1176.
No?
I’ve come to learn that by researching and timing business or first class flights, you end up getting like 8 cents or even higher per point. This is not an easy or straightforward process. I signed up for an American Express Platinum card to try to get decent flights but learned that it’s hella complicated. It’s not surprising that groups like “Prince of Travel” in Canada can be hired for a fee to help you get more value from the Aeroplan points. My cousin was the one who kept hyping up the platinum card but when I asked him how to unlock the points – he couldn’t give me a simple answer. My plan is to rack up the points for about another 3 years – hopefully get enough points for my wife and I to fly one way first class from Toronto to Bangkok and then see if the platinum is worth the insane annual fee after that. Honestly, I’m quite happy using the TD First Class Travel Visa card that gives you effectively 4% cashback value of points on Expedia even though it gets severely trashed online. Travelling economy is fine with me – travelling is more about the destination rather than the fancy journey (although I would at least like to try it once as part of my “bucket list”).
2.1 is the average based on flights analysed throughout the year. This is a number that will change due to the fact that flight prices also fluctuate constantly. It also varies widely depending on which flight you take, to where, and at what point during the year. It’s more reliable to use the cost of 0.035, which is the cost Air Canada charges for buying aeroplan points at any time.
My comparison of $8600 is using cash, which you can see in the screenshot. You can also do the calculation using the 0.035 air canada aeroplan cost if you want to buy points directly.
What website are you using to search for reward flights?
seats.aero
This article is a bit disappointing. After 4 and a half years since FIREing, chasing pennies becomes annoying.
First, apply for a Scotia Momentum card. Then get Chexy. Then, pay bill.
On a $10,000 CRA tax bill, that comes to making $225.
This becomes miserly.
The other day, I raised the point that I transferred my entire investment portfolio to Wealthsimple.
I got $26,000!!!
Not $225 but $26,000!
It’s paid monthly over 24 months but still…for 15 minutes of work…that is worth my time.
I remember when you pumped Wise on your site. At the time, I thought why not. If it saves me money, sure. Ultimately, it became a ripoff of fees. I learned very quickly it was a dupe and stopped using it. I now use a Canadian credit card that doesn’t charge foreign FX fees and doesn’t charge an annual fee. And I get 2% cashback on purchases. It’s simple and clean.
And recently, you recommended Questrade with a very limited transfer bonus over Wealthsimple. No, Wealthsimple’s offer was clearly amazing.
Let’s see how long Chexy keeps its fees as is before they raise them.
This time, no thanks! I shall pass on this wonderful offer.
But thank you! And I mean it. You have made me so much smarter and so much less naive. I want to recognize how you have made me so savvy. I didn’t do it on my own and I will give credit where credit is due. I also value my time though. Anything that eats away at my valuable time by making me check whether fees have changed on a regular basis is a stressor I don’t need.
Does it mean I’m not entirely financially optimized? Maybe.
Am I still satisfied with that? Yup.
$26,000 for 15 minutes work is very hard to beat.
I’m pretty sure no one in the FIRE community is expecting to live off of credit card points and credit card cashback. Obviously, it’s your long term investments into major assets like equities, fixed income instruments and real estate that is going to be the most impactful. The community is full of optimizing nerds that love to use Excel spreadsheets and find it fun and rewarding to get some cashback and points. It’s akin to playing a video game. If that just adds to your stress, then don’t do it. Like you said, saving a couple hundred dollars a year is not going really impact your standard of living. To say you got duped by the posts from Millennial Revolution is pretty disappointing, considering that they are not running any courses or anything – they just put this material out for free for us to consume. Kristy and Bryce’s tips have saved me thousands of dollars over the 8+ years I’ve been following them. You have to tailor their tips to your personal situation. Anyways, optimizing spreadsheet nerds like myself really appreciate Millennial Revolution!
I didn’t think anything of it until their article about the transfer bonus that Questrade and Wealthsimple offered. Kristy and Bryce are optimizers which means they’ll optimize everything financially. Everything! To say they haven’t used Wealthsimple and that’s the reason they were pumping Questrade comes off disingenuous. I’m sorry but I don’t buy it.
When I meet someone or come across someone, they all start with a full glass. If they are honest and transparent, that glass remains full. When they aren’t, the glass starts to empty out.
And when that glass is empty, I don’t have time for them anymore.
The glass can also be refilled over time. Rebuilding trust is more difficult though.
As you can see above, I give credit where credit is due. At the same time, I also point out when someone clearly didn’t put other peoples interest first because they were obviously playing a dupe.
You might want to turn a blind eye because dealing with conflict can be uncomfortable and difficult. I though have no issues with addressing it head on.
As you can see, I got no response to my comment.
That says it all. I wasn’t off the mark.
Dude,
I don’t think anyone can be perfectly financially optimized. Kristy and Bryce strive to optimize as best as possible and they simply share what has worked for them. They are mere mortals that cannot know everything about every financial product or service. It’s incumbent on us, as grown a$$ adults to do our own research and not just rush out making financial decisions with any random bit of information we get from various sources.
Yes, things change. Terms and conditions with a financial product today may very well be different the next year. That’s life. That’s the world.
It’s perfectly acceptable to say: “hey you know, I did my assessment and WealthSimple is -actually better than QuestTrade. Here are the details of why I disagree.” No issues there from any rational person. What’s unfair is to say you were duped and that Kristy and Bryce manipulated you for some nefarious gains – that’s where I take issue as someone who’s benefited a lot from Kristy and Bryce’s advice. Do I agree with them 100% of the time? Not at all. I’ve had major disagreements with their portfolio construction and their views on dividends (I’ve actually made posts on my respectful disagreements), however, that shouldn’t be a reason I don’t open my mind and take in some of their nuggets of wisdom and experience. You need to pick and choose the information you consume, independently check it and then tailor it to your situation. Best of luck!
How does Homexchange come into this? Do you use your rental to accrue HomeExchange points while you’re away?
Travel hacking has always been a top priority for me to stretch my vacation budget, especially after realizing how travel costs can quickly add up. I researched tools to make the most out of rent payments and taxes, and that’s when I found https://super-com.pissedconsumer.com/review.html for feedback on their platform. The reviews were detailed, especially on how their services helped with cost tracking and maximizing rewards. With this information, I decided to give their platform a try, and the experience lived up to the hype—making it easier to manage my travel expenses.
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What site are you using to look for flights that provide rewards?
Hello there, I’m so happy I ran across this information. I’m seeking for a high-quality blog with engaging content. There are also some interesting sites nearby that you can visit whenever you like.
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Your blog post is truly impressive. You’ve managed to enlighten and entertain everyone with your writing.
Really smart take on using everyday expenses like rent and taxes to unlock travel rewards. Keeping track of numbers clearly makes strategies like this much easier to plan and repeat. I usually double-check the impact using tools such as the Paycheckcity tax estimator right in the middle of budgeting, so nothing feels like a guess. It helps connect income planning with long-term perks like travel points. Posts like this show how small tweaks can add up fast.
Great breakdown using everyday expenses like rent and taxes to unlock travel perks is a smart move. A lot of people overlook how understanding cash flow makes these strategies easier to plan and sustain. I’ve found that checking numbers with a tool like California net salary midway through the process really helps align rewards goals with real income. Small insights like that can make travel hacking feel far more practical and achievable.
Great tips on turning everyday expenses like rent and taxes into real travel value. Understanding your cash flow makes it much easier to plan rewards strategies without stress. I’ve found that tools for tracking income, like an ADP paycheck estimate really help clarify what you can comfortably allocate toward points and miles. When you know your numbers, travel hacking feels less risky and a lot more intentional.
Travel hacking with rent and taxes is such a smart angle, especially when big monthly expenses can work in your favor. Staying informed about local property data can also help with budgeting and long-term planning around housing costs. I’ve found that reviewing insights from Pinellas Residential Values makes it easier to understand assessments tied to rent and tax decisions. When you align that knowledge with rewards strategies, the savings and points can really add up.
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As a fellow renter on the path to financial independence, I appreciate this unconventional approach! Using tools like the krea 2 prompt generator helps me create engaging content about our lifestyle. The krea 2 image generator is perfect for illustrating our unique journey as a family of unicorns in the millennial revolution.