Can you pay rent with a credit card?

6 min read

Updated: Sep 2, 2026

Written by

Emily Tye

Reviewed by

Amy Lancashire

Technically, yes, but almost never by handing your card straight to your landlord. Most private landlords and letting agents in the UK don't accept credit cards at all, so paying rent by card usually means routing the payment through a third-party service or moving money off your card first. But each route costs you something. 

For example, on the UK average rent of £1,393 a month, a third-party rent service at 1.99% adds about £28 per payment. That's a key number to weigh up before you go any further. Paying rent by credit card, while possible, is an expensive option. 

Can I pay my landlord directly with a credit card?

Usually not. Private landlords and letting agents rarely set up card payments. Taking cards means paying a merchant fee on every transaction, and they can't pass that cost to you, because Regulation 6A of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 blocks it. Add the risk of a payment being reversed later and bank transfer wins on every count.

There are exceptions, and they're worth checking before you pay for a workaround you don't need:

• Councils and housing associations. Each one sets its own payment rules, so this varies. Woking Borough Council lets tenants pay council home rent online or by phone with a debit or credit card. Leeds City Council states the opposite, that credit cards cannot be used online or on its automated phone line. Check your own landlord's payment page rather than assuming either way.

• Build-to-rent operators and larger agencies. Some run tenant portals that take card payments.

If your landlord does accept a card, they can't charge you extra for using it. Regulation 6A bans anyone receiving a payment from charging a fee for paying by personal credit or debit card. Commercial cards are treated differently, but a normal personal card is covered.

How can I pay rent with a credit card in the UK?

Three routes work, but all of them cost money:

Third-party rent payment services

These sit between you and your landlord. You pay by card, they pay your landlord by bank transfer, and your landlord doesn't need to do anything differently.

Payr and Rentora both let UK tenants pay rent by card. Payr charges a 1.99% payment execution fee on each rent payment, which it describes as covering processing and platform costs rather than being a surcharge, and says the fee doesn't change by card type. It accepts Visa, Mastercard and American Express. 

The fee is legitimate even though your landlord couldn't charge it. That's because you're paying a separate company for a payment service under its own contract, not paying your landlord extra for using a card.

But remember, on the average UK rent payment, that fee would come to more than £330 a year.

Check who holds the authorisation

This is worth two minutes before you route your rent through anyone.

Payr's own terms state that Payr is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and cannot provide payment services itself. It works through partners that are: Ryft Pay Ltd, an FCA authorised payment institution with reference number 972895, and Moorwand Ltd, an authorised electronic money institution. Payr's terms still name Ryft under its former company name, Butlr Ltd.

It's worth knowing who you'd actually be dealing with if a payment went wrong. Before using any rent payment platform, check its terms for which entity holds the authorisation, and search that name on the FCA register.

Money transfer credit cards

A money transfer credit card moves money from your credit card into your current account. Once it lands, you can pay rent by standing order like normal. 

You pay an upfront transfer fee as a percentage of the amount moved. Many of these cards come with a promotional interest-free window, which is what can make this route useful for a genuine short-term gap. When the promotional period ends, the standard interest rate applies to anything left. 

However, this doesn’t work as a monthly habit: 

• Each transfer carries its own fee.

• The promotional rate usually only covers transfers made in an opening window, such as the first 60 days. Later transfers are charged at the standard rate from the start.

• A single rent-sized transfer can use up most of an ordinary credit limit.

Learn more about money transfers.

Cash advances

Withdrawing cash on a credit card to cover rent is an expensive route. You'll typically pay a cash fee, for example 3% of the amount, and some providers charge interest from the day you withdraw, with no interest-free period like you get on purchases. Lenders may also see frequent cash withdrawals as a sign of financial difficulty.

Treat this as a last resort, not an option.

Learn more about credit card fees.

Is paying rent by credit card worth it for rewards?

Rarely. With a third-party service charging 1.99%, your rewards need to be worth more than 1.99% of what you spend. Most aren't.

Here's how that works out on the UK average rent, paid through a third-party service at 1.99%.

Average UK monthly private rent was £1,393 in the 12 months to July 2026, according to ONS figures published on 19 August 2026.

• Fee at 1.99%: £27.72 a month

• Cashback earned at 1%: £13.93 a month

• Net cost: £13.79 a month, or about £165 a year, before any interest

That assumes a strong cashback rate. As our guide to cashback on a credit card explains, everyday cashback is often under 1%, and rewards are frequently capped. At 0.5% you'd earn £6.97 against a £27.72 fee. That gap is there even if you clear your balance in full every month, because paying on time avoids the interest but not the fee.

Now add interest if you don't clear the balance. The average effective rate on interest-charging credit cards was 21.49% in June 2026, according to Bank of England data. 

Paying off a single £1,393 rent payment over 12 months at that rate would cost roughly £167 in interest. This is a simplified illustration and your own rate and repayments will differ, but the shape of it holds: interest can dwarf any reward you might earn.

Cards that earn points or airmiles can be worth more per pound, and a sign-up bonus can be worth more than a year of fees. If that's your card, work out what the rewards are genuinely worth to you, and check your card pays them on this kind of payment at all. Some cards don't award rewards where the transaction isn't treated as an ordinary purchase. 

Ultimately, for most people, on most cards, paying rent by credit card is a straight loss.

Does paying rent with a credit card affect my credit score?

Yes, but only through how you manage the card.

Your credit file records your credit card account: the balance, the credit limit and whether you paid on time. It doesn't record what you spent the money on. So clearing the balance on time builds your payment history, one of the biggest factors in your credit score, exactly as it would with any other spending.

Putting rent on a card can work against you at the same time. On the average UK rent of £1,393, a single month's rent would use most of a £2,000 credit limit on its own. Your credit utilisation ratio is one of the key factors credit reference agencies use, and both Experian and Equifax suggest keeping it at or below 25%. One rent payment can push you well past that.

Using your rent payments to build credit history is a different thing entirely. Landlords don't normally report rent to the credit reference agencies, so it doesn't appear on your credit file unless you arrange for it to.

Rent reporting is the mechanism that does that, by passing your rental payment record to credit reference agencies directly. You don't need to pay by card for it to work, so credit building isn't a reason to take on the fee.

Am I protected by Section 75 if I pay rent by credit card?

Don't count on it.

Section 75 makes your card provider jointly liable with a supplier for breach of contract or misrepresentation. According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, it applies where the cash price is more than £100 and no more than £30,000, and it needs a clear debtor-creditor-supplier agreement between you, the supplier and your lender.

Two things get in the way with rent. The Ombudsman states plainly that Section 75 does not apply where you paid by bank transfer, which rules out the money transfer route, since that's how the rent itself reaches your landlord.

Where a third-party service handles the payment, the company charging your card isn't the party you have your tenancy with, which makes that three-way link harder to establish. The Ombudsman says whether a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement exists isn't always straightforward.

So it isn't a flat no in every case, but paying rent by card shouldn't be treated as the route to consumer protection.

FAQs

There are a range of financial products available that may suit your needs. We encourage you to research your options carefully and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any decisions. This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.