Credit Card Reviews
Mesa Homeowners Card Review: Is Earning Rewards on Your Mortgage Worth It?
A few years ago, when I first discovered the Bilt Mastercard, I was fascinated by the idea that I could earn points for paying my rent. Since then, though, my wife and I have purchased a house, rendering this key feature of the card moot (at least until they roll out their planned expansion into mortgage payments). Enter the Mesa Homeowners card, which not only allows cardholders to earn points for mortgage payments but also includes some rewards categories and credits perfect for those who own houses.
Sounds good, right — so what’s the catch? Let’s take a closer look at the Mesa Homeowners credit card, my experience with it so far, and some pros and cons.
Mesa Homeowners Credit Card Review
Mesa Homeowners Card: A Novel Idea That Isn’t Quite as it Initially Seems
3.5
Rewards
1x on mortgage payments ($1,000 in card purchases required), 3x on home-related spending, 2x on gas/EV charging, 2x on groceries, 1x on all other
Annual fee
None
Credits
Up to $100 at home improvement stores, up to $200 for Thumbtack, up to $120 for Wag!, and more
The Mesa Homeowners Card feels like the non-renters response to the Bilt Mastercard, but has some major differences. While the ability to earn points on mortgage payments is sure to attract customers, there are some catches to that proposition, including very low point redemption rates for statement credits and a $1,000 spending requirement to earn mortgage payment points. On the other hand, though, the credits included with this no-annual-fee card are fairly generous. So, ultimately, those who are able to make good use of these credits and who are willing to redeem their earned points for travel could see value from the card — while those who want something simpler may be disappointed.
Pros
- Earn 1x on mortgage payments
- Earn 3x on home-related spending categories
- Includes credits for home improvement stores, big box stores, and more
Cons
- Need to spend $1,000 in purchases per month to earn points on mortgage
- No actual welcome bonus
- Points are valued well below 1 cent each (except for travel portal bookings)
Mesa Homeowners Card Review: What You Need to Know
Applying for the card
Since the Mesa Homeowners card is indeed a credit card, you’ll need to provide the regular info when applying. Of course, the approval process also includes a hard credit inquiry. For those who have their credit frozen as I do and want to know which report to thaw when applying, in my case, my Experian report was pulled.
Currently, the Mesa card is still operating via a waitlist. However, anecdotally, my friend got the invite to apply on the same day they joined the list. So, although this could change at any time, it appears as though it’s mostly available.
The Mesa Homeowners Visa is “powered by Highnote” and issued by Celtic Bank.
The card itself
I wanted to include this section for the simple reason that Mesa seems to already be making a change. Not too long after I received my plastic Mesa card and activated it, I received an email from the company telling me that a metal version would be sent soon. Specifically, it says that shipping of these cards will begin March 3rd (it’s currently February 18th as I write this).
Although I guess it’s cool that the new card is going to be metal, it’s a bit annoying that these re-issued cards may have different card number. This means that I may have to re-add the card to the accounts I’ve already added it to. Obviously this isn’t the end of the world, but this quick change is interesting to me nonetheless.
Earning points on mortgage payments
When I first heard about the Mesa card, I initially assumed that it might operate similarly to how Bilt does with rent payments. That platform gives cardholders a routing and account number so that they can pay rent using that info and the payment will be charged to their card without a fee. Honestly, I’ve always found this to be a very clever solution, so I was curious how Mesa might replicate it.
As it turns out, earning points for mortgage payments with Mesa is quite different. In fact, you aren’t actually putting these payments on your credit card. Instead, you’ll be asked to link the banking account that you pay your mortgage from. Then, Mesa will be able to see that a payment is made and allow you to earn points on it (assuming you meet the other requirements).
With that out of the way, what are these requirements I speak of. Well, there’s really only one: you need to spend at least $1,000 in purchases on the card within a statement cycle in order to earn points for your mortgage payments. If you don’t hit this threshold, while you’ll still earn points on your regular purchases, you won’t get anything for your mortgage. The only other restriction is that points earned from these payments are capped at 100,000 points annually.
Rewards categories
Beyond offering rewards on mortgage payments, the Mesa Homeowner card offers some solid rewards in a few unique categories. First, cardholders can earn 3x points on “home-related spending.” What exactly does that mean? The short answer is that it includes purchases at home improvement stores as well as on utilities, maintenance, and more. As for the longer answer, Mesa’s terms and conditions explain that the 3x category extends to purchases with the following Visa merchant codes:
- Home Decor
- Home Improvement
- General Contractors
- Cable & Streaming Services
- Home Insurance
- Property Taxes
- Maintenance
- Telecom & Utilities
The Mesa card also features a couple of 2x categories. Cardholders can earn 2x at gas stations and EV charging stations. Additionally, the card earns 2x at grocery stores. However, this excludes such superstores as Target, Amazon, and Walmart along with warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club.
Per usual with rewards cards, all other purchases earn 1 point per dollar spent.
Redeeming rewards
For many cards on the market, when you see “1x” you likely think “1% back.” In reality, however, that’s not always the case. As you can probably imagine given that intro, when it comes to Mesa, the point value you’re expecting may not line up with reality.
Starting with what I think would be the most usable option — a statement credit — this turns out to be the worst value. For this option, you’ll get just half a cent per point, so $50 is 10,000 points. That means you’re really only earning 0.5% back on mortgage payments, 1.5% back on home improvement, 0.5% back on other purchases, etc.
Next up is gift cards, which are a slightly better deal. From what I can tell, most gift card options value Mesa Points right around 0.7¢ each as a $100 gift card is 14,290. That said, there is a wide variety of options here, including big brands like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and more.
Lastly (for now), Mesa also offers a travel portal for flight and hotel bookings. Thankfully, this is where you can get nearly 1¢ per point. I say “nearly” because, when comparing prices on the portal to Expedia, there were some slight discrepancies. Still, it’s close enough to 1¢ that I feel that’s the intent. However, a downside here is that, while you can use a mix of cash and points for booking, it seems as though you’ll need to cover at least half of the purchase with points to use this option.
Since I first got the card, an update now teases point transfers as a feature “coming soon.” This development could be interesting, although there are no details just yet. In the meantime, though, I’m very disappointed with the redemption rates of Mesa Points and could only really recommend using them for travel.
Statement credits
Despite being a card with no annual fee, the Mesa Homeowners Card features an impressive line-up of cardholder credits — including some branded and some generic offerings. While some of these are one-time deals, others recur annually, quarterly, or monthly.
Here are what credits the Mesa Homeowners Card currently includes:
- Home improvement stores: Up to $25 per quarter on eligible purchases ($100 per year)
- Big box members: Up to $65 per year for memberships to Costco, Sam’s Club, or BJ’s.
- The Farmer’s Dog: Up to $10 per month on eligible purchases ($120 a year)
- Wag: Up to $10 per month on eligible purchases ($120 a year)
- Thumbtack: Up to $25 per job booked (up to $200 per year)
- Armadillo: Up to $100 back on a home warranty deductible (one time)
- Cozy Earth: $100 gift card after activating their card (one time)
Of these, I think the easiest to use is the home improvement store one. Sure enough, within a week of having my Mesa card, we took a trip to Lowe’s, which triggered the credit within a couple of days (despite Mesa’s warning it could take 6 to 8 weeks). Another attractive one is the big box members as we have a Sam’s Club membership. Alas, the membership won’t renew until December, so we’ll need to wait — and, for what it’s worth, a regular purchase at Sam’s did not trigger a credit.
Looking at the other credits, the next two on my list would be the Wag and Farmer’s Dog credits seeing as we have a dog. In these cases, breaking them down into monthly credits makes them less usable, but we might take advantage a couple of times.
The other one I want to highlight is the Cozy Earth “gift card” as this seems to be the replacement for a regular welcome bonus. Also, I put “gift card” in quotes as there seem to be some restrictions. When I activated my card, I received the Cozy Earth code very shortly after. in that email, it noted that these codes could not be used on sales and discounts. To test this, I pulled up a dummy order of pajamas that were discounted to $156 (yes, for pajamas). After entering my $100 gift card code, the price went not to $56 but to $100 since the item reverted to its $200 retail price before applying the $100 card. To me, this isn’t a true “gift card” which should work agnostic of what discounts or deals you may have. All of this is to that, between this restriction and Cozy Earth’s high prices, you’re unlike to get the best value from the offer — which is extra disappointing since there is no actual welcome bonus to speak of.
My experience so far
I was approved for my Mesa Homeowners Card on January 31st and I’m writing this on February 18th. In that time, however, I have been able to explore the service and discover some quirks. Of course, I should note that such things are to be expected as the card is still basically in beta.
Something that was helpful was that, as soon as I was approved for the card, a digital version was available to me. Plus, I was able to add this to my Apple Pay and start making purchases right away.
One strange issue I encountered with Mesa is that, despite linking the account we use to pay our mortgage, that account doesn’t show under Accounts (only my Wells Fargo account does). Moreover, I would have expected the app to show that it had recorded my mortgage payment, state how many points were pending as a result, and encourage me to hit my $1,000 in spending in order to earn those points.
As an early adopter, I received an email from the CEO of Mesa asking if I had any questions. In my response, I mentioned this missing feature and was told they would add it to their product roadmap — so hopefully that comes to fruition!
Aside from that, I don’t have many notes on the Mesa card just yet, but I do have some final thoughts…
Final Thoughts on the Mesa Homeowners Card
To be honest, after diving into the Mesa Homeowners Card, I’m a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I of course love the idea of earning points on my mortgage payments — plus, the 3x category seems broad and useful while the included credits are pretty generous for a no-annual-fee card. Unfortunately, where the card goes wrong is in the redemption part of the point-earning equation. Basically, unless you’re willing to use your Mesa Points via the travel portal, you’re not going to be getting a good deal. Also, the lack of a real welcome bonus is a bummer (even if it’s to be expected).
Having said that, I do think there’s room for Mesa to grow. In particular, I’m curious to see what transfer options they are able to secure and what those rates look like. Of course, I’m also holding out to see how the Mesa Homeowners Card ultimately compares to whatever Bilt’s refreshed products end up looking like. As a cardholder of each, I’ll be sure to do full breakdown in the future.
Ultimately, while the Mesa Homeowners Card can certainly be useful and has the potential for great value, it will take an extra level of effort for cardholders to achieve that — but, hey, that’s what owning a home is all about, right? If you are interested in applying for Mesa Card use our code dcpffp to get additional bonus points.
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