It isn’t hard to find a cash back credit card for groceries or streaming services, but what about home expenses — or better, your mortgage?

An increasing number of players are looking to spar in the home spending category, including Bilt, which was the first credit card to offer rewards on rent payments without a transaction fee — rewards that could then be redeemed toward rent. But ultimately, they’re following in the footsteps of another company that bills itself as “the first premium homeowners credit card.”

What is Mesa? Mesa lets homeowners earn 3x points on a wide variety of home-related spending, including home improvement, insurance, property taxes, general contractors, and maintenance. Most notably, it also allows homeowners to earn points on their mortgage — a feature no other credit card currently offers. It also comes with a few other quirks that might make its $0 annual fee quite attractive.

• A $0 annual fee with a coupon book? Cardholders get $200 per year on Thumbtack, a $65 annual credit for a wholesale club like Costco, and $30 per quarter at Lowe’s, among other credits.
• Plus, there are other earning categories: 2x points on groceries, gas, and EV charging might also speak to those looking for a ‘catch all’ card — everything else earns 1x points.

Mesa’s Big Cliff

There are some drawbacks, especially when it comes to point value. You won’t get more than one cent per point unless you cash out at transfer partners like Air Canada or Accor. Gift cards only offer 0.8 cents per point, and statement credits are abysmal at 0.6 cents per point. There’s also one other sticking point for the card.

• You only earn 1x points on your mortgage, provided you spend $1K per month on the card. Given the lower value of points, that could be a trade-off compared with spending on another card.
• Someone with the median mortgage ($2,259/mo) would earn about 27.1K points per year — but whether that’s worth the hassle is ‘to each their own.’

Does that make sense? If cashed out in the worst possible way — as a statement credit — those 27K points would be worth $162.64. In the best-case scenario, you squeeze out a whole $270 by transferring them. At face, that’s “free money” you wouldn’t have earned otherwise; but the big question is whether you could just earn more value by optimizing your card strategy. For those with a larger mortgage, probably not — but at the median, it might be worth some napkin math.