American Express will let customers charge mortgage payments

American Express will let customers who pay a one-time fee of $395 use their credit cards to make their monthly mortgage payments automatically, earning points that can be redeemed for services or cash.

The $395 fee covers mortgage lenders' processing and account expenses, with American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., the first participating lender, the company said in a press release.

The program applies only to "participating" prime loans, both purchase and refinance, and cardholders must be pre-authorized by the lender to make monthly payments using their American Express card.

First USA and Countrywide Financial Corp. offer a credit card that allow customers to apply rewards points toward their Countrywide mortgages, but the card cannot be used to make mortgage payments.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.