Which bills do you spend more money on monthly excluding car payments and home payments? The answer is normally utilities.
We have searched and not found many credit cards that give you a full two percent on utilities such as electricity providers, telephone companies, and cable. Even the AT&T Universal Card was not paying extra for AT&T phone and DSL charges to the card the last time we checked. TXU, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Cable, and even Verizon Fios do not have credit card programs that offer rewards so this card may have one advantage. This card may be a great card to add to your collection of credit cards for just one purpose – for utility and cable company charges only.
We searched and could not find any better cable company credit cards nor could we find any better cards to pay utility bills with. Some utility companies outsource their credit card payments and use ChoicePay or another payment method that may result in an extra fee. Make sure you call your cable or utility company directly to set up credit card billing directly so you do not get charged this fee. An example is that Reliant Energy does not charge for credit card billing but Atmos Energy does since they outsource it. Time Warner and Comcast Cable will bill your credit card directly at no extra charge so you can earn air miles or 2% back with this card offer.
It amazes me that there are no specific credit cards for all of us Americans that pay outrageous cable, electricity, and gas bills. There must be a reason why these companies do not want you to have a credit card to save on an energy or cable bill. I assume the reason is that these utilities prefer checks and bill pay online so they do not have to eat up the costs of the credit card transaction. If they had their own branded card they could give us back a rebate and give them some profit for their bottom line. Until this happens we will be stuck with using non-specific cards to pay utilities.
Top 3 Cards for Utility Payments
1. American Airlines A’Advantage’s branded card that allows you to get a bonus through September on utilities bill payments.
1. Hilton HHonors – special offers to get bonus points
2. ATT Universal – will not give 5% for local, DSL charges but does give 5% on long distance AT&T (unless program has been updated to include old SBC Customers/Bell South/PacBell)
