Use your credit card to pay down your mortgage?

While you can't yet buy a house with a credit card, banks have now come up with a rewards card that will put 1% toward paying down the principle of your mortgage. That's not an awful lot of money even if you shop till you drop. While I think gas might be the biggest expense for some Hummer drivers, for most of us, the largest one tends to be the mortgage payment itself, but since we can't charge that one, it could be hard to come up a large, regular bill to cover with that credit card.

Not too surprisingly, most sub-prime borrowers probably wouldn't qualify as credit card debt may have helped them earn low FICOs in the first place. The banks want premium borrowers--the kind who don't buy more than they can handle. Hmm, I guess they want people who are so careful that they don't get mileage reward cards because they don't dare travel.

So you're not absolutely excited about this type of rewards card? I have to admit, I only will if they allow me to charge my mortgage.

Article on new rewards credit cards