The Mesa Homeowners card could be remarkably rewarding for homeowners, but your mileage may vary if you’d need to redeem your rewards toward cash back or the annual credits don’t align with your spending. Plus, no sign-up bonus and no intro APR offers could be a deal-breaker compared to competing cards’ first-year value.
Rewards value: Less than 1 cent outside travel
Although Mesa points’ redemption values largely aren’t listed on the issuer’s website (at the time of writing), they’re one of the biggest factors you should take into consideration before applying. After reaching out to Mesa, they provided the following point values for each reward redemption method:
- Statement credits: 0.6 cents per point
- Mesa mortgage payments: 0.8 cents per point (redeemed as cash back, with $20 or 2,500-point minimum)
- Gift cards: 0.8 cents per point
- Travel: 1 cent to 1.43 cents (travel partner dependent)
If you’re not planning to use your points for travel, you’ll get far less bang for your buck than the typical 1 cent per point many rewards cards provide for cash back. Even redeeming your points for cash back toward Mesa mortgage payments will get you less than 1 cent apiece.
But like Bilt’s rewards program (which redeems points at a similar 0.55 cents toward cash back as well), Mesa points are worth much more toward travel. Mesa claims you can receive anywhere from 1 to 1.43 cents per point depending on which travel transfer partner you choose. On the other hand, our Bankrate point and mile valuations show you may be able to earn an even higher redemption value with some of Mesa’s transfer partners, thanks to the 1:1 transfer rate toward airline programs.
So, although the rewards aren’t great for statement credits, they can make this a lucrative no-annual-fee card if you want to save up for travel on household expenses.
Welcome offer: No intro bonus or APR offers
The Mesa Homeowners Visa Signature Preferred doesn’t carry a sign-up rewards bonus or even intro APR offers. This is highly unusual for a no-annual-fee rewards card since they usually provide a $200 intro bonus value (often after spending $500 or $1,000 in the first three months), plus 12-to-15-month 0 percent intro APRs on purchases and balance transfers.
However, it’s worth noting that the most similar competitor, the Bilt Mastercard, doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus or intro APR offers either. Besides, the Mesa Homeowners card doesn’t allow you to transfer a balance to the card anyway, and you can’t finance a mortgage payment with it either. A sign-up bonus would be a great opportunity to offset a mortgage payment, but not having that welcome offer may not be a deal-breaker due to this card’s specialized role.
Sustainability: Will the card’s current value last?
Although the wealth of potential rewards and perks are jaw-dropping for a no-annual-fee rewards card, these benefits also raise the unfortunate question of whether the issuer can (or even plans to) continue offering this much value if the issuer ends up losing money on the card.
For comparison, the Bilt Mastercard rewards rent payments and other purchases with no annual fees, and it has been massively successful at the expense of the issuer (Wells Fargo). In 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that Wells Fargo was losing money on the Bilt card since more people were earning rewards value from the card than owing interest.
Considering how the Mesa Homeowners card packs even more value for users with its hundreds of dollars in potential annual credits and an even wider range of rewards categories than the Bilt card, I’m a bit apprehensive about whether Mesa will eventually slip in an annual fee, water down the rewards and perks or straight up discontinue the card. The Mesa card doesn’t have one of the biggest U.S. banks helping foot the bill either, so I’m not sure the current features will be sustainable long enough to last out a mortgage.
Granted, Mesa and the issuer don’t make money from cardholders carrying a balance on their mortgage payments (like Bilt and Wells Fargo seem to focus on with rent). But when it comes to new, non-traditional rewards cards — and certainly including the Mesa Homeowners card — early adopters may have to gamble on whether they’ll eventually be stuck with a card they won’t recognize.