Pragmatic Finance

MBNA cards have one of the most unique features available: the ability to pay off a credit card using another credit card. I’m sure many of you have paid bills using bill pay from your bank or used a credit card site to pull funds from your bank but this feature is a little different.

If you have an MBNA card you have the option to pay the bill online. If the card is considered one of their own cards and not one of the cobranded ones then you also have the ability to pay other bills with it.  The kicker here is that you can select other credit cards as bills.  Interestingly, their system considers the Fidelity cards to not be cobranded.Simply log onto MBNA Net Access, click on your card and then pay online. At this screen you can add merchants of bills that you have. For example, if you have a Citibank card simply add the merchant Citibank Credit Card and input the account number. When you want to pay that card’s bill click on make payment and then go to the drop down menu to select the funding source. Choose your credit card and when the payment is made it will show up on your card just like a normal charge.

You can pay many other bills as long as the merchant is listed. However, using this method you don’t receive any rewards so the main advantage is to pay off other cards. I am able to pay off all of my credit cards using this except for Capital One. And if you have read my discussions on the evil that is Capital One then you probably don’t want one unless you already have it.

If you play the 0% balance transfer game or use multiple cards for 5% cash back on gas, groceries, pharmacies or books, restaurants, and movie theaters then this is a great way to consolidate your payments. Theoretically you could also delay payment for almost two months if timed right to take advantage of the grace period on both cards.

Personally, I use 3 or 4 cards for purchases depending on the type of placing I’m buying from to maximize cashback.  I also have several cards I have been using for 0% balance transfers.  I pay all of these off using my Fidelity 529 card and then pay that card fully at the end of the month from an online savings account.

One person did have his card canceled for what they considered to be abusing the billpay feature.  Of course he was paying on the order of 10k a month with it and not purchasing anything.  I don’t think that would be a problem for most, especially if you use it for purchases.

Hopefully when the Bank of American and MBNA merger is complete they won’t get rid of this feature.  I find it very useful and would be very disapointed if it did go away.