Earning Aeroplan Points on Your Mortgage Sounds Great Until You Do the Math
Chexy charges 1.75% to run your mortgage payment through a credit card, which means you're paying $17.50 for every thousand dollars you push through the system. That fee is the entire ballgame. Whether this pencils out depends on whether the Aeroplan points you earn are worth more than that fee, and for most cardholders with standard-tier cards, they are not.
The pitch is simple enough. Pay your mortgage through Chexy, rack up points, turn housing debt into flights. One point per dollar. If you're carrying a $3,000 monthly mortgage payment, that's 36,000 points a year, enough for a domestic round-trip or a chunk of an international ticket. The problem surfaces when you do the arithmetic on what you're actually buying.
The fee wall
Aeroplan points trade at roughly 2 cents each when redeemed well. That's the benchmark: book a business-class seat to Europe during a sweet spot, hit 2 cents per point, you're in decent shape. At that valuation, the 3,000 points you'd earn on a $3,000 mortgage payment are worth $60. But you just paid Chexy $52.50 to generate them. You're netting $7.50 a month in real value. Over a year, that's $90.
If you're bad at redeeming, coach domestic flights, last-minute bookings, anything under 1.5 cents per point, you're losing money outright. At 1.5 cents per point, those 3,000 points are worth $45. You paid $52.50. You're down $7.50 every month you use this.
The value flips if you hold a premium card that earns more than one point per dollar. A card offering 1.5x or 2x on all spending changes the equation. At 1.5x, that $3,000 payment generates 4,500 points worth $90 at 2 cents each. Now you're clearing $37.50 monthly after the fee. At 2x, you're earning $120 in point value against a $52.50 fee, real upside. But most Canadians do not hold those cards. The annual fees run $150 to $400, and the higher multipliers often apply only to specific categories, not "everything."
The credit score angle
Chexy markets the credit-building benefit: consistent mortgage payments reported to Equifax. That works if you're new to credit or rebuilding. If you've been paying a mortgage on time for three years, the marginal benefit of another tradeline showing the same behaviour is minimal. Your score is already reflecting that payment history through your existing mortgage account.
The risk, which Chexy does not advertise loudly, is that this only works if you pay off the card in full every month. The moment you carry a balance at 21% APR, you've torched any value the points delivered. A single month of interest on a $3,000 charge is $52.50. That's the entire year of net value you might have earned, gone.
Where it actually works
Small business owners running expenses through high-multiplier cards will find better numbers. A 2x card used strategically, paid off monthly, hitting the mortgage every cycle, can generate four-figure annual value after fees. If you're already chasing elite status or companion vouchers and need spend velocity, mortgage payments can close that gap faster than waiting for organic purchases.
But that's a narrow use case. For the median homeowner with a standard rewards card earning 1 point per dollar, this is a fee-based points purchase dressed up as free value. You're not earning points. You're buying them at $17.50 per thousand, and the market rate for Aeroplan points through this method only makes sense if you're confident you'll redeem above 1.75 cents each, every time. Most people will not.
Chexy charges 1.75% to run your mortgage payment through a credit card, which means you're paying $17.50 for every thousand dollars you push through the system. That fee is the entire ballgame. Whether this pencils out depends on whether the Aeroplan points you earn are worth more than that fee, and for most cardholders with standard-tier cards, they are not.
The pitch is simple enough. Pay your mortgage through Chexy, rack up points, turn housing debt into flights. One point per dollar. If you're carrying a $3,000 monthly mortgage payment, that's 36,000 points a year, enough for a domestic round-trip or a chunk of an international ticket. The problem surfaces when you do the arithmetic on what you're actually buying.
The fee wall
Aeroplan points trade at roughly 2 cents each when redeemed well. That's the benchmark: book a business-class seat to Europe during a sweet spot, hit 2 cents per point, you're in decent shape. At that valuation, the 3,000 points you'd earn on a $3,000 mortgage payment are worth $60. But you just paid Chexy $52.50 to generate them. You're netting $7.50 a month in real value. Over a year, that's $90.
If you're bad at redeeming, coach domestic flights, last-minute bookings, anything under 1.5 cents per point, you're losing money outright. At 1.5 cents per point, those 3,000 points are worth $45. You paid $52.50. You're down $7.50 every month you use this.
The value flips if you hold a premium card that earns more than one point per dollar. A card offering 1.5x or 2x on all spending changes the equation. At 1.5x, that $3,000 payment generates 4,500 points worth $90 at 2 cents each. Now you're clearing $37.50 monthly after the fee. At 2x, you're earning $120 in point value against a $52.50 fee, real upside. But most Canadians do not hold those cards. The annual fees run $150 to $400, and the higher multipliers often apply only to specific categories, not "everything."
The credit score angle
Chexy markets the credit-building benefit: consistent mortgage payments reported to Equifax. That works if you're new to credit or rebuilding. If you've been paying a mortgage on time for three years, the marginal benefit of another tradeline showing the same behaviour is minimal. Your score is already reflecting that payment history through your existing mortgage account.
The risk, which Chexy does not advertise loudly, is that this only works if you pay off the card in full every month. The moment you carry a balance at 21% APR, you've torched any value the points delivered. A single month of interest on a $3,000 charge is $52.50. That's the entire year of net value you might have earned, gone.
Where it actually works
Small business owners running expenses through high-multiplier cards will find better numbers. A 2x card used strategically, paid off monthly, hitting the mortgage every cycle, can generate four-figure annual value after fees. If you're already chasing elite status or companion vouchers and need spend velocity, mortgage payments can close that gap faster than waiting for organic purchases.
But that's a narrow use case. For the median homeowner with a standard rewards card earning 1 point per dollar, this is a fee-based points purchase dressed up as free value. You're not earning points. You're buying them at $17.50 per thousand, and the market rate for Aeroplan points through this method only makes sense if you're confident you'll redeem above 1.75 cents each, every time. Most people will not.
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