I’m a little late to the game on this one, but Chicago residents can now pay their electricity and heating bills by credit card without incurring any additional fees, which means you should be able to earn at least $600 cash back over a decade if your utility bills are similar to mine.
Note that as of 12/31/22, ComEd and Peoples Gas, the electricity and heating gas providers in the city of Chicago, do not allow you to autopay with a credit card so you’d have to manually submit your credit card payment online to take advantage of this. Not a huge price to pay for a discount on your bill in my opinion. I’ve done a lot more for a lot less. 😅
Also, the Chase Freedom and the Discover credit cards have offered 5% cash back on PayPal transactions in previous quarters, which ComEd accepts as payment. This past quarter my Chase Freedom credit card had that offer so I vastly overpaid my electricity bill last month to maximize my cash back.
For the record, I understand the credit card fee is not being paid directly to me when I say I’m swiping the fee for myself but I’m definitely effectively receiving the benefit, albeit indirectly. Anyone who wants to argue otherwise can hit me up and we can go to finance class.
