Mesa is discontinuing a credit card that rewards cardholders for paying off their mortgages

Fintech startup Mesa has discontinued its homeowners card, which gives cardholders points toward their mortgage payments.

A message on Mesa’s website states that as of December 12, “all Mesa Homeowners Card accounts have been closed,” adding: “All credit cards have been deactivated and you are no longer able to make any new purchases or earn Mesa points.”

Mesa’s FAQ about the closure described this as a “business decision to close the entire Mesa Homeowners Card program.” TechCrunch has reached out to Mesa for additional comment on its future plans.

The startup launched just over a year ago, in November 2024, with $9.2 million in funding ($7.2 million in equity financing and $2 million in debt). It offered two products – mortgages with 1% cash back, as well as a credit card with rewards including cash back, travel and mortgage reimbursement.

At the time, CEO Kelly Halpin told TechCrunch that the startup “took what everyone loves about travel and dining cards to recontextualize that for the homeowner/parent.”

In theory, you can earn points for home expenses with any credit card with rewards, but Mesa said it structured its points program to incentivize spending related to home ownership.

“So, it doesn’t reward you for spending on travel and dining; it rewards you for gas, groceries, African American, utilities, and household goods, in addition to your mortgage payment,” Halpin said.

Belt, which has a rewards card that allows customers to earn points on rent payments, says it will expand with points for mortgage payments when it launches a revamped card next year.

The Mesa Card shutdown has been covered by travel deal sites like One Mile at a Time and Upgraded Points, which say Mesa Card members have been complaining about declined transactions over the past week, with the company initially claiming this was just a temporary outage.

Now, it appears the only way left to redeem points earned on the Mesa card is through a statement credit at a 0.6% rate.