Chexy Plus: Does It Make Sense?

We’ve been big fans of the Chexy platform here at Frugal Flyer since its introduction. It’s a great tool for meeting minimum spend requirements and earning rewards, whether that’s points, miles, or cashback, on what is often one of the largest monthly expenses for many people: rent and housing.

However, the fee structure has been a sticking point for some, leaving many to wonder whether paying a fee to process monthly rent payments through Chexy is actually worthwhile. More recently, Chexy introduced a Chexy Plus subscription tier, which bundles a lower transaction fee into a monthly subscription.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Chexy Plus, what it offers, and who can benefit from paying for the subscription.

What is Chexy Plus?

Chexy Plus membership is a paid subscription that gives you access to lower fees and additional features on your Chexy account. There are two membership options, one billed annually or another billed monthly.

Both subscription tiers include next-day rush payments, credit builder, and split payments. However, the lower 1.5% transaction fee is exclusive to the annual subscription tier.

Chexy Plus is only available on personal Chexy accounts. Business accounts and accounts used for business payments aren’t eligible.

Chexy Plus Pricing

Membership	Monthly	Annual	Billing
Chexy Plus	$20 CAD / month	$200 CAD / year	Billed in advance monthly or annually

Paying for the annual plan will save $40 over a year compared to the monthly plan and works out to $16.67 per month.

It’s important to note that the Chexy Plus membership fee and per-transaction fee are two separate components of Chexy’s pricing. Subscribing to Chexy Plus does not eliminate or replace the per-transaction fee charged on each payment. The transaction fee is separate and charged in addition to the membership fee, with the applicable fee shown before you confirm each payment.

Perks of Chexy Plus

Below are the key benefits of Chexy Plus compared to a standard account:

Benefit	Without Chexy Plus	Chexy Plus Monthly	Chexy Plus Annual
Payment speed	Next-day for a fee	Free next-day	Free next-day
Credit cards you can add to wallet	Up to 5	Up to 10	Up to 10
Debit card processing fee	Free	Free	Free
Domestic credit card processing fee	1.75%	1.75%	1.5%
International credit card processing fee	2.5%	2.5%	2.25%
Credit Builder	—	Included	Included
Early access to new features	—	Included	Included
Split any payment	—	Included	Included
Choose your charge date	—	Coming soon	Coming soon

The only differentiating factor is the reduced credit card processing fees available with the annual Chexy Plus subscription, which is likely the program’s most impactful benefit.

It’s also worth mentioning that the reduced 1.5% transaction fee applies to mortgage payments processed through Chexy. Mortgage payments are a separate product from Chexy’s core rent and bill payment services, so they won’t be covered in this article. Unlike rent and bill payments, mortgage payments can’t be made with a credit card. Instead, the funds are debited directly from a chequing account.

Now, let’s break down the rest of the benefits included in Chexy Plus.

Rush Payments

The fee structure for Rush payments, which offer expedited processing, are subject to an additional fee based on the processing speed:

• Two-day processing: 0.25% (0.15% above $10k), minimum fee $2.99
• Next-day processing: 0.50% (0.30% above $10k), minimum fee $4.99

For example, a $5,000 payment sent with next-day processing would incur a $25 fee (0.50%), plus the standard processing fee. These Rush payment fees are waived for both monthly and annual Chexy Plus subscribers.

Credit Builder

Paying your rent on time and in full normally has no impact on your credit history or score. However, with Chexy Credit Builder, your rent payments are reported monthly to one of Canada’s major consumer credit bureaus, Equifax, and included on your consumer credit report. 

This can be valuable if you have a limited credit history in Canada, as a record of on-time rent payments can help establish your credit history, strengthen future rental applications, and potentially help you qualify for a mortgage and other credit products sooner.

Chexy Flex Split Payments

Flex payments allow you to divide a payment into two scheduled installments, letting you pay half of your bill upfront and the remaining half at a later date, while the biller still receives the full amount on the due date.

For example, if you have a $3,000 payment due on the first of the month, you would pay $1,500 upfront and the remaining $1,500 two weeks later. The biller would still receive the full $3,000 on the original due date.

Split payments are available for amounts over $3,000, but are initially limited to one-time payments. Recurring rent payments are not currently eligible.

Choose Your Charge Date

Choose your charge date with an upcoming Chexy Plus feature. However, no information is currently available on exactly what this benefit will entail. I expect the feature to be fairly straightforward, as Chexy currently doesn’t offer any way to edit or change the charge date of a transaction. So, there may be an option for Chexy Plus members to edit a scheduled payment date.

For example, with a scheduled rent payment through Chexy, the charge is typically applied to your credit card three days before the payment due date. With this new feature, I imagine users will be able to change this date, either by moving the charge to an earlier date than the standard three days or potentially deferring the charge until after the due date under certain conditions.

How the Chexy Plus Fee Discount Stacks Up Against Referrals

Chexy’s existing referral tiers already match or beat the Plus discount: 

• Pink: 1.5% fee after 3 approved referrals
• Gold: 1% fee after 5 approved referrals
• Elite: 0.5% fee after 10 approved referrals

Importantly, the Plus discount does not stack with referral status. Members receive whichever discount is better. In practice, users with any level of referral status get no additional transaction fee savings from Chexy Plus, so the membership only makes sense for its other perks, such as Rush, Credit Builder, and Flex Payments.

However, anyone who has tried to generate a referral knows how difficult it is to earn three successful referrals for any product in a year, let alone for a niche product like Chexy. Expecting customers to generate five or ten referrals is an order of magnitude even more challenging and makes these targets largely unrealistic for the average customer. In essence, Chexy Plus offers an easy way to bypass the initial three-referral requirement altogether.

Does Chexy Plus Make Sense? (The Math)

I’ll cut right to the chase: when factoring in only the reduced processing fee, the break-even point for Chexy Plus is $80,000 in payments processed over the course of a year.

This calculation excludes the other Chexy Plus benefits, such as Rush Payments or Credit Builder, since there’s no straightforward way to assign a monetary value to them. The value of these secondary benefits will vary from person to person, so I’ve left them out of the break-even calculation.

Note: The table below uses the processing fee for Canadian credit cards. However, the break-even point is the same for international cards, as the processing fee also decreases by 0.25%, from 2.5% to 2.25%. 

Annual Transaction Volume	Fees Without Chexy Plus (1.75%)	Fees With Chexy Plus  (1.5%) +$200	Annual Savings
$25,000	$437.50	$575	-$137.50
$50,000	$875	$950	-$75.00
$80,000	$1,400	$1,400	$0.00
$100,000	$1,750	$1,700	$50.00
$150,000	$2,625	$2,450	$175.00
$200,000	$3,500	$3,200	$300.00

Looking at these numbers, it’s pretty clear that Chexy Plus is only going to make sense for the most extreme Chexy power users. Even then, the savings are hardly earth-shattering. At $200,000 in spending through Chexy Plus, you’d save just $300, a mere 0.15% of the total spend. Sure, $300 is $300, but if you’re processing six figures through Chexy, that level of savings is essentially a rounding error.

Of course, we can’t ignore the main reason to use Chexy: the ability to pay with a credit card that earns rewards, ideally at a rate that provides more value than Chexy’s baseline 1.75% transaction fee.

There are two main approaches, and both can make sense depending on your goals. The first is to use a card that earns a flexible points currency, such as American Express Membership Rewards or RBC Avion Rewards points. The second is to use a straightforward cashback credit card. Neither approach is necessarily better than the other, and the choice ultimately depends on whether you value travel rewards or prefer the simplicity of cashback.

In a perfect world, either of those routes should generate value above the 1.75% transaction fee. We value flexible points currencies and airline miles at around 2 cents per point, which should put you in a net-positive position from the outset.

For those who go the cashback route, a handful of cashback credit cards are available in Canada that earn 2% cashback in certain categories, such as the Tangerine Money-Back Mastercard, which can earn 2% on recurring bill payments. So, if the credit card you use with Chexy generates a positive return after accounting for the transaction fee, the reduced Chexy Plus fee only sweetens the deal.

However, there’s an important caveat to all of this if you’re considering committing to a full year of Chexy Plus: you have no guarantee that your current credit card or bank will continue to play nicely with Chexy. Several banks, most notably Scotiabank, have recently taken action related to services like Chexy by making rent and other recurring bill payments ineligible for cashback on its Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite Card.

American Express has also cracked down significantly on the use of its products with Chexy, including restricting card usage to a limited number of eligible product categories.

The moral of the story is that just because something works today doesn’t mean it will continue to work six months from now. Banks have been quick to make changes as they’ve realized that these services can facilitate large volumes of transactions that they likely never expected or intended to qualify for rewards.

Conclusion

Chexy Plus is available as either a monthly or annual subscription, although the annual plan offers the most compelling benefits for most users. While Chexy Plus can save you money, you’ll need to run the numbers based on your situation. Factors such as your current referral status, monthly rent, and how much you value ancillary benefits like next-day payments and Credit Builder can all affect the overall value.

For heavy Chexy users, a Chexy Plus subscription could make sense. However, you’ll likely need to process upwards of $80,000 in payments over the course of a year, use a credit card with a good return on spend, and take advantage of the additional benefits to come out ahead.

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