Cash Back from Montgomery County MD Property Taxes?

Could it be that you can pay your Montgomery County Maryland property taxes and get cash back?  Evidently, the answer is yes.

First of all, I’d like to give credit where credit is due.  I was at a settlement last week with another Long and Foster real estate agent and, when the settlement attorney, finished with the discussion about property taxes, she turned to both buyers (her clients) and sellers (my clients) and said, “Do either of you have a Discover Card?  Because, if you do and if you go to Rockville to pay your taxes in person, you can use your Discover Card and get the advantages of their cash back offer.”

Being the cynic in the group, I mentioned that there would probably be a fee imposed on using the card to pay your taxes.  “It’s $10,” she replied.

Later that day, I looked up the appropriate page on the Montgomery County MD web site and here’s what they say about paying your taxes:

"Pay in person at the Division of Treasury, 255 Rockville Pike (Monroe Street entrance), Suite L-15, Rockville, MD. Payment in person may be made by cash, check, money order, or Discover card only.
PLEASE NOTE: Payments by credit card and debit card are assessed a convenience fee of approximately 2.5% of the payment amount. This fee is levied by the payment processing company and cannot be waived by Montgomery County. However, payments made by electronic check through our website are free of charge. Payments made in person using the Discover card are subject to the following fee schedule:"

So, it’s not quite as good as the $10 that my colleague reported…but if you get 1% cash back from a Discover Card, a quick calculation would show that if you pay more than $4,800 in property taxes, you’d end up making money on the transaction. I’m probably crazy putting this in a blog.  If too many people find out and Mountgomery County realizes that they might actually be offering a service that “saves” money, they’ll surely get rid of it!  In the meantime, if it works for you, it’s worth a trip to Rockville.

Contributing Blogger: Gretchen Koitz

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