No, not in practice. In Brussels, rent on a main residence must be paid by transfer or deposit into the account named in the lease since 1 November 2024, which leaves the credit card out. In Wallonia and Flanders no text I read forbids it, but I found no Belgian platform that sets it up.
Where such a platform exists abroad, it costs more than the best Belgian cashback I recorded pays back.
What does the Brussels rule say about paying rent?
Droits Quotidiens, in a page updated on 6 October 2026, is clear: rent is paid only into a bank account, the landlord cannot demand another payment method, the account number appears in the lease and payment is made by transfer or deposit. The rule also applies to leases signed before 1 November 2024.
The CIDJ (the Brussels youth information centre), in an article updated on 5 August 2026, adds that cash rent is forbidden. The two pages diverge: the first does not explicitly ban cash and advises asking for a receipt. Neither cites the article of the Brussels Housing Code, which I have not read, so I do not give a number. For anything that concerns your bank rather than your landlord, our pillar on cardholder rights covers it.
Our guide to paying by credit card in Belgium files rent in one line among sixteen situations. Here, rent alone, with a calculation.
| Situation | Credit card | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Main residence in Brussels | Not provided for by the rule | Standing transfer to the account in the lease |
| Brussels landlord asking for cash | Not applicable | Insist on the lease account, otherwise a receipt for every payment |
| Home in Wallonia or Flanders | No text read | Transfer or direct debit, the usual practice |
| Foreign rent-by-card platform | Possible elsewhere | Work out the fees first (see below) |
Wallonia and Flanders: no ban read, no open door either
I have not read the regional texts in full. My search on 17 October 2026 turned up no equivalent rule, which is not the same as permission.
My reasoning fits in two lines. A private landlord generally has no card terminal, and installing one to receive by card what arrives free by transfer earns them nothing. I do not see what would push them to. A credit card is also an open-ended credit line, not a bank account, and rent is a poor thing to borrow for. To spread some other expense, our guide to paying without a credit card compares the alternatives.
The Canadian workaround costs 189 euros a year
Milesopedia, in an article published on 9 September 2026 and updated on 12 October 2026, compares four rent-by-card platforms. All are Canadian: 1.75% at Chexy and at Casa, 1.50% to 2.25% at Neobanc, 1.75% on Visa and 2.75% on Mastercard at TenantPay. The article does not say they serve a tenant living in Belgium, and I found none here: treat it as an order of magnitude.
On a rent of 900 euros a month, 1.75% is 15.75 euros, or 189 euros a year. To break even you would need a cashback of at least 1.75%. The best I have recorded is the Beobank Extra Mastercard: 1% capped at 100 euros per calendar year, for a 20 euro annual fee (checked on 12 October 2026 in our ranking of Mastercard cards).
- Platform fees: 189 euros.
- Cashback: 1% of 10,800 euros of annual rent, or 108 euros, cut to 100 by the cap.
- Card fee: 20 euros.
- Balance: a loss of 109 euros a year, 89 before the fee.
Even without the cap, 1% does not catch up with 1.75%. None of the rent-by-card guides I read says so: the smallest commission wipes out the benefit before the cashback even hits its ceiling. Cashback is covered in our credit card cashback guide.
Withdrawing cash with your card to pay the landlord?
I advise against it, and it is the worst option on this page. In Brussels cash is either forbidden or contested depending on which page you read. Elsewhere it costs you dearly: a withdrawal is a cash advance, with no grace period.
The rates recorded in May 2026 in our guide to credit card withdrawals give 6 euros plus 1% at ING, so 15 euros on 900, and 2.5% at Beobank with a 15 euro maximum, so also 15 euros. Interest then runs from the day of the withdrawal: at 14.49% APR over 25 days I get about 9 euros. Total: close to 24 euros a month, about 287 euros a year.
When a landlord insists on something else, in this order
- Ask in writing for the account number in the lease. In Brussels it must appear there.
- Set up a standing transfer. It prevents forgetting and leaves a trail.
- If the landlord asks for cash, pay only against a receipt and keep it (Droits Quotidiens).
- If the dispute drags on, it belongs to tenancy law: go to a housing service or a legal advice desk.
As of 17 October 2026 the Brussels rule is almost two years old, and none of the pages I re-read announces a change.
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Sophie L. worked eight years in a Belgian bank branch, first as a credit adviser and then in customer relations, before going independent in 2021 and settling in Louvain-la-Neuve. Her work starts with the issuers' official fee schedules, from the high-street banks (ING, BNP Paribas Fortis, KBC, Belfius) to the neobanks (Revolut, N26, Wise), reduced to five comparable lines: annual fee, currency conversion charge, borrowing rate, spending limits and bundled insurance. Every price on this site carries the date it was checked: the annual-fee grid was gone through line by line on 12 August 2026, after Belfius moved its Beats Star package to 5.90 € a month in February. If an issuer does not publish a figure, she writes that down instead of estimating it. For readers who moved to Belgium, she spells out what a Belgian issuer expects from an applicant with no local credit history.