source:
  type: guide
  id: fnma-sel-b3-4.3-16
  authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.3-16 — Credit Card Financing and Reward
    Points
  description: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.3-16 — Credit Card Financing and Reward
    Points.
  coverage_tier: operative
obligations:
- id: fnma-sel-b3-4.3-16-full
  canonical_id: fnma-sel-b3-4.3-16-full
  section: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.3-16 — Credit Card Financing and Reward Points
  type: do
  tags:
  - regulator-direct
  - fnma
  - selling-guide
  - corpus-expansion
  - tier-operative
  primary_source:
    tier: 1
    authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.3-16 — Credit Card Financing and Reward
      Points
    source_class: fnma-guide
    source_url: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/document/pdf/selling-guide
    snapshot_id: 5f7b8b79da595d76
    fetched_at: '2026-05-25T14:09:57Z'
    content_hash: sha256:98cf85a02861bbe84914a0e339b327c8fc131869a8a573882007bbeea60c5701
    paragraph_quote: 'B3-4.3-16, Credit Card Financing and Reward Points (08/04/2021)
      Introduction This topic contains information on the following: Credit Card Financing
      Credit Card Reward Points Credit Card Financing Fannie Mae permits certain costs
      that must be paid early in the application process, such as lock-in fees, origination
      fees, commitment fees, credit report fees, and appraisal fees, to be charged
      to the borrower’s credit card because these fees do not represent extraordinary
      amounts and the credit card debt is considered in the Published May 6, 2026
      442 borrower’s total monthly debt-to-income ratio. Borrowers are not required
      to pay oﬀ these credit card changes before closing. Under no circumstances may
      credit card ﬁnancing be used for the down payment. Lenders may allow credit
      card ﬁnancing for the payment of common and customary fees paid outside of closing
      up to a maximum of 2% of the loan amount if the lender: conﬁrms that the borrower
      has suﬃcient liquid funds (ﬁnancial reserves) to cover these charges (in addition
      to funds needed for other closing costs and the down payment that they will
      be paying); or recalculates the credit card payment, per B3-6-05, Monthly Debt
      Obligations, to account for the new charges and includes the updated payment
      in the qualifying ratio calculation. For DU, lenders must apply this policy
      manually. The fees charged to the borrower’s credit card must be included as
      a closing cost in the loan application, and removed from any Borrower Paid Fees
      entered as an other credit for the fees paid outside of closing. Alternatively,
      the monthly credit card payment in the liabilities section of the loan application
      must be increased to include the charges if not reﬂected in the credit report.
      Credit Card Reward Points Fannie Mae permits credit card reward points as acceptable
      funds for use towards closing costs, down payment and ﬁnancial reserves, provided
      the reward points are converted to cash prior to the closing of the loan. The
      following requirements apply: If the credit card reward points are converted
      to cash and deposited into the borrower’s depository account (for example, checking
      or savings), no additional documentation is required unless the deposit is considered
      a large deposit. In this event, the lender must follow the requirements in Evaluating
      Large Deposits in B3-4.2-02, Depository Accounts . If the credit card reward
      points are converted to cash, but not deposited into a borrower’s depository
      account, the lender must provide evidence the reward points were available to
      the borrower prior to the conversion, including veriﬁcation of the cash value
      (for example, credit card reward statement prior to conversion); and converted
      to cash prior to the closing of the loan. For DU loan caseﬁles, if the reward
      points are not already converted to cash and deposited into a depository account,
      lenders must enter the cash value of the reward points as an Asset with an Account
      Type of "Other" and a description of "Liquid Asset". See B3-4.4-02, Requirements
      for Certain Assets in DU for more information. Recent Related Announcements
      The table below provides references to recently issued Announcements that are
      related to this topic. Announcements Issue Date Announcement SEL-2021-07 August
      04, 2021 Published May 6, 2026 443 Announcements Issue Date Announcement SEL-2020-07
      December 16, 2020'
  judgment: false
