One of our most popular posts is about the difficulties in paying our CFE (electric) bill online, especially using a US-based credit card.
Well – good news – CFE has just made it a bit easier – you can now pay online at the CFE website using an AMEX (American Express) card – even if it’s a US-based card!
Visa and Mastercard
When our bill arrived this week – I wanted to try again paying directly on the CFE website using my US-based Visa or Mastercard – just in case something had changed.
I tried both a Visa and a Mastercard, but same results as in the past – it wouldn’t go through.
American Express
But – I did notice a new option – pay with American Express!
CFE – Pay Online
Since I’m an American Express Platinum cardholder – lets see if this works…
I entered my Amex details, and they also asked for my address information, so I entered the billing address for my Amex card.
It all seemed to work just fine. My CFE account was showing paid. But the charge didn’t immediately show up in my Amex account.
I did get an email from American Express though, saying that a recent transaction was secure:
You recently used American Express ® SafeKey for your online transaction at Flap México SA de CV.
SafeKey is an enhanced layer of security that uses the latest technology to help protect you against fraud while shopping online with your Card.
Whenever you shop online at a participating retailer, SafeKey will appear towards the end of your checkout process letting you know that American Express is working to keep you secure.
The next day I checked my Amex account, and sure enough – the transaction had posted!
American Express – Posted Activity
w00t!
Not only was I able to pay my CFE bill online, I was able to do it without any additional fee (such as the fee when paying via pagamobil) – AND I was able to earn Membership Rewards points!
CFE Tweet
I also noticed that just yesterday, CFE tweeted that they’re now accepting American Express.
En todos nuestros Centros de Atención, ya puedes realizar tu #PagoOportuno con tarjetas American Express pic.twitter.com/pnZnuRPzin
— CFEmx (@CFEmx) October 21, 2018
CFE Contigo App
The CFE mobile app wasn’t loading for me for some reason, so I wasn’t able to check if it was possible to pay using Amex on the CFE mobile app. I’ll try to remember to test this next billing cycle. In the meantime, if someone tries this – please leave a comment below and let us know.
Credit card points FTW!
For those that know me well, you probably know I’m a bit of a junkie when it comes to airline and reward points.
For example, we recently spent a couple of days at a resort in Cancun, and paid for it with points. We also just got back from a trip to Greece – where we flew first class for free – using Membership Rewards points! So earning points are important and valuable to us!
In addition to earning points – the Amex Platinum card also gets us into airline lounges – which makes long layovers a lot more enjoyable. We get access to the Amex Centurion lounges (which are amazing!), Delta SkyClubs, as well as over a thousand Priority Pass lounges around the world.
Amex is currently offering 60,000 Membership Reward points after spending $5000 in the first three months – enough to get your own free flights or hotel stays.
Wrap Up
It’s kinda crazy that doing something simple – like paying a utility bill online – isn’t as easy as it should be – even today.
But, this is Mexico. So I’m not that surprised.
Every two months, when we get our electric bill, it feels like a game, seeing how I can pay my bill, without leaving my house, paying the least amount of fees, and earning some reward points as well.
I think I finally have a winning strategy. Hopefully CFE doesn’t change things for the worse.
I also tried with a US Chase Visa card with 0% Foreign eXchange … and got “use a different card”. But my Amex Everyday card (also with 0%FX) worked like a charm. I also got the SafeKey notification, but it said no action was required on my part. My CFE bill showed a zero balance immediately. This was on December 18, 2018. I got an Email from Amex immediately that it went through, but it did not show up online on my account till the next day. I paid 718Pesos and Amex showed $35.32 in my account, or 20.33 pesos per dollar. The official exchange rate today shows 20.12 pesos per dollar, but it may have been higher yesterday. Oddly, I have yet to see anybody accept Discover in BC Mexico, but they seem to love Amex. This proves it! Thanks for a fun site! I also have that odd fetish where I just love trying to pay bills for free in Mexico! This was the last one that previously had not worked without something like PagaMobil. 8^}
Got an AMEX card especially to be able to pay cfe. Unfortunately another failure!!!! Frustrating!!!!
Hmmm…that’s odd. I just paid my CFE bill with my Amex within the last 2 weeks. Worked perfectly.
As it has for almost a year now.