See our updated Plastiq review here.
We’ve written before about numerous services which will allow you to pay your rent via credit or debit card, usually with a fee. You can see the Complete List Of Options For Paying Your Rent With A Debit Or Credit Card for all the options.
Enter: Plastiq
A new player has entered the field called Plastiq which allows us to pay many bills with a credit card for a 2.5% processing fee. The company will mail out a check for the desired amount and charge your credit card that amount + 2.5% processing fee. There’s also an option to have the funds transferred electronically for some payees.
The 2.5% rate is their standard rate. There are often promotions which will lower that fee. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover.
Here’s a list of some of the things which can be paid with Plastiq:
- Rent
- Mortgage
- Taxes
- Tuition
- Utilities
- Loans
- Other services
Notes
- There isn’t usually a cash advance problem; more details here.
- From chatting with a rep there (yup, they have chat) it emerged that they began processing USA payments on full scale at the beginning of 2015.
- CSR tells me that if you have the routing number and account number of the payee, then they’ll be able to send the payment electronically to the payee.
- CSR tells me there’s no verification of the payee, they’ll just mail out the check to the payee. So you don’t have to worry about having your landlord (for example) contacted by an outside company and having no idea what they’re talking about.
- Plastiq has a scheduling option so you can schedule out all your payments for the future.
- Plastiq has some partners and those may have a slightly lower processing fee of 1.99%.
Plastiq also has a referral program which offers $400 in fee-free payments per referral and $200 for the new member. Details here.
Final Thoughts
Plastiq seems far and away the best option available currently for using credit card, since:
- the fee of 2.5% is the best available
- the broad ability to pay so many things in one spot
Most other similar services have fees closer to 3%. Also, they only work for certain things, like for rent, while Plastiq works for everything. Keep in mind, though, that for federal tax payments there are other options which are slightly cheaper.
Of course, we don’t typically like paying a 2.5% processing fee, but if someone has a minimum spend threshold to meet this can be a great way of doing so.
