The Offer
Update: Plastiq has confirmed that this promotion is targeted to those who it was sent to via email.
Plastiq is sending out an email with the following promotion.
- Get two rent or mortgage payments with no service charge when you schedule six months of payments and pay with a Mastercard
The Fine Print
- Valid through March 31 (must schedule the six payments by that date)
- Cancellation of a promotion-qualifying schedule will result in a charge of the waived fee amount
Our Verdict
The Plastiq fee for Mastercard is usually 2.5%, but sometimes it’s 2% for some bills/people. With this promotion, you’re getting a 33% discount on the fee since two out of six are free, so you’re total average cost is either 1.66%  or 1.33%.
Not bad, but limited usability since it’s Mastercard only and the charge is spread out over six months.
If you use a card that earns 2% like the Double Cash Mastercard or Barclay Arrival+ Mastercard, you’ll have a small gain overall. Assuming a 1.66% rate, you’ll net .33% on each payment. If you have a $2,000 monthly rent or mortgage you’ll net almost $7 per payment or ~$40 for the full schedule of six payments. Even better would be if Plastiq works to get 3x with AT&T for a cost of just 1.66% (.55 cents per point). It seems to vary by payee with some payments earning 3x and some not.
I tried using my Plastiq account over the weekend to make a payment and appear to have it refunded. Used my Biz AmEx Gold. Refund isn’t coming from AmEx (they were cool) but from Plastiq.
Doesn’t seem like this is better than just buying visa gift cards and money orders to pay bills plus that way the bills actually get paid on time unlike Plastiq which seems to be weeks late according to the reports. So if you have your rent late then get charged late charges per day no way this Plastic is any good.
Also I can get $13 all in for about $1000 in money orders which is cheaper than the $25 Plastic charges.
A lot of people don’t find MO to be easy. To each their own!
A few clicks to cover our mortgage or investing time and energy and risk of MO. Hmmm, you got me.
It’s been my go-to for knocking out amex bonuses since it’s not MS, which is not the case with MO.
If you want your mortgage to be late then use Plastiq. I don’t know about late fees for mortgages but for rent payments most leases have a late payment charge if it is more than three days late, which it will be if you use Plastiq. Therefore I am against Plastiq for time needed payments. Also who has the time to follow up with Plastiq to make sure the payments are made because there are reports of the payments said they were made but actually cancelled. So if you are out of the country and don’t have a phone or time to deal with it on Plastiq’s time zone forget it.
Just stick with money orders which get to the recipient on time and much faster and don’t cause headaches like Plastiq.
I submit mine on the 5th of every month (for next month) and they’re received by the bank within 4 business days. If you’re submitting your payments as early as possible then you shouldn’t be in a position where it’s late, even if it means having to double pay while your payment is refunded. That’s ultimately on you either way.
I have no doubt that some situations are going to be more troublesome (landlords, disorganized banks, moving, in/out of country). Its up to you to figure out if your situation is easy enough to use Plastiq for.
I hope you’re not doing MO for Amex bonuses, leaked links or not. You couldn’t pay me to deal with MO. Between them being a pain in the ass and the risk to my bank/CC it’s a big no thanks. Again, it’s all YMMV and I’m glad that works for you.
So to get this straight in order for Plastiq to actually get their on time you have to pay it a month early as well as pay twice the rent just to make sure that a back up payment gets there when Plastiq messes up the first payment? Plastiq is terrible.
I used money orders for minimum spend and never had a problem with bank account or amex or any other card. I don’t manufacture spend other than the minimum spend and would rather just sign up for new card offers as it gives higher bonuses compared to manufactured spend.
Look, you obviously don’t like Plastiq. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t work nicely for many of the rest of us for meeting minimum spend. To each their own.
Just because you haven’t had any problems with MO with banks and amex bonuses doesn’t mean you won’t in the future. It is good though that your volume appears low which should keep you off the radar with banks at least. Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if the amex RAT team or whomever goes through previously earned bonuses to see if any of the spend was from MS and then claw them back.
Plastiq always worked for me in the past earning 3X for my mortgage payments to Chase and car loan payments to Honda, but now they both earn 1X. When did that change go into effect?
Is this with ATT? I’ve heard lots of DP both ways.
Yes, ATT. Didn’t even realize I was earning 1x until I noticed that my TY account wasn’t increasing as expected.
I’m still earning 3X paying my mortgage with Plastiq as of 2/15/2017 statement
Has anyone else coming off of a prior six month rent/mortgage promotion been offered the six scheduled payments for five fees offer when setting up a single, direct payment? I don’t have a reason to use it, but it could help automate meeting a spending minimum and make clicking through to pricing screen worthwhile for those who weren’t targeted for the six-for-four offer mentioned in the article.
I received a postcard (remember those?) via snail mail that declares (typos and incorrect grammar left uncorrected): “A Thank You From Plastiq Maximize your cashflow. Up to $200 off when you pay your rent/mortgage on card. Redeem at plastiq.com/cash1 ”
I went to the link (I also tried plastiq.com/cash, /cash2, /cash3, etc.) and none of the links indicated anything at all about a $200 – or any other – deal; in fact, the link didn’t do anything except state the same thing about an “up to $200 off” deal and force me to log-in… yet when I logged-in, not only was no deal mentioned, but I was unable to set up more than a single payment, which is strange, as I’m currently in the middle of a payment schedule.
Did anyone else receive this bizarre postcard via snail mail?
I looked through my e-mails, but didn’t find this – or any – deal from Plastique, other than a few emails asking me to refer others for a bonus “fee-free dollars.”
I received the same postcard except that the link was was “cash2”. Same terms and I ended up having exactly the same experience as you, don’t know for whom or how it is intended to work.
I was able to pay my car and rent payment with my business platinum last month but it was no go this month. Anyone else notice that as well?
Personal Amex still work.
What do you mean no go. You can no longer use AMEX Bus. Platinum? Who declines it? AMEX or Plastiq? Can u elaborate plz?
An error from Amex. When I try to pay my car payment or rent I receive an error that says “please contact your card issuer to allow payments”
My biz plat still works when I used plastiq to pay for gas and electricity. Which is weird.
I also tried my wife s biz plat but same results.
Any idea if this is true for Amex Biz Gold?
Not sure – I’ll try Biz Gold next month.
Sounds good. Thanks for the heads up.
I was targeted. Using Arrival+ for $1750+ mortgage payment. 21,000 points = $210 in travel statement credit. Fees: $44 per payment (minus first two which are free) for 4 payments and I’m paying $176 in fees. $34 earned and no sweat off my back. Need to get Arrival+ balance to 10K to redeem so this puts me in an easy position to redeem and then close (call first) once AF is due. If you’re targeted and have a 2x MC like DoC says, I’d second that it’s a good deal.
I’m targeted, have the A+, need $2.5k min spend and I personally don’t find this a good deal. The blended average fee is great and in my situation I’d profit $28 and meet minimum spend. Sounds great right?
The problem is that right now with a busy life I opt to go the path of least resistance when meeting minimum spend on credit cards. This is where Plastiq comes into play. I feel like I’m burning money and lost value when I’m not putting my purchases on a card requiring minimum spend. By locking myself into 6 months of spend with one credit card I’d be losing out on two other credit card bonuses with $3k spend requirement. $28 in profit in my situation just isn’t worth losing out on two other card bonuses.
I just got the mailer for the 50K A+ card, but I usually use the AT&T AM card for my mortgage (via plastiq). Do you think the A+ is the better card for this? I have slightly shot myself in the foot since I don’t have any other TYP earning cards, so to truly take advantage of the AT&T card, I need a new one.
Same here. I got the same email offering $2500 free to me and someone else for plastiq payments
You’ve already used Plastiq to make a business payment, so you get how convenient it is – why not spread the word to other businesses?
Refer any business with your unique code, and when they make a payment of at least $100 by March 31, 2017, both of you earn 2,500 fee-free dollars. That means you can pay $2,500 worth of bills without the Plastiq fee and there’s no limit to how many businesses you can refer!
Your unique referral code is: 521317
I got this weird email about $2500 free to me and someone else,
Hi Thomas,
You’ve already used Plastiq to make a business payment, so you get how convenient it is – why not spread the word to other businesses?
Refer any business with your unique code, and when they make a payment of at least $100 by March 31, 2017, both of you earn 2,500 fee-free dollars. That means you can pay $2,500 worth of bills without the Plastiq fee and there’s no limit to how many businesses you can refer!
Your unique referral code is: 300187
I just signed up for Plastiq for the first time and see the no fee for first 2 months when scheduling six months of rent payments. I’m using my new Arrival+ I got in January so this is actually a huge win for me. I (almost) meet the spending requirement ($3,000) and net a little bit.