Plastiq is an awesome way to earn points and miles by using a credit card to pay bills where you typically couldn’t use a credit card to pay direct. These bills include rent, car loans, utilities, school tuition, taxes etc. Visa and Amex do not allow you to pay your mortgage through Plastiq, although MasterCard Discover allow this payment. While Plastiq does come with a fee, if you use your Chase Ink Preferred card you can actually come out ahead! UPDATE: The Chase Ink Preferred card no longer earns 3x points with Plastiq charges.Â
Right now, Plastiq charges a 2.5% fee, but you’ll earn 3x points on every dollar spent with Plastiq by using your Chase Ink Preferred. Of course the way Chase codes this merchant could always change, but as of right now it is coding as 3x points. So let’s say you have a $1,000 bill to pay, Plastiq will charge you a $25 fee. But on the flip side you’ll earn 3,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points. Even if you redeem your points as cash back, it is a fixed value where every point equals a penny. That means 3,000 points will earn you a fixed $30 statement credit – putting you ahead of the fee you paid to Plastiq! Now I personally prefer to get a much better value from these points and only redeem with a partner hotel or airline a minimum of 2 cents per point. That means those 3,000 points equals $60 towards travel – definitely making Plastiq worthwhile!
My Experience
I’ve been using Plastiq for over a year now. I used to use it to pay my mortgage prior to Visa not allowing you to use Plastiq for this type of bill payment (it is not Plastiq banning mortgage payments, but Visa!). I use it to pay my daughters preschool bills (which are quite high!) as well as some other random bills. There were times last year when I used my Southwest credit card so I could earn points for the Southwest Companion Pass, but primarily I’ve been using my Chase Ink Preferred due to the 3x points. Below is my latest Plastiq bill payment rewards shown on my Chase Ultimate Rewards account. In this example below, I earned 13,454 points for paying part of my daughters extremely beneficial 4 year old education 🙂 I look at this as half the number of points needed at one of my favorite partner properties – the Hyatt Ziva Cancun (only 25,000 points and an all-inclusive!).Â
I have personally never had any issues with bills not being sent/received, but I always suggest keeping a close eye on it to ensure payment is received. I find Plastiq to be extremely easy to use, especially for merchant that is already saved to your account. Typically bills take about a week to be received by the merchant.
New to Plastiq?
Now, if you are new to Plastiq there is a referral program where you can earn FFDs (Fee Free Dollars) towards your payments. After your first payment(s) totaling $500 or more, you’ll earn $500 in FFDs. That means on your next $500 in payments you will not pay a fee at all! This is regardless of the credit card you use to pay. You must sign up for Plastiq through a referral and then you can go ahead and use your referral link to get friends/family members to sign up.
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Does this work with all the ink cards or just this one?
afaik, only cip
@Drew – I believe just this one.
I have a Chase Business Preferred Ink card, but it’s a Visa! You mentioned that Visa and Amex don’t allow you to use Plastiq. Please clarify. Thanks.
Plastiq allows the use of A, D, MC and V. The article notes correctly that both Amex and Visa do not allow use of their cards for payment of mortgages. Visa is acceptable for most other bills. I’m still getting 3x with ATT Access More MC for my mortgage despite many reports to the contrary. Very useful article.
@Nate – Visa and Amex allow Plastiq for payments, just not mortgage payments.
can you please not advertise this kind of purchase coding? With so much noise, it will end just much sooner.
If you pay rent to a person rather than a company, does Plastiq allow for this? If so does the coding still work on the CIP?
@Luke – Plastiq doesn’t allow you to pay individuals. It is only for paying businesses. If you want to pay your accountant, or landscaper, for example, you’ll need to send Plastiq a bill and a website or something that proves they are a company.
can we use plastique to pay off another credit card?
@Ryan – No.
Trying to clarify, it doesn’t accept VISA for mortgage, but if you have a CIP Visa, it will work?
@Deamion – Not sure what you mean by this.
How do I find out how Plastiq is coded with City National Bank Crystal Infinite visa?
@Mels – You’d have to do a test payment and see what it codes as. Most likely it codes as the normal points you receive for non-category bonus spend.
I just opened a Plastiq account and pay for rent by clicking through the “sign up for Plastiq through a referral” sentence in your article. Is this the referral link?
When I looked at the referalr and reward section at the Plastiq site, it asked for a code. So I am confused.
Am i going to get the 500FFD or not?
Will appreciate a reply, thanks.
@Li – Yes you should, it was a referral link that was provided. You can also enter the code 630501.