Back in January I applied for the SimplyCash Plus® Business Credit Card from American Express. At that time they were offering their highest sign up offer to date where you could earn up to $500 cash back. While this was a great offer, the minimum spend requirement was incredibly high – $15,000 (although you had 6 months to spend $5,000 and 12 months to spend the additional $10,000). While I know I can hit the minimum spend requirement of this card if I solely use it throughout the year, I know there will be other cards I apply for where I’ll have to meet the minimum spend as well. I also like the meet the minimum spend sooner than later so I do not have to keep track for a long time and can just be done with it. Keep in mind that this $500 sign up offer is no longer available, but you can learn more about all travel related credit cards here.
While this was a great offer, it was the first time I was getting a card for the card itself and not as much for the sign up offer. This is a no annual fee American Express credit card which will allow me to take advantage of the awesome Amex Offers I write about often. With these Amex Offers I can earn at least a few hundred dollars per card, especially with the business cards which sometimes offer some of the better offers.
Because of these reasons, I decided to use a bill pay service Plastiq to pay for some bills that I cannot typically use a credit card for, such as my mortgage. Typically Plastiq charges a 2.5% fee when using a credit card, back in February they were offering a promotion where you’d only have to pay a 2% fee when using American Express credit cards. During the promotion time, I put through $10,000 using Plastiq on my Amex SimplyCash Plus® Business Credit Card. While that did cost me $200 in fees, it gets me two-thirds of the way towards my minimum spend requirement. Now, I only need to spend $5,o00 throughout the year. In this scenario, the $200 spent will ultimately earn me $500 cash back, so money well spent. While I wouldn’t use Plastiq for this particular credit card for any other scenario (the money spent doesn’t outweigh the cash back earned), it help me earn the sign up bonus so it was well worth it. I also went into applying for this card knowing that I would need to do this to meet the minimum spend so knew I wasn’t really getting the full sign up offer. But also was getting the card for other reasons then just that initial offer.
What exactly is Plastiq?
For those new to Plastiq.com, is it a website where you can use a credit card to pay bills with a fee. Bills can include anything from rent, mortgage, car loans, utilities, school tuition, taxes, etc. Plastiq will sent a check to the payer on your behalf. Typically, the fee is 2.5% for American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover but at times there are some promotions to reduce the fee. This is a great option to meet minimum spend requirement or when the points earned outweigh the fee paid (which doesn’t include many credit cards).
New users will also receive 200 FFD’s (fee-free dollars) – you can sign up here. That means you’ll get your first $200 in payments for no fee – ultimately an easy and free way to get $200 worth of points or meeting minimum spend. Also, if you refer someone you’ll earn 400 FFD’s (limited time offer) if the person makes $20 worth of payments. Feel free to leave your referral code below, and here is my referral code if you want to support – 630501.
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