I’ve written about Plastiq in the past, but in case you have missed it – it is a payment processing site that allows you to pay bills via credit card. You can use it to pay bills such as rent, car loans, utilities, school tuition, taxes, landscaper, plumber, etc.! You can also use it to pay your mortgage if you have a MasterCard – Visa and Amex do not allow you to pay your mortgage through Plastiq. I love Plastiq as it allows me to pay bills with my credit card to places/people who do not accept credit card payments directly. This means I can earn more points, miles, or cash back on these bills! You can sign up for Plastiq here.
The first thing I want to point out is that using Plastiq is not free! It comes with a 2.5% fee. Typically, I would not suggest paying this fee to earn points/miles/cash back as you most likely will not come out ahead (except for those that like to redeem points/miles for business class tickets and always get a huge value).
But… currently, the Chase Ink Preferred is coding as 3x points. That means for every dollar spent through Plastiq, you’ll earn 3 points. Just recently a paid a bill for $4,484.87 (preschool is expensive where we live!) and I earned 13,454 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. For that transaction I paid $112 in fees. While this is a hefty fee it was well worth it! For those familiar with Chase Ultimate Reward points, you can use your points a few different ways: 1) Transferring to partner programs; 2) Booking a trip through their travel site; and 3) Requesting a statement credit. Let’s say you opt for option #3, those 13,434 Ultimate Reward points are worth $134 in hard cash. That is more then the fee I paid which means I MADE MONEY! Although, I typically get a much better value by transferring my points to a partner program – typically around 2 cents per point. This means once I go to redeem my points I’ll get around $260 for my points – more then double the amount paid in the fees!
Keep in mind that right now it is only the Chase Ink Preferred that will get you the 3x points, not any other Chase Ultimate Reward earning card. So if you have bills to pay that you cannot pay via a credit card, I highly suggest getting the card (it is a great card for many other reasons as well – I’ll outline in another post) and start using Plastiq! Learn more about the current limited time credit card offers. In addition to using Plastiq for my daughters preschool tuition payments, I also use it for membership does, contractors, and some other random bills. I will also have preschool tuition coming up in the near future for my son! 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 a 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.
Learn more about the current limited time credit card offers
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Cha-ching
Do we know about Ink cash?
@Chris – I do not have that card so cannot test it out personally, but will do some digging.
well assuming that the bill you are paying can be paid with visa
in my case no go with visa to pay my mortgage
Please tell your readers the whole story instead of plugging referral links
@onecoolrt – As I mentioned in my post: “Visa and Amex do not allow you to pay your mortgage through Plastiq”. Not quite sure what part of the story is missing.
Just the personal Ink Preferred or does the Business Ink Preferred work also?
@Rich – The Chase Ink Preferred is only a business card – all of the Ink series are business cards.
Thanks, didn’t know that!
Any clue what specific category within 3x it’s coding as?
Do you know if the ink bold is also working for 3x? Happy to use your referral if so!
@Eddy – I do not believe so.
Anyone have data points on the Ink Plus and what it earns on Plastiq payments?
Any idea why mortgage payments using Visa aren’t working? Plastiq offers both ACH and payment-by-check options … wouldn’t paying by check work even with Visa?
@Gerry – If you are paying by check then it is coming from your checking account, which wouldn’t be a Visa credit card.
Thanks for your quick response … Respectfully, you’re incorrect … before *knowing* that this wouldn’t work, I did a $100 test pay to my mortgage to be delivered by check using my Ink Business Preferred. My Ink Business Preferred (obviously a Visa) has been charged $100 plus $2.50 service charge, but my payment has yet to be credited to my mortgage account. I would be happy to send you screen shots of what I have so far. Meanwhile, I spoke w/ my mortgage company and they said that if they got a check with a proper account #, they would process the payment. The payment has not yet been processed, which makes me wonder whether it will be returned for some reason.
@Gerry – Ultimately mortgage payments are not allowed through Plastiq when paying with a Visa. With that being said if you have a smaller lesser known mortgage company, the chances of the payment going through are high. But, if plastiq finds out that you are doing it they can shut down your Plastiq account.
@DWL Gotcha. I didn’t realize this was a violation of some sort. Bummer. Thank you for the head’s up. Will definitely not press my luck.
@DWL Thank you again for your quick turnaround. I have been looking at the ToC Plastiq offers and see nothing that says you can’t pay a mortgage w/ a Visa. In fact, they go so far as to say, “For Your Most Important Payments: Whether you’re taking care of your rent or MORTGAGE (caps mine), making car payments, paying a contractor, or booking a private jet, Plastiq is the best way to pay.” They invite payment to mortgages, I don’t see how taking them up on that would be some sort of violation that would get the user shut down. You probably have a reference to this taking place, can I please trouble you to provide it in response? Many thanks!
@gerry – I agree they’ve done done pretty poor job at making it clear that you cannot make mortgage payments with a Visa. I wrote an article back in November stating that I was able to successfully pay my mortgage via plastiq. That resulted in plastiq reaching out to me asking me to update that article and pointing me to their terms. I’ll email you the screen shot!
I have been using Plastiq for several years and all of my payments have been by check. When Plastiq launched they had a promo that allowed 5 or more repeat payments using Mastercard without fees, so I arranged to pay my electricity bill by check through 2019. These payments go out by check like clockwork and are charged to a Mastercard. So in my experience spanning back to 2016 if not earlier, a checking account hasn’t been required to make a payment that is delivered by check.
Any data points on writing checks to my church. No bill or invoice – so not sure if this would work. Thoughts?
@Randy – Hmm… no sure. You might also just be able to send the website of the church so they known it is a legit organization. Worst case is they cancel the payment.
I saw someone said ink preferred stopped coding it as 3x. Can someone confirm?
https://upgradedpoints.com/the-complete-guide-to-plastiq/#comment-2311
erin Cheng · September 11, 2018 · Reply
I used to use chase ink prefer card to pay tax and get 3x reward points on plastiq but last week after I paid my tax I didn’t get 3x. Any suggestion what credit card to use on plastiq to get 3x reward points?
@visitor – unfortunately ink chase preferred no longer codes as 3x points.