Use Plastiq to Pay Mortgage or Rent with a Credit Card Today
Whenever there’s an opportunity to pay mortgage or rent with a credit card I get excited. Housing costs are typically most people’s biggest expense so ideally we’d like to pay them with a credit card to earn rewards.
I’m also working on meeting the spending requirements for my Huge $5,325+ Credit Card Application Spree, so any opportunity to put spending on a credit card is ideal.
Plastiq is our newest option to make mortgage payments with a credit card. In addition, they’re offering a promotion for reduced rates if you schedule your payments today!
Plastiq
Plastiq is an online payment service. You can use your credit card or debit card to send payments via check or electronic bank transfer.
You can send payments for your mortgage, rent, or any other business. You can also send payments to people for goods or services. You can earn credit card rewards to offset the fees.
Fees. The standard fees for Plastiq payments are:
- Credit cards 2.5%
- Debit cards: 1%
Reduced Fee Promotion. The promotion today (ends October 31, 2016, 11:59 p.m. PT) is for reduced fees for scheduling 6 recurring rent or mortgage payments. For payments scheduled today you’ll pay the following fees:
- Mastercard: 1.75% fee
- American Express: 2.25%
Plastiq Strategy to Pay Bills
- Sign up for a free Plastiq account.
- Schedule your next 6 rent or mortgage payments today for the reduced fee promotion.
- Earn credit card rewards on your payments.
To maximize your potential earnings, schedule your payments today. However, you can still use the strategy after today, you’ll just pay the standard fees.
Stacking Bonuses
There’s a unique opportunity right now to stack some additional promotions. If you are using American Express cards, you will earn regular points for the purchase plus you can stack the following bonuses:
- 1.5x on 5k purchases for the American Express Platinum.
- 2x small business promotion (I’ll write more about this specific promotion soon, but you need to register here before making your payment).
- Spending bonuses for recently opened cards; all current bonuses are listed in our credit card directory.
- 5,000 bonus points for spending 5k on Starwood, targeted offer see if you are eligible and register here.
More on Plastiq
Paying other bills. Besides rent and mortgage, you can pay other bills including taxes, tuition, utilities, etc.
$5,000 payments. Our mortgage payment is significantly less than $5,000, however, I’m thinking of scheduling $5,000 payments anyways for the extra bonuses. Our 5/5 loan resets early next year and throwing some additional money at the principal right now for extra points might work out.
Real estate taxes. Prepaying end of year real estate taxes in $5,000 increments could be very valuable. Be sure to determine if you Should You Pay Your Property Taxes This Year or wait until next year before you schedule your payment.
Visa cards. If you are considering other cards, beware of the Visa card payment. Some reddit users reported Visa payments have posted as a cash advance.
Referrals. You can refer friend to
Do the Math
As always, we need to see if our earnings will offset the fees. Here’s what I’m looking at for a possible $5,000 American Express payment to meet the spending requirement on the American Express Business Platinum 100,000 Point Sign Up Bonus I picked up.
Here’s the breakdown on the total cash back earned stacking all the rewards:
- Purchases: $5000
- Fees: $112.50 (reduced fee for scheduling today)
- Membership Rewards: 62,780 broken down as 50,000 points (sign up bonus) + 7,668 points (1.5 points per dollar on $5k purchases) + 5112 (2x small business promotion)
- American Express Redemption: $627.80 on a 1:1 conversion for gift cards (or more if redeemed for travel)
Net profit: 10.3%. The total cash back with this strategy is $515.30 for this payment or the equivalent of 10.3% cash back!
Most of the profit comes from meeting the spending requirement. If you remove the spending bonus, you still come out positive, but your profits will be significantly lower. Be sure to figure out which bonuses you can stack on the card you plan to use to see how much you’ll make.
Starwood card option. Another lucrative option I’m exploring is the Starwood card. You can earn the small business promotion plus enroll in the SPG promo for 5,000 points after $5,000 in purchases mentioned above. The same payment above should earn 15,224 SPG points: $10,224 points (2x) plus 5,000 for the promotion, which more than covers the fees.
Such a big opportunity to build up reward points … in responsible hands, this is a great promotion to have!