Anyone currently using Plastiq to make monthly rent payments?

[Shane]

Anyone currently using Plastiq to pay rent with a credit card?

Until this month, we'd been using RadPad, but just got a message from them yesterday that, as of today, they are discontinuing their rent payment service, so we're searching for a new company.

If you're using Plastiq to pay rent, do you have Plastiq mail your landlord a check? If so, are they reliable, i.e. do the checks arrive on time and cash okay? Anything else we should know about Plastiq before signing up to have them pay our rent?

[BarkyardBQ]

It's going to charge you 1% per transaction... Why would you do that?

[Johnez]

Always a bummer when I find out about a service....AFTER it's shut down.

😞

[Nothlit]

RadPad got a lot of visibility in the last few weeks when people discovered that if you used RadPad in conjunction with Apple Pay or Android Pay, it would code in the "travel/lodging" category on certain credit cards - particularly the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which gives 3x points for travel purchases, thus completely canceling out RadPad's 2.99% credit card fee. This is particularly helpful for people who are trying to meet minimum spending requirements to earn credit card bonus rewards (e.g., "spend $4000 in the first 3 months to get 100,000 points").

Plastiq charges a 2.5% fee (there is a promotion underway that goes as low as 1.75% if you meet certain requirements) but does not code as a travel purchase on any cards, as far as I know. Therefore you're only going to be getting your base 1-2% cash back, depending on what card you use. So the only reason I would use Plastiq is either: a) I could meet the 1.75% rate requirements using a 2% cash back card, or b) I need to meet minimum spending and am willing to eat the fees.

There's plenty of discussion on this topic over on /r/churning.

[Optimiser]

Current rent      2% cash back             1.75% fee                 Extra cash in my pocket
   $770                   $15.40           -          $13.48      =               $1.92/month

Hardly seems worth the trouble of setting it up, unless I was trying to meet a minimum spend.

[Shane]

The only reason we're paying our rent with a CC is to meet the minimum spend to get CC sign up bonuses. It's worth it to us to pay the 2.5% fee, as long as the company is legitimate and reliable.

I'm just looking for anyone who has actually used Plastiq, just to confirm that they're legitimate and reliable.

RadPad was great. It's too bad they're out of the CC-rent business.

[Optimiser]

I ended up signing up anyway. Even though it's only going to save me $2/month. $2 is $2.   If anyone wants to use my referral code, I'll get the fee waived on $400 and you'll get the fee waived on $200.

https://try.plastiq.com/523935

[Enigma]

I am signing up...  There might be a few advantages that I can think of using Plastiq.  But will find out...

[Shane]

FYI, just signed up for a Plastiq account and tried and failed to make a rent payment using my Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

The site warned that Visa would code the payment as a cash advance and recommended that I use "a different card," i.e. a MC or AMEX to make the payment instead.

So, for anyone else who may be hoping to make a rent payments through Plastiq with a CSR - It doesn't work, at least for now.

Anyone know of another way I can pay my rent with CSR, or is that option dead?

[Nothlit]

That's weird, I haven't seen anyone on reddit mention that about Plastiq and the CSR. Maybe try calling Chase to have your cash advance limit lowered to whatever minimum they'll allow (preferably $0) and then try Plastiq anyway to see what happens? Worst case scenario is the transaction gets declined because it exceeds the limit. I suspect Plastiq's warning is just being overly cautious.

[Enigma]

The site kept wanting to charge me 2.5% per transaction.  Really isn't helpful with my 2% cashback.  At least for me.

[Shane]

@Nothlit, the cash advance limit on our CSR cards is already lowered to the minimum. I think it was $100.

I could try to run the rent payment through Plastiq, but it's not really worth it to me. We'll be able to meet the minimum spend on our 2 CSR cards without using them to pay the rent. It may take an extra month, but that's fine.

Besides paying rent with the CSR, we've found that buying Airbnb gift certificates through our accounts, which never expire, works well, in a pinch, as a way of speeding up meeting minimum spend requirements. It also has the added benefit of coding as "travel," and thus qualifying for the $300/year credit on our CSR's.

@Enigma, the 2.5% fee is only worth it if you're trying to meet the minimum spend requirements to get a sign-up bonus on a card. In most other cases, it wouldn't make sense to pay that much.