Plastiq is an online bill payment service that lets you pay almost all of your bills by credit card. This can be a good way to reach spend targets for new credit card signup bonuses. Unlike a few similar services, Plastiq is not limited to billers in their database. Plastiq can be used to pay nearly any business. Payees not in their database are paid by check.
The catch? A fee is charged to the payer (not the payee) for each payment.
Plastiq Overview
- Standard credit card fee: 2.9%
- Standard debit card fee: 2.9%.
- Delivery fee per ACH/EFT/electronic payment: $.99
- Delivery fee per check payment: $1.49
- Plastiq accepts Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, and American Express.
- Plastiq cannot be used to pay friends and family. It is intended only for paying bills.
- Prepaid cards are accepted, but are officially limited to either $5,000 or $10,000 total per month (depending on the individual account).
- Credit card payments count as purchases, not as cash advances. Plastiq will prevent any payments that could possibly incur cash advance treatment. If Plastiq thinks that there’s a chance of a payment being treated as a cash advance, Plastiq won’t let you finalize that payment.
- Plastiq sometimes requires proof that you are paying a legitimate expense. They may ask you to upload an invoice, for example.
- Plastiq does not submit tax forms on behalf of customers or payees
- Some people have asked if they can have checks that are addressed to others sent to their own house so that they can submit the check with a payment stub or so they can hand the check to the payee directly. Plastiq does not allow this.
Credit cards that can be used with Plastiq
| Who Allows It? | What Payments Are Allowed? | Who Doesn't Allow It? |
|---|---|---|
| Most card issuers | Rent, Utilities, Tuition (including daycares & camps), Taxes and government fees | Plastiq payments of any kind are not allowed with Capital One consumer cards. |
| Amex, Mastercard, Discover, Business Visa, Capital One Business, US Bank, Wells Fargo | Membership clubs, condo fees, Inventory purchasing, rental & leasing, select professional and business services* | Consumer Visa Cards* |
| Mastercard, Discover, Business Visa, Capital One Business, US Bank, Wells Fargo | Business services not included above*, insurance, donations, escrow, timeshare, storage, telecom, and internet | Amex, Consumer Visa Cards* |
| Mastercard, Discover | Mortgage, HELOC, Auto loans, Student loans | Amex, Visa, Capital One, US Bank |
Plastiq originally had one set of rules as to which types of payments were allowed. Soon, though, payment networks and banks came up with their own unique rules which Plastiq was forced to follow. Now, figuring out which cards can be used for which purpose is really hard. The image above is my attempt to summarize the rules. For more complete rules, see the following pages on Plastiq’s website:
- Supported Payments by Card Brand. This shows a detailed list of bill types (rent, mortgage, auto purchase, landscaping, advertising services, etc.) and it indicates whether or not each is payable with Discover, Mastercard, or Visa. This page appears to cover everything, but it doesn’t. It leaves out some important details covered in the following pages…
- Personal Visa Card Restrictions. Most personal Visa cards (but not business Visa cards) are limited to the following types of payments: Rent, Utilities, Tuition (daycares & camps included), Taxes & Government Fees, Insurance, and Club Fees. Chase, though, allows additional payment types but applies a lower transaction limit to these payments (i.e. lower than your available credit limit).
- Capital One Card Restrictions. Personal Capital One cards can’t be used with Plastiq. Capital One Business cards can be used, but not for Mortgage, Home Equity Line of Credit, Auto Loans, or Student Loans.
- U.S. Bank Credit Card Policy. U.S. Bank cards, cannot be used to pay Mortgage, Home Equity Line of Credit, Auto Loans, or Student Loans.
- Prepaid Card Restriction. Personal prepaid cards are officially limited to either $5,000 or $10,000/month, depending on the account. In practice, some people can exceed those limits.
Visa cards issued by Alliant, Navy Federal Credit Union, and USAA supposedly won’t earn rewards for Plastiq payments.
Payment types that aren’t allowed with Plastiq
Some types of payments are never allowed by Plastiq:
- Payments to credit cards
- Payments to self
- Payments to friends or relatives*
- Payments to savings accounts, trust accounts, retirement accounts, health savings accounts, or similar
- Payments to 529 Education Savings Programs
- You may not send payments to your own address so that you can include your bill’s pay stub when you send in the check. Instead, put your account number and other relevant info into Plastiq’s memo field.
* Paying friends or relatives is not allowed unless friends/relatives provide truly billable services. For example, if your uncle is your landlord, you could pay rent to your uncle through Plastiq.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why pay bills with Plastiq?
Since Plastiq charges a fee for credit card payments, I wouldn’t recommend using Plastiq to pay bills that can already be paid by credit card with no fee. For those bills that can’t already be paid by credit card, though, there are a number of reasons to consider Plastiq:
- Easy way to meet credit card bonus minimum spend requirements. See: Best credit card offers.
- Earn credit card rewards. It is ideal to use Plastiq when the value of your credit card rewards outweigh Plastiq’s fee. See: Best rewards for everyday spend.
- Earn credit card “big spend” bonuses (bonus points, free nights, companion tickets, elite status, etc.). See: Best Big Spend Bonuses.
- Some credit cards and debit cards offer rewards for frequent use. Plastiq can be used, for example, to make weekly payments to a variety of payees in order to help increase your monthly charges.
- Convenient to consolidate all bill payments to a single service and/or credit card.
- It is safer to pay by credit card for services or goods not yet fully delivered because it gives you the ability to initiate a credit card chargeback if the payee doesn’t deliver as promised.
- Plastiq makes it possible to pay bills when you do not have the cash readily available. While it is never a good idea to go into credit card debt, paying by credit card can give you more time to get the required funds.
See also: Best credit cards for Plastiq bill payments.
Are Plastiq payment fees a business expense?
Businesses can use Plastiq for many purposes, such as:
- Paying vendors and suppliers
- Paying employees and contractors
I believe that bill payment fees are legitimate business expenses that will reduce your businesses taxable profits. So, the net cost to your business, after taxes, will be less than Plastiq’s fee. Note: I am not an accountant so you should not take this as professional advice.
Can you pay taxes with Plastiq?
Plastiq can be used to pay federal or state taxes. To do so:
- Go to Plastiq’s US tax page.
- Select whether you are paying federal or state taxes, and which state you are from.
- Pick the type of tax you’d like to pay.
- Click “Pay my taxes” and sign into your account.
Note that for federal taxes there are other options for paying with credit and debit cards with lower fees. See: Complete guide to paying taxes via credit card, debit card, or gift card.
How long does a Plastiq payment take to be delivered?
In my experience, payments by check usually take about a week, but two weeks is not unusual. Keep in mind that the payee who receives the payment may take even longer to process the payment, so it is important to have payments sent well in advance of their due date.
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I’m a little confused about the second row (Membership clubs etc.)… AmEx isn’t listed in either the “Who Allows It?” or “Who Doesn’t Allow It?” columns – so do they allow it or not?
Oops. Fixed. Yes Amex allows those types of payments
Pathward bank prepaids not working for me! I received these two messages from Plastiq support. I had some payments go through on 2/13 and on 2/19 they didn’t work for me.
Hi,
We do apologize for any current issues you are having when trying to process payments with Mastercards issued from METABANK or PATHWAY bank. Our team is looking into this issue and we will reach back out as soon as this has been resolved.
Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Hello,
Please contact your card issuer directly to ensure there are no blocks in place using the card with 3rd party payer companies like Plastiq.
If you are still unable to use the card on payments after confirming with your card issuer, you will need to use a different card for payment. Sorry for the inconvenience.
If you have any other questions please reach out we are happy to help.
Good morning. A couple questions about Chase and Plastiq. (1) There is an asterisk bout Chase personal visa cards accepting some transactions that others don’t. Has anyone seen what applies? (2) I am looking at possibly using the Freedom Unlimited with points matching. Do you think that is safe to try? Thanks for all of your work and your time
[…] about which credit cards are accepted and what types of payments are allowed, you can visit the Frequent Miler Plastiq Bill Payments Guide. This resource offers valuable insights into maximizing your credit card benefits when using […]
Do they take Prepaid cards again? I thought they stopped long ago.
Looks like up to 10k a month
https://support.plastiq.com/s/article/Prepaid-Card-Policy
Yes, they still take prepaid cards. Some targets won’t accept certain types of cards (usually Visa), I find MC is the friendliest.
Target? Thought this was about Plastiq? Plastiq hasn’t accepted prepaid card since 2019.
[…] SoFi offers up to 4.5% APY on up to $10K for account holders who make a monthly “direct deposit,” so it might be a decent option if you actually need an online checking account. I have an account and the 4.5% APY rate is kept active by making an electronic transfer using Plastic. […]
so…is Plastiq good to go still, despite the bankruptcy? I’m going to make a small test payment. I’ve seen no mention of it anywhere.
I’ve still been using it without problem
[…] Source_link […]
I sent a payment via Plastiq on 2/17/23. The payee attempted to deposit the check today but their bank would not accept due to insufficient funds and gave them the check back. I’m assuming this is related to the SVB collapse last week, but everything I’m seeing says the funds are guaranteed and the check should clear. I sent another check on 3/6/23 that was received but a deposit attempt has not yet been made. I opened a support ticket with Plastiq and I’m waiting to hear something.
[…] first reported by Frequent Miler, Plastiq users are receiving an error message upon attempting to schedule […]
[…] first reported by Frequent Miler, Plastiq users are receiving an error message upon attempting to schedule […]
I had a condo maintenance check that was running a couple of days late. I messaged and emailed Plastiq, this is the reply they sent:
“This check was sent on Feb 27 and has not been deposited.
Our standard checks are sent via USPS First Class, which means they do not include tracking. So we cannot confirm when this was delivered.
Your payment was sent to the correct address, in the specified timeframe to arrive on the delivery date that you chose. It is possible that your check payment was incorrectly delivered, lost in the mail, or subject to delays due to USPS delivery constraints.
If you’ve already contacted your recipient and they cannot locate the check, at this point, we recommend the following options:
You can opt to wait a little longer for your recipient to credit your payment (the length of your wait, is your choice).
OR
We can cancel the check and we will refund the payment (including the service fee). If you choose this option, you’ll need to notify your recipient that they should not deposit the check
We look forward to hearing back from you.”
When it still didn’t arrive Thursday I emailed again to follow up, no response. On Friday I saw all the news that Silicon Valley Bank had failed. I called Chase on my Ink Business Unlimited card which I used on the payment and they said they would reach out to the merchant for failing to provide a service I paid for. This morning Plastiq emailed that they would refund my card plus the fees.
nice update…good thing I’ve got no pending bills to pay at Plastiq…and paid in advance the HOA bill by a few months.
@Greg Are there US consumer alternatives to Plastiq? (I know Melio only deals with business customers.)
Not that I’m aware of
For paying rent, you could try Rentler, but I think that requires your landlord to sign up.
Thanks FM team! If you were banking on being able to use Plastiq to pay rent to hit a SUB, what alternatives would you recommend?
“if you were banking…”
Haha, I see what you did there.
You could try Rentler, but I believe that requires your landlord to sign up. Rentler also charges 2.9%